School me on budget six strings

[Aidil]

This is real interesting to read considering so many reviews on these basses are negative. Im really open to an inexpensive 6er. The one I will get one day is what you have - a Ken Smith. Nothing plays like that.

But reviews on the LTD say that the tone is pretty blah and it is hard to replace the pickups. They say the Ibanez is very poorly built and also hard ti upgrade pickups. Can you speak to that as I'm interested in getting a good 6er for a solo project, but it needs to record well.

Couldn't understand why someone would say that it is hard to replace ESP LTD B206SM pickups...

It has soap bar PUs which can be easily swapped to EMG 45 series soap bar PUs without the need of routing.

 

[sundaybender]

... I noticed Ibanez now makes a six string version of the bass I currently own [edit: GSR206], and I figure I can get a used one for peanuts. It it a real, functioning six or mostly a toy? I'm also interested in any other six string that could be had for sub-300 bucks new or used.

Not a toy! Far from it! I've got an Ibby GSR206 and it is one of my favorite 6ers.

<snip>

It's main problems are it's not 24 frets (I prefer that in a 6er) and the pickups don't evenly cover the strings so you have to boost bass and treble a bit to compensate.

After roughly 1 million basses played, 3 of them 6ers (96 SR406 for a long time, MTD 635 for a short time, and a Kinal 6 for... well, almost no time) and currently only gigging one of two good ol' P basses, I recently had the same thought as you.

I saw a GSR206 in a local shop, and it seemed like a deal too good to pass up.

But... I did pass it up, and I bought an SR256 instead. Here's why:

1. As mentioned, the GSR206 B string (and to a lesser extent the C string) were much lower in output than the other strings. Seems like the pickups under those covers just aren't long enough to reach those strings. It's not subtle on the B string - it's noticeably quieter everywhere on the neck. EQ from the amp helped a little but made things muddy quickly.

1. The onboard controls (vol-vol-tone-"phat II") were useless. The cheap pots mean the volume knobs are essentially on-off switches, and the the phat II circuit is just a mid-cut/bass and treble boost. Not particularly musical, and not useful for fixing the low B string output.

There were some good things though:

• The tone (on the e-g strings) had a nice low-mid growl that wasn't as pronounced as many "modern" sounding instruments, but was better than I expected.
• The neck was nice too - A little thicker than a soundgear profile, but still pretty darn quick feeling, and easy to get around on.
• Fret edges seemed smooth, construction looked okay, bridge seemed fine. (Nut was a disaster, but that's expected)

Once I had played that GSR I had been bitten by the C string bug. I played all the other 6 strings in the area, but I wasn't sold.

• LTD B206SM - Heavy. Very even tone (seems like pretty flat response) but no "personality" for me, neck neither slim nor thick - really a "tweener" in every way.
• BTB676 - Lacking midrange, lacking tonal personality (needed a lot of EQ shaping to get tones I'm used to from other more "standard" basses) also heavy, big neck, but seemingly very well made.
• SR806 - Very light, very easy to play, lacking high-mids, pronounced bass and low mids, quiet electronics

So... I went and bought an SR256 from sweetwater (I don't usually buy online) and hoped for the best. Wow. I am impressed.

The good:

• Even response across all strings.
• Very decent B string clarity and power.
• Really easy to play (slim thin neck, close string spacing).
• Even more of that growly, modern low-midrange tone, with LOTS of headroom for digging in
• surprisingly nice finish on body and headstock.

The bad:

• Was FILTHY when it arrived. Just black sooty dust like crazy - my fingers were black after 2 minutes. (Easily remedied)
• The nut is still poor, and tuning suffers because of it.
• The blend pot is really a 3-way switch
• Noisy treble EQ - best used in moderation

Overall, the bass is definitely something I will enjoy 'shedding on, and feel no issue bringing out to a gig if I need to "get my notes on." It really feels like my old 406 in a lot of ways, and seems like a real player, not a budget instrument.

Whoa. See? I have been thinking about this for a while! Moral of the story - skip the GSR and hold out for a used SR256 if you can. Used ones are between 300-350. A little above your budget, but well worth it if you can find the dough.

 

[sundaybender]

And, as a late follow-up to a slow thread, I thought I'd post a video review of my SR256 as well.

Just in case people search in the future, here's the vid:



After a few months of playing the bass, my complaints list is down to only one: The shielding. The bass is noisy when there's interference around. But it plays (and stays) in tune, the nut issues may have just been a tight nut, and the neck hasn't required any adjustment as we went from summer into winter.

Not bad at all for such an inexpensive instrument!

I'll be posting more videos of other basses as well, figured I got 'em, might as well review 'em.

Hope this helps someone in the future.