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NBD: Ibanez EHB1005MS Headless Multi-scale Bass

Aidil

Aidil

Dec 4, 2014
4,360
4,037
Jkt, IDN
#1
Some of you might have known in these last few years, I've made quite a few posts on TB telling you guys about the upcoming Ibanez basses for the following year, before each year ended. The last one was about Ibanez headless basses which I posted in September 2019 on the
Headless Club??? thread, which gathered some comments in positive manner as well as a few skeptical responses.

Well, the "rumor" finally came true. Ibanez began showing the new headless basses on its website right after the calendar turned into the new year. And seems these new headless basses have gathered quite a lot of positive responses.

Fast forward to yesterday, I finally received mine, one of Ibanez newest models for 2020: the EHB1005MS-SFM. The SFM stands for Sea Foam green Matte, which I didn't think I would ever get, as my first choice for the finish was the Black Flat (BKF).

20200229_224238.jpg


It came in a gigbag. Yes, it is padded, but, I dare to say it gives very minimal protection. Very far from what I regarded as a high quality gigbag, at least when compared to Gruv Gear Gigblade 2 and a few Mono M80s gigbags which I normally use.

20200229_223810.jpg


For sure it doesn't have a proper neck support. Inside, it is only equipped with a pair of velcro straps to secure the neck from banging around while being transported.

20200229_204244.jpg


And lastly, I haven't got the chance to play it through an amp... It needs some proper setups first. For once, the factory setup string actions are rather high for my taste. Next, one of the bridge pickup screws came loose, which I have tighten, though haven't equalized the volume between the two pickups just yet (as I haven't plugged it in).

I also haven't tried putting on the included ramp, in between the pickups.
 
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#4
Thank God, being the EHB1505MS a headless bass and came with a rather slim gigbag, I can now use my SKB Roto ATA Bass Case with it.

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Being shorter than regular bass, the EHB1005MS (and with the factory included gigbag) moves inside the Roto ATA Case when I rock the case, despite the top and bottom internal foam paddings of the Roto ATA case are still intact. So, apparently I'll need to put clothings or something to make it snug fit inside.

And lastly the weight: 3.4 kg

20200301_003915.jpg


To be honest, it is not as light as I thought it would be. At least compared to my Ibanez SRH505, being not a headless bass, is actually lighter, at 3.0 kg.

20200301_004705.jpg
 
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#6
Aidil said:
Thank God, being the EHB1505MS a headless bass and came with a rather slim gigbag, I can now use my SKB Roto ATA Bass Case with it.

View attachment 3725785
View attachment 3725786

Being shorter than regular bass, the EHB1005MS (and with the factory included gigbag) moves inside the Roto ATA Case when I rock the case, despite the top and bottom internal foam paddings of the Roto ATA case are still intact. So, apparently I'll need to put clothings or something to make it snug fit inside.

And lastly the weight: 3.4 kg

View attachment 3725890

To be honest, it is not as light as I thought it would be. At least compared to my Ibanez SRH505, being not a headless bass, is actually lighter, at 3.0 kg.

View attachment 3725904
Click to expand...

7.4 lbs. is pretty good. Anything under 8 lbs. I would consider light. It's probably the electronics that's adding to the weight, and also the chambered body might have thicker shell than the SRH.
 
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#8
Lunatique said:
7.4 lbs. is pretty good. Anything under 8 lbs. I would consider light. It's probably the electronics that's adding to the weight, and also the chambered body might have thicker shell than the SRH.
Click to expand...
Yes, it is still considered light. I just had imagined the EHB would be as light or even lighter than the SRH since it is physically shorter and it doesn't have that regular headstock.

Both EHB and SRH bodies are chambered.

Lackey said:
I really wish this series came in a 6. I don't need a blue tinted burl top.
Click to expand...
The series do come in a 6, with Black Iced Flat finish burl top:

p_region_EHB1506MS_BIF_1P_01.png

EHB1506MS
 
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#12
HeavyDuty said:
Will do - Ibanez shows one of their generic wood and tolex cases for these, but I only buy plastic cases these days. Another option would be a hard foam case.
Click to expand...
Yeah, saw it too. Ibanez wrote wooden tolex WB250C as the recommended case on EHB web pages. I don't think I'll ever get a long full size wooden tolex case for my EHB. Defeat the purpose of having a headless bass in the first place.
 
#17
Up with more pictures of the fret ends which seem kinda rounded (I don't actually know how rounded fret ends look, but at least they look different from any fret ends of my other basses) and also gigbag upgrade for the rather filmsy cheap bag that came with the EHBs.

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So, EHB owners could easily get better gigbag for their new Ibanez headless basses, cause turns out, the EHBs are compatible with electric guitar gigbags (yeah, you read it correctly: electric guitar, not electric bass gigbags) and there are plenty of these already in the market. At least mine fits inside Mono M80 Vertigo Electric Guitar, which I often use with my short scale bass.
 
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