Ibanez SRF705 or Ibanez GWB205?

[dasmullt]

Hello,

please help me decide between the Ibanez GWB205 and Ibanez SRF705 fretless bass.

What are the pros and cons compared to each other?
Which bass has the better sounding B string?

The Bass is for home and recording use. If the fretboard is blank or lined doesn't matter for me. The bass will be played mostly clean. Music style: All but Hardrock or Metall.

Regards,
Bernd

 

[LordHar]

Welll... I own a GWB1 and a SRF705 and if I had to choose I would go for the SRF705 because of the multiple pickups. Totally depends what you are looking for I guess.

 

[dasmullt]

Thank's for your recommendation LordHar!

Can you tell a bit about the general sound differences? Does the GWB1 sound brighter without eq? How does the necks feel and it's playability? How well does the B-string sound in comparison?

 

[LordHar]

As for feel, the neck of the GWB1 is noticeable thinner and overall the bass feels faster. The reason I added the SRF705 is because of the 'limited' one pickup. I'm pretty sure if you are a jazz/fusion fanatic you could get a 100 different sounds out of that one pickup. With the SRF705 you've got the two magnetic pickups and the piezo, all with their own volume pot to blend as you wish. I really like the stock neck pickup and the piezo, might swap out the bridge pickup for something hotter in the future. That's is also a thing to consider : The pickup of the GWB1 is custom made for that bass, it has the same radius curve as the neck and the finger ramp so if you would want to swap that one out you might have to go custom (I'm not 100% sure on that).

As for the B strings, they sound about the same on both. Not the most amazing tight B string I've ever heard but also not something that stands out and bothers me.

 

[jake bassist]

As for feel, the neck of the GWB1 is noticeable thinner and overall the bass feels faster. The reason I added the SRF705 is because of the 'limited' one pickup. I'm pretty sure if you are a jazz/fusion fanatic you could get a 100 different sounds out of that one pickup. With the SRF705 you've got the two magnetic pickups and the piezo, all with their own volume pot to blend as you wish. I really like the stock neck pickup and the piezo, might swap out the bridge pickup for something hotter in the future. That's is also a thing to consider : The pickup of the GWB1 is custom made for that bass, it has the same radius curve as the neck and the finger ramp so if you would want to swap that one out you might have to go custom (I'm not 100% sure on that).

As for the B strings, they sound about the same on both. Not the most amazing tight B string I've ever heard but also not something that stands out and bothers me.

Hi,
I am about to order "blind"one of those two bases. Which one of those has more or better present "mwuah" sound. For me that is the only reason I need fretless. I intend to use nickel rounds on so how those two handle rounds?

Thanks