Here’s a little story of a wonderful Facebook marketplace find.
As I’m sure a lot of you folks do, I’m always browsing the classifieds for a bass that catches my eye. Usually I’m looking here or on reverb, and on the random occasion I’ll try craigslist or Facebook marketplace and see if anything interesting pops up, but usually I don’t find much more than squire p-basses or Ibanez gsr or things of the sort. So when I see a listing on the Facebook marketplace titled, I kid you not, “Inanez 5-string bass” I kind of assumed it was probably a POS. But the picture looked like a BTB so I clicked it and was curious.
Upon seeing the first picture I was surprised it seemed to actually be a higher end Ibanez. Though I couldn’t tell which model at first glance. I could see the Gotoh tuners and what appeared to be maple and something over a mahogany body. I was pretty sure at that point it was a prestige model despite no indication on the headstock. I really don’t know how I ended up tracking down what this bass actually is, lots of research and catalog browsing didn’t yield much until I stumbled upon a talkbass page from 15 years ago that seemed to check all the boxes.
It appears that this bass is an Ibanez BTB5CRW.
It was made in Japan at the Fujigen factory, and apparently only 50 where ever made. I believe there is one other similar model with the name BTB5CPD and I believe the situation is the same in which only a very few were ever made. I’m not sure if they made 50 total between them or 100 total or what exactly. I cannot find any information in any catalogs about these models, however based on pictures I believe the 5CRW has rosewood/maple/rosewood facings, and the 5CPD has Paduak in place of rosewood facings. Aside from the use of rosewood or paduak, the remaining specs seem to be the same for these rare beauties.
- Mahogany Body
- Rosewood (or Paduak) top with center strip of flamed maple
- 5-piece maple/buninga neck (bolt on)
- bubinga fretboard w/offset dots
- 35” scale
- 19mm spacing at the bridge
- Bartolini 76P45 pickups
- Bartolini ITMB-18 preamp (bass/mid/treble w/3-way mid frequency switch)
- Gotoh tuners
- Mono-rail 2 bridge
- like 13 pounds
Apparently these originally went for around $1800 or thereabouts back in 2003-2004 when they were released. The hard shell case was included for an extra $150. The seller had both and sold them to me for, well, so ridiculously cheap I feel kinda bad, like I robbed the guy. I basically got it for less than one fourth of its original price.... after having my tech set it up and throwing on some fresh strings, I finally sat down to experience it, and my goodness does it sound and play AMAZING!! It’s the perfect bass to go with my BTB1605 with nordy singles.
As I’m sure a lot of you folks do, I’m always browsing the classifieds for a bass that catches my eye. Usually I’m looking here or on reverb, and on the random occasion I’ll try craigslist or Facebook marketplace and see if anything interesting pops up, but usually I don’t find much more than squire p-basses or Ibanez gsr or things of the sort. So when I see a listing on the Facebook marketplace titled, I kid you not, “Inanez 5-string bass” I kind of assumed it was probably a POS. But the picture looked like a BTB so I clicked it and was curious.
Upon seeing the first picture I was surprised it seemed to actually be a higher end Ibanez. Though I couldn’t tell which model at first glance. I could see the Gotoh tuners and what appeared to be maple and something over a mahogany body. I was pretty sure at that point it was a prestige model despite no indication on the headstock. I really don’t know how I ended up tracking down what this bass actually is, lots of research and catalog browsing didn’t yield much until I stumbled upon a talkbass page from 15 years ago that seemed to check all the boxes.
It appears that this bass is an Ibanez BTB5CRW.
It was made in Japan at the Fujigen factory, and apparently only 50 where ever made. I believe there is one other similar model with the name BTB5CPD and I believe the situation is the same in which only a very few were ever made. I’m not sure if they made 50 total between them or 100 total or what exactly. I cannot find any information in any catalogs about these models, however based on pictures I believe the 5CRW has rosewood/maple/rosewood facings, and the 5CPD has Paduak in place of rosewood facings. Aside from the use of rosewood or paduak, the remaining specs seem to be the same for these rare beauties.
- Mahogany Body
- Rosewood (or Paduak) top with center strip of flamed maple
- 5-piece maple/buninga neck (bolt on)
- bubinga fretboard w/offset dots
- 35” scale
- 19mm spacing at the bridge
- Bartolini 76P45 pickups
- Bartolini ITMB-18 preamp (bass/mid/treble w/3-way mid frequency switch)
- Gotoh tuners
- Mono-rail 2 bridge
- like 13 pounds
Apparently these originally went for around $1800 or thereabouts back in 2003-2004 when they were released. The hard shell case was included for an extra $150. The seller had both and sold them to me for, well, so ridiculously cheap I feel kinda bad, like I robbed the guy. I basically got it for less than one fourth of its original price.... after having my tech set it up and throwing on some fresh strings, I finally sat down to experience it, and my goodness does it sound and play AMAZING!! It’s the perfect bass to go with my BTB1605 with nordy singles.
this bass has been a joy to play since I got it, I think some of my other basses are getting jealous haha!
