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New Ibanez (headless, multiscale)

Same for sustain. I think it was Darrel Braun on YT that recorded with a solid body that he progressively hacked more and more from the body to show that the amount of wood in the body had ZERO impact on sustain.

Sustain translates into '(slow)loss of energy'. To keep a string going you need to make sure it doesn't loose energy quickly. Stiffness is what counts, body mass is therefore not really relevant.
 
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To my ear, the EBH has Room-Reverd like dark tone along with some boxy-like voice .
It is not bad tone, just unique.

My EHB1500's tone, compared to my SR1200-VNF, is slightly more 'resonant' or 'organic', it's hard to describe in words but that's what it boils down to. I wouldn't call it boxy though and the EHB1500 is definitely not dark sounding, it has very clear highs.
 
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Seems like most models are in stock on MusiciansFriend and other sites other than the six string. Is everyone waiting on Sweetwater?

I could be wrong but I don’t think these are in stock at Musicians Friend. In stock items say “in stock ready to ship” above an “add to cart” button. The EHBs all show as extended shipping time with a “reserve button”. My hunch is that they are still waiting on the basses to show up just like Sweetwater.

I guess I could call Musician’s Friend to actually find out the real facts... Maybe they truly are in stock and I could be purchasing the solution to all of my problems right now. My hope is that an EHB1005 removes the need for daily practice and turns me into Hadrien Feraud. Just add water!
 
Because I'm currently suffering from Lockdown Induced GAS (LIGAS)...do they make these in fretless? I sent Ibanez USA an email asking, they haven't bothered to respond and it's been nearly a week. Don't see them as such on the website, but...
I haven't seen anything as of yet. I guess that they still want to gauge how these things do. You could always do a Jaco on one.
 
I haven't seen anything as of yet. I guess that they still want to gauge how these things do. You could always do a Jaco on one.

Here's the thing. I'm not really a bassist[1]. I mean, my primary instrument is piano/keys/synth, followed by guitar. But the last four weeks I've been on this obsessive Reverb hunt for a fretless, though I'm not sure why. I don't want to monkey with retooling a beautiful (the EHB1500) instrument, I just want to satisfy this current bout of LIGAS and get on with it. :) And these instruments truly look fantastic to me.

[1] To clarify, in my music room I can do a decent "Whole Lotta Love" (the right way), most blues numbers as long as they're in E, G or A, "R U Mine", "Love That's Gone" (by La Sera), "Seven Nation Army", etc. But it's not like I'm grooving with Parliament Funkadelic or, you know...other actual musicians.
 
Here's the thing. I'm not really a bassist[1]. I mean, my primary instrument is piano/keys/synth, followed by guitar. But the last four weeks I've been on this obsessive Reverb hunt for a fretless, though I'm not sure why. I don't want to monkey with retooling a beautiful (the EHB1500) instrument, I just want to satisfy this current bout of LIGAS and get on with it. :) And these instruments truly look fantastic to me.

[1] To clarify, in my music room I can do a decent "Whole Lotta Love" (the right way), most blues numbers as long as they're in E, G or A, "R U Mine", "Love That's Gone" (by La Sera), "Seven Nation Army", etc. But it's not like I'm grooving with Parliament Funkadelic or, you know...other actual musicians.
I would think they could announce one at Summer NAMM assuming that it would actually happen. I think Winter NAMM might be more like it, but that means it would be still about a year away. I know that these look nice, I have the 5 string multiscale on order from Sweetwater, so I'm chomping at the bit to hear from my salesman that it has shipped.
 
Here's the thing. I'm not really a bassist[1]. I mean, my primary instrument is piano/keys/synth, followed by guitar. But the last four weeks I've been on this obsessive Reverb hunt for a fretless, though I'm not sure why. I don't want to monkey with retooling a beautiful (the EHB1500) instrument, I just want to satisfy this current bout of LIGAS and get on with it. :) And these instruments truly look fantastic to me.

[1] To clarify, in my music room I can do a decent "Whole Lotta Love" (the right way), most blues numbers as long as they're in E, G or A, "R U Mine", "Love That's Gone" (by La Sera), "Seven Nation Army", etc. But it's not like I'm grooving with Parliament Funkadelic or, you know...other actual musicians.

There's no guarantee Ibanez will come out with a fretless headless, so until we actually see some news, I wouldn't hold my breath. If I were in your shoes, I'd just scratch the itch with any other headless fretless (a Kiesel, for example) for now, and if/when Ibanez announces a headless fretless, you can decide then if you actually like it and want it, or you think whatever headless fretless you do have by then is perfectly fine.
 
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Here's the thing. I'm not really a bassist[1]. I mean, my primary instrument is piano/keys/synth, followed by guitar. But the last four weeks I've been on this obsessive Reverb hunt for a fretless, though I'm not sure why. I don't want to monkey with retooling a beautiful (the EHB1500) instrument, I just want to satisfy this current bout of LIGAS and get on with it. :) And these instruments truly look fantastic to me.

[1] To clarify, in my music room I can do a decent "Whole Lotta Love" (the right way), most blues numbers as long as they're in E, G or A, "R U Mine", "Love That's Gone" (by La Sera), "Seven Nation Army", etc. But it's not like I'm grooving with Parliament Funkadelic or, you know...other actual musicians.

Maybe give an Ibanez GWB35 a shot. It has a light basswood body and a thin neck. I put Gotoh res-o-lites on mine. It’s not headless but pretty light headed. I also threw a bart pickup in it.

When I saw the new EHB basses I immediately noticed the lack of a fretless. Headless guitars and basses have been associated with progressive and fusion styles of music going back to the 1980’s. Fretless bass too. Maybe Ibanez felt that the Gary Willis signature basses already capture that niche in their product line up.

The point is, maybe a Willis is the axe for your LIGAS.
 
I could be wrong but I don’t think these are in stock at Musicians Friend. In stock items say “in stock ready to ship” above an “add to cart” button. The EHBs all show as extended shipping time with a “reserve button”. My hunch is that they are still waiting on the basses to show up just like Sweetwater.

You might be right, MF has actually been changing the messaging on those basses a lot over the last few days. All the 'reserve now' models now state they're backordered which wasn't the case yesterday. The last time I looked at them they said something like "in stock but needs extra time to ship."

They also completely removed expected dates on the ones marked pre-order. In fact, the six string is now removed from search results on Guitar Center. You can still access the page directly but if you search for it on the site nothing comes up: https://www.guitarcenter.com/Ibanez...Multi-Scale-Ergonimic-Headless-Bass-Guitar.gc

Anderton's is now showing expected due date as Unknown for the models not in stock. Not sure if the Indonesian factory is operating right now.

Don't want to read too much into it other than the retailers really have no clue when things will arrive.
 
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We've seen that people have received them from different retailers. How many was in that first run? Like 20?

Where are they? I would think that they are already made at least some of them. Are stuck out at sea? The country holding them for inspection? Are they in a warehouse somewhere?
Several of the people who have received them are not in North America. Also keep in mind that people using TB and posting in this thread are a small fraction of Ibanez's total market, so I'd be cautious about extrapolating too much from what you see here (and on YouTube, for that matter).
 
These basses have ignited some serious GAS in me for something I never thought I wanted as a die-hard Fender fan (a 5-string multiscale headless). I've had my eye on these since they were announced at the end of last year, and it seems like Ibanez has been having some supply issues. Back in January, most retailers were estimating mid-March deliveries for these basses, but they're all mostly showing June/July now. I've seen a very small handful of people who have already received their pre-orders, so I guess retailers are just getting a few in at a time and ship whatever they can.

At this point I'll probably just wait through the end of the year when (hopefully) a lot more people have spent some time with these basses and we can see some more widespread feedback.
 
It's probably wrong again and I don't know how to add a picture but Sweetwater says in stock and ready to ship on the 1500
 

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