Ibanez SR700 P/J - Is it worth an upgrade?

[Matt-bb]

Hi all, long time reader, first time poster. so please forgive any noobiness.

I play a 2001 Japan made Ibanez SR700, which has a P/J configuration and a built in 3 band active pre-amp. I am considering if it could be a good idea to try and mess around with the electronics, and I’d love some input on the matter.

Originally, I believe it mounts IBZ-DX P/J pickups and a EQB-3 equalizer (which to me it says nothing, but maybe you know).

Now, I love the bass as it plays super nice (on par or better then the few more expensive bass I have tried), and I have no intention on selling it. Reading around, I am led to believe the electronics are somehow mediocre and could benefit from an upgrade.

To be honest, I have no idea about this stuff, no specific tone I am chasing, and the only reason I am considering this is that I would like this bass to be the best it can be (or maybe it’s just GAS).

As for now, this what little I can say about how the current configuration sounds:
- I usually do everything off the neck pickup, which sounds pretty sweet both to my ear and to all other peoples I have played with.
- I may deal a little bit of the J pick up in from time to time, but otherwise I would say it is useless on its own (it sounds metallic/farty, in a bad way).
-The on board-EQ seems to me like a one trick pony: bass slightly boosted, flat mids, and heavily cutted highs. Put the bass flat and they disappear. Put the highs flat and I get background noise. Boost the mids and it farts. Hence, if needed, I do EQ stuff through a pre-amp pedal or directly on the amp (as a rule, I am more of a ‘set and forget’ kinda guy).

The guy from my local music shop says that messing around with the electronics is like throwing dices: you never know what you get untill you try any given electronic components on your very same instrument.

What do you guys think?

 

[KaraQ]

I've recently switched my '89 sr885le to EMG pickups and electronics. I loved the sound it had, but the wiring was amazingly complicated (and brittle, after 33 years), and it had a lot of noise especially with the highs boosted.

So, I put in a custom set of "Rip Tide" pickups, as well as replaced all the electronics with EMG's BTS system.




then:

now:

Still not sure how I feel about the knobs I chose, but after the upgrade, it's dead silent, has stronger output, kept the original tone it had, and the EQ is so much more useful and versatile. Very happy with the results.




I also have an sr1200, that I've put in a set of EMG Geezer Butler pickups, and kept passive as the previous owner had set up. I don't know what the factory setup sounded like (probably close to what you have), but the GZR set, imo, is a huge improvement over the Seymour Duncan set that was in when I got it.

That being said, only you can decide if it's worth it to you to do an upgrade, whether it's pickups, pre-amp, or both - but you can always switch back, if it comes to that.



Hope that maybe helps some?

 

[Matt-bb]

Hi KaraQ, thank you so much for the input, and the pictures!
It surely helps a lot seeing what you did and why!

I guess much of the confusion comes from having little bass experience, as well as not having a precise objective. I have been playing for about 3 years, just recently joined a couple bands, and really just played only one bass in the last 2+ years. I love that one sound I can get out of it, and altough I used to think it missed something, it is also kind of growing on me.

I see now the first thing to do could be changing the preamp (apparently, that is a known weak spot in middle range ibanez). Currently, I lean towards a Glockenglang 3-band for two reasons: it keeps the original 5 poti configuration (3 band eq, volume and balance) AND can be switched to passive.

As for the pickups, I guess from where I stand I can only change and see. So far I can get my hand on Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounds, Lollar, Sadowsky or Fender Yosemite.

It is also probably a good idea to spend a couple afternoon in a few guitar shop trying every high-end bass I can put my hands on and try to figure out if my bass is really the nice player i think it is!

 

[KaraQ]

Hi KaraQ, thank you so much for the input, and the pictures!
It surely helps a lot seeing what you did and why!

I guess much of the confusion comes from having little bass experience, as well as not having a precise objective. I have been playing for about 3 years, just recently joined a couple bands, and really just played only one bass in the last 2+ years. I love that one sound I can get out of it, and altough I used to think it missed something, it is also kind of growing on me.

I see now the first thing to do could be changing the preamp (apparently, that is a known weak spot in middle range ibanez). Currently, I lean towards a Glockenglang 3-band for two reasons: it keeps the original 5 poti configuration (3 band eq, volume and balance) AND can be switched to passive.

As for the pickups, I guess from where I stand I can only change and see. So far I can get my hand on Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounds, Lollar, Sadowsky or Fender Yosemite.

It is also probably a good idea to spend a couple afternoon in a few guitar shop trying every high-end bass I can put my hands on and try to figure out if my bass is really the nice player i think it is!

Sounds like a great plan

I've heard good things about that pre-amp, and all of those pickup choices seem solid.

I've never played a 700 series soundgear, but I think it falls in the upper mid-range of the line? If its anything like the 800 series, I've no doubt it plays as great as you think it does


As for the one sound you can get from it - never hurts to have a bit more tonal range. Some folks like to get that from just one bass, some prefer to get multiple basses to achieve the same goal. That's one of the reasons I have half a dozen Thunderbirds , they all sound different, while still being similar.



Good luck with your upgrades, I hope you get what you're looking for

And keep us posted on what you decide to go with!

 

[winegamd]

I had a late 90's SR1200, too. Still wish I had kept it, but in po dunk Texas in 2000, before GC started selling them, when was I ever going to get a chance to aquire a German Warwick Corvette Proline 6, so I had to make that trade.....

I always thought the pickups were pretty good in that bass. The Japanese made stuff was definitely better than most of their offerings now. I would just put the EMG BTS system in it and keep the pickups. It's always the EQ where the skimping usually happens.

 

[Matt-bb]

Hi all,
after a couple month, here is a ‘little’ follow up!
This is the story of how I went from ‘maybe a new pups’ to owning two new basses.
Maybe it was GAS after all

So, from the place I was I had basically two options:
a) blindly change components and hope to get lucky
b) figure out what I wanted, then decide accordingly.

Of the two, I chose the second . Here is what i did:

1) I changed strings: went from daddario NYXL to TI Jazz. This alone made the P pup sound much better to my ears. Interestingly, it also made the bridge p-up and the EQ became much more usable.

2) I set out to try a few used basses. Unwillingly, I ended up bringin’ home a badly beat-up AM Jazz ‘75 reissue, and a super nice mexican Precision (already modded with a vintage bridge and a Jess Loureiro pickup). Both basses play quite nice and produce a sound I really love.

3) I set up the Jazz with rotosound steel rounds, while P already had daddario chormes. I proceed to play the hell out of them. I discover the Jazz really complement my metal band, while I love the P in the context of my other band (italian pop-rock from 70s, 80s, 90s).

4) After 1+ month exclusively playing the new basses I switched back to the SR700 for a few days. Here is what I found: the SR700 plays as nice (arguably better) then the AM Jazz, and surely better then the MX precision. Soundwise, it can do a rather close imitation of the P-bass, and also get in a similar ball park as the Jazz. However, it require massive EQ fiddling to do so. This is especially problematic in a band context, since I find myself struggling to nail a tone that works. When I do, I inevitably fail to replicate it the next time.

In conclusion
I believe I just have a poor set of ears, and can not really take advantage of a active pre-amp in a reharsal/live situation. In fact, I am much better served by a simple tone knob. My SR700 ended up in the closet, too low a market value to even think about selling it. I will bring it out periodically to remind me the joy of playing it.

Should I decide to make it my main player again, this is what I will do:
1) simply wire it passive. If this do the trick, then proceed to buy a nice pre-amp with the passive switch (mainly, because I’d want to preserve the original design of the instrument).
2) If not, buy new pick-ups and start again at point 1.

All in all, I am happy I went this route. I now have two bass that I love and serve me very well. Should I decide to upgrade the SR700 in future, I know exactly what I want this bass to become.

Cheers to all, and thanks to those who took the time to share their opinion. I realize this was probably plain and obvious to all experienced players on here, but maybe my story will help some other noob like me who is indulging on some trivial (GAS induced) question!