After going mad over the summer and trading everything in for a Rickenbacker 4003 autumnglo, I started to miss having a fretless. My wife, in her infinite generosity, told me to go ahead and order another. So here we are: Another Ibanez GWB205.
Here are the details and my thoughts:
Weight: 9.5 lbs. It's 2lb heavier than my old one, but also sounds noticeably brighter, which I really like. With a SBL strap, the extra heft isn't really noticeable.
Appearance: It's a really beautiful piece of ash. The construction is excellent, though the finish is a bit underwhelming.
Tone: It's got its own thing going... some snarl, some burpiness, and a lot of low-mids. Kind of like a cross between a J and a P, with a little Rickenbacker thrown in. As a fretless, it's got a lot of personality, and can easily jump out or blend into dense arrangements.
Playability: After giving it a proper setup, it's supremely playable, with no dead spots and 0.75mm action on the G at the 12th fret.
Gripes: A lot of manual labour went into this bass and it shows. For the most part, it's charming, but minor corners being cut are also apparent, such as the control plate being so tight into the body that I needed a suction cup to remove it, the rat's nest wiring, or the stray hair that got finished into the guitar's back. Not a huge deal, but stuff that I needed to fix, that could have taken 15 seconds at the factory end if somebody had bothered to work a little less hastily.
Here are the details and my thoughts:
Weight: 9.5 lbs. It's 2lb heavier than my old one, but also sounds noticeably brighter, which I really like. With a SBL strap, the extra heft isn't really noticeable.
Appearance: It's a really beautiful piece of ash. The construction is excellent, though the finish is a bit underwhelming.
Tone: It's got its own thing going... some snarl, some burpiness, and a lot of low-mids. Kind of like a cross between a J and a P, with a little Rickenbacker thrown in. As a fretless, it's got a lot of personality, and can easily jump out or blend into dense arrangements.
Playability: After giving it a proper setup, it's supremely playable, with no dead spots and 0.75mm action on the G at the 12th fret.
Gripes: A lot of manual labour went into this bass and it shows. For the most part, it's charming, but minor corners being cut are also apparent, such as the control plate being so tight into the body that I needed a suction cup to remove it, the rat's nest wiring, or the stray hair that got finished into the guitar's back. Not a huge deal, but stuff that I needed to fix, that could have taken 15 seconds at the factory end if somebody had bothered to work a little less hastily.
Haven’t seen that on a bass before and it’s not on my inspection list. Bass sounds fine, but of course it’s going back to Ibanez.
