Hi All,
Because of neck and back problems, and a recent surgry, I needed a light, short-scale bass. After going through all my options, I decided to go with the Ibanez Mikro. I figured I'd give you my impressions of it.
Looks- The bass is very nicely finished with no flaws in the paint. Looks even better in person than any of the picures I've seen on the 'net. Mine is red and there is much more fine metalflake in it than I thought. The chrome hardware looks very nice, although the knobs are chromed plastic, not metal.
Set-up/Intonation - I never expect a set-up to be perfect when I get it, especially from MF. This was very close, however. The E, D, and G were spot on but the A string had a pretty noticable buzz. I didn't have to touch the truss-rod to get rid of this and just a couple adjustments to the saddle got it where it needed to be. I expect that with the incredibly short scale, adjustments will be needed with string changes. Just a quick note on adjusting the truss rod- I think Ibanez hit a home run with the truss rod cover that doesn't require you to remove the screws to get to the t-rod. Just flip the cap, and go.
Neck- The fretwork is good. Only one fret had a sharp edge and that was a quick fix with a couple of swipes of a file. The rosewood fretboard is nice. Some people with earlier Mikros said that their fretboards seemed dry to them but I don't notice that with mine. The finish of the neck itself takes a bit of getting used to. I love natural finishes, but this one seems just a bit "too raw" but not unplayable by any means. Another small issue is that they didn't do a good job matching wood grain where they joined the headstock to the neck.
Tuners- just average enclosed tuners. They do the job and stay in tune well. The ratio could stand to be a bit better because any tweak causes a large change in pitch. If I do end up changing the tuners, that will be the reason why as I don't forsee any other problems with the stock tuners.
Pickups- The P-style pickup is great. The jazz pickup gets real close to what a jazz pup should sound like, but not perfect. I don't see a reason to change them for now.
Electronics- The pots will probably be the first thing I replace. They aren't noisy and work fine, they just feel a bit cheezy. The tone control doesn't do much except in the first fraction on an inch in its travel. I'm going to experiment with different tapers and values to see if I can make it more usable. Not really much of an issue becaue you can do quite a bit by adjusting the balance of the pickups for different tones.
Overall- Great value at $169 and just what I needed. I was concerned that it would be too toy-like and would look strange for a grown man with such a short scale but, Ibanez made the body dimensions match the scale so it doesn't look goofy. I am very happy with it. It definitly won't replace my Spector 5 string, but will be much better on my neck for playing longer periods of time. No extras are included unless you consider a $.10 cable and the allen wrenches to be extras. I think they used to come with gig bags, but not any more. Should fit a standard guitar gig bag fine.
Anyways, thought this might answer anyone's questions about these if you had any.
Mikrobass Club anyone? PM me if you're interested.
Because of neck and back problems, and a recent surgry, I needed a light, short-scale bass. After going through all my options, I decided to go with the Ibanez Mikro. I figured I'd give you my impressions of it.
Looks- The bass is very nicely finished with no flaws in the paint. Looks even better in person than any of the picures I've seen on the 'net. Mine is red and there is much more fine metalflake in it than I thought. The chrome hardware looks very nice, although the knobs are chromed plastic, not metal.
Set-up/Intonation - I never expect a set-up to be perfect when I get it, especially from MF. This was very close, however. The E, D, and G were spot on but the A string had a pretty noticable buzz. I didn't have to touch the truss-rod to get rid of this and just a couple adjustments to the saddle got it where it needed to be. I expect that with the incredibly short scale, adjustments will be needed with string changes. Just a quick note on adjusting the truss rod- I think Ibanez hit a home run with the truss rod cover that doesn't require you to remove the screws to get to the t-rod. Just flip the cap, and go.
Neck- The fretwork is good. Only one fret had a sharp edge and that was a quick fix with a couple of swipes of a file. The rosewood fretboard is nice. Some people with earlier Mikros said that their fretboards seemed dry to them but I don't notice that with mine. The finish of the neck itself takes a bit of getting used to. I love natural finishes, but this one seems just a bit "too raw" but not unplayable by any means. Another small issue is that they didn't do a good job matching wood grain where they joined the headstock to the neck.
Tuners- just average enclosed tuners. They do the job and stay in tune well. The ratio could stand to be a bit better because any tweak causes a large change in pitch. If I do end up changing the tuners, that will be the reason why as I don't forsee any other problems with the stock tuners.
Pickups- The P-style pickup is great. The jazz pickup gets real close to what a jazz pup should sound like, but not perfect. I don't see a reason to change them for now.
Electronics- The pots will probably be the first thing I replace. They aren't noisy and work fine, they just feel a bit cheezy. The tone control doesn't do much except in the first fraction on an inch in its travel. I'm going to experiment with different tapers and values to see if I can make it more usable. Not really much of an issue becaue you can do quite a bit by adjusting the balance of the pickups for different tones.
Overall- Great value at $169 and just what I needed. I was concerned that it would be too toy-like and would look strange for a grown man with such a short scale but, Ibanez made the body dimensions match the scale so it doesn't look goofy. I am very happy with it. It definitly won't replace my Spector 5 string, but will be much better on my neck for playing longer periods of time. No extras are included unless you consider a $.10 cable and the allen wrenches to be extras. I think they used to come with gig bags, but not any more. Should fit a standard guitar gig bag fine.
Anyways, thought this might answer anyone's questions about these if you had any.
Mikrobass Club anyone? PM me if you're interested.
TY Unbridled!
