Ibanez SRF706. Ordered in May with a memorial day coupon, and waited patiently as the backorder date moved from July to late October. Then got a surprise shipping notification last weekend and started obsessively checking the tracking daily (as one does).
This is the first Ibanez I've owned, and the first neck-through. It's the first new bass I've purchased since I bought my fretless jazz bass special in 1988. It's not my first fretless 6; I got this to replace a cheapo I picked up in 2020 (NBD: cheapo fretless 6-string).
Pics! I hear you all shouting.
Looks great out of the box! A couple little bumps i found in the finish, but nothing I'm bothered enough by to send it back.
Balance is fantastic. No neck dive. And at 8.1 pounds it's the lightest bass I own. (I am very surprised by this!)
Neck is a little chunkier than the cheapo it replaces, but I like that. Factory setup is good. A little lower than I like, but that's easy enough to fix. The side markers are overkill to me. I'm used to just dots, but this one has lines where frets would be and dots where dots would be on a fretted neck. I don't spend much time looking at the neck, but my brain isn't processing it correctly when I do (every other fretless I've owned had dots only, at the place the fret would be).
Electronics: I'm not a fan of piezo pickups at all, and chose this model not for the piezo but in spite of it. But I wanted to keep an open mind. After the first playing, I'm thinking I'll probably never going to use it a at all. I'm not a fusion player, but if you like that 80s pewpew sound up high on the C string, you'd love this sound. (You'd also love the 2.5 octave fingerboard, another "in spite of, not because of" feature for me. I know, I'm weird.
)
The magnetic pickups are super clear with a little less low-end heft than I expected. Easy enough to add a little more of that with the active EQ, and once the new flats settle in, they'll sound more balanced.
Controls are VVV, bass and treble boost/cut with center detents for the magnetic pickups and tone for the piezo. Very intuitive layout despite the number of nobs.
Bottom line: I'm loving it so far, and look forward to breaking in the strings and seeing how it records. I think it's a keeper, and fits right in next to number one.
This is the first Ibanez I've owned, and the first neck-through. It's the first new bass I've purchased since I bought my fretless jazz bass special in 1988. It's not my first fretless 6; I got this to replace a cheapo I picked up in 2020 (NBD: cheapo fretless 6-string).
Pics! I hear you all shouting.
Looks great out of the box! A couple little bumps i found in the finish, but nothing I'm bothered enough by to send it back.
Balance is fantastic. No neck dive. And at 8.1 pounds it's the lightest bass I own. (I am very surprised by this!)
Neck is a little chunkier than the cheapo it replaces, but I like that. Factory setup is good. A little lower than I like, but that's easy enough to fix. The side markers are overkill to me. I'm used to just dots, but this one has lines where frets would be and dots where dots would be on a fretted neck. I don't spend much time looking at the neck, but my brain isn't processing it correctly when I do (every other fretless I've owned had dots only, at the place the fret would be).
Electronics: I'm not a fan of piezo pickups at all, and chose this model not for the piezo but in spite of it. But I wanted to keep an open mind. After the first playing, I'm thinking I'll probably never going to use it a at all. I'm not a fusion player, but if you like that 80s pewpew sound up high on the C string, you'd love this sound. (You'd also love the 2.5 octave fingerboard, another "in spite of, not because of" feature for me. I know, I'm weird.
)The magnetic pickups are super clear with a little less low-end heft than I expected. Easy enough to add a little more of that with the active EQ, and once the new flats settle in, they'll sound more balanced.
Controls are VVV, bass and treble boost/cut with center detents for the magnetic pickups and tone for the piezo. Very intuitive layout despite the number of nobs.
Bottom line: I'm loving it so far, and look forward to breaking in the strings and seeing how it records. I think it's a keeper, and fits right in next to number one.
my old brain just can't keep up with that much drama --- i've stated in other threads that the visual thing (unlined board with correct side dots) is important if that's what you're used to playing (it's a must for me).
