The Official Ibanez TMB Talman Bass Club

[BismarckHerring]

Thanks, that's good info. I realize that it is budget bass, and I was actually quite impressed by how good the setup was, apart from the intonation. I don't expect any bass to have perfect intonation out of the factory, certainly not at this price, but I figure Ibanez ships them with their standard setup (like the 'old style' one in your image, give or take a few millimeters) for a reason.

It's strange you've had to move the saddles so far forward and back. On my TMBs the saddles are in "normal" positions. Perhaps your friend is using unusual strings or strings mixed from different sets?

That's what I thought, maybe there's something going on with the strings. But it's a new bass, and the strings are original, as far as he knows.

The bridge is the newer version. Using longer or shorter screws is a good idea. It's not really necessary at this time, but it seems like an easy solution, should it ever become a real problem. And it'd be interesting to see what happens with a new set of strings.

 

[dabbler]

Thanks, that's good info. I realize that it is budget bass, and I was actually quite impressed by how good the setup was, apart from the intonation. I don't expect any bass to have perfect intonation out of the factory, certainly not at this price, but I figure Ibanez ships them with their standard setup (like the 'old style' one in your image, give or take a few millimeters) for a reason.



That's what I thought, maybe there's something going on with the strings. But it's a new bass, and the strings are original, as far as he knows.

...

All the more reason to change them.

 

[Telecaster88]

I have question for TMB30 owners. A friend of mine, a guitarist, bought one of these but wasn't happy with with the intonation. So I had a look, and it was indeed terrible. No problem, I'm used to doing setups on my own basses. The neck relief and saddle height were good, so I only moved the saddles.

To my surprise, the range of movement of the saddles was too small to get perfect intonation at the 12th fret for the E and D strings. It's close enough, just 5cts off with the saddle for the E string moved as close to neck as possible and the saddle for the D string all the way to the back. But still, I found it surprising that it was necessary to move them to the extremes of their ranges with the stock strings installed. And it's also strange how far off the original intonation was. I don't expect it to be perfect on any new bass, but this was extremely far off.

I've looked at some pictures of this model that owners have posted, and the saddles are never in the same configuration that I ended up with. The E string saddle is always the furthest back, while I had to move it as far the towards the neck as possible.

For now the bass is fine, but I still have a feeling something is a bit off. I'm also a bit worried that if further adjustments are needed there won't be enough space for the saddles to move.

Does anyone have a similar experience? Is this something my friend should be worried about?

Are the pickups set too high? That can cause intonation problems due to the magnetic pull.

 

[BismarckHerring]

Are the pickups set too high? That can cause intonation problems due to the magnetic pull.

Interesting, I'll check.

 

[Jszfunk]

It looks like I might make the jump this weekend. This dealer on Ebay has them for $144.99 with a check out code and a discount down to $123.24. Its the Ivory color, not may fav, but for that price it will grow on me.
Ibanez TMB100 Talman Electric Bass Guitar Ivory 887802121160 | eBay

 

[ERIC31]

$144?? That’s a steal! That’s the bass I have and it’s my #1! I changed out the pickguard for this black gloss one which matches the headstock. I can’t stand red tort!

 

[Limezone]

That is a steal. That's less than I just paid for a TV Jones pick-up I put in a project. A neck position Thunder'mag is $147.

 

[Reo]

Been wanting a new pickguard since I bought this thing nearly five years ago. Not a fan of tort in general and especially not what this comes with. Never had luck finding a white pearloid that didn’t cost an arm and a leg to ship from Europe. My wife knew this and found this gold pickguard on Etsy and got it for my Christmas. Fit was pretty good but I did have to file it down a bit by the input jack. Otherwise I think it looks pretty sharp. Even came with the gold screws.

 

[JIO]

Been wanting a new pickguard since I bought this thing nearly five years ago. Not a fan of tort in general and especially not what this comes with. Never had luck finding a white pearloid that didn’t cost an arm and a leg to ship from Europe. My wife knew this and found this gold pickguard on Etsy and got it for my Christmas. Fit was pretty good but I did have to file it down a bit by the input jack. Otherwise I think it looks pretty sharp. Even came with the gold screws.View attachment 4913770

Very nice -

 

[TheBogart]

still in love with these two basses.

 

[Code Brown]

love mine too!

 

[bigthemat]

Hey friends, still thinking about the possibility of this and wanted to get some opinions from those that know this stuff better than I.

On my 605, I only ever solo the P or maybe about 50/50 p/j. I never solo the J and don't love the sound of it soloed, and it doesn't add much when blended. I thought it might be fun to install a musicman style humbucker instead of the J. I'd get it professionally routed and installed since I don't have any of the tools or knowhow to attempt such a thing.

Am I nuts? Would the placement work? Would it just be cheaper to buy a sterling to get the humbucker sound instead of paying a luthier a lot of to route out and install a new pickup? Would it make sense to keep it as a blend or will the P and H not jive well, and instead install a selector switch?

Just my rambling thoughts as I finish up vacation and don't have much to do during the days haha.

 

[eastcoasteddie]

Hey friends, still thinking about the possibility of this and wanted to get some opinions from those that know this stuff better than I.

On my 605, I only ever solo the P or maybe about 50/50 p/j. I never solo the J and don't love the sound of it soloed, and it doesn't add much when blended. I thought it might be fun to install a musicman style humbucker instead of the J. I'd get it professionally routed and installed since I don't have any of the tools or knowhow to attempt such a thing.

Am I nuts? Would the placement work? Would it just be cheaper to buy a sterling to get the humbucker sound instead of paying a luthier a lot of to route out and install a new pickup? Would it make sense to keep it as a blend or will the P and H not jive well, and instead install a selector switch?

Just my rambling thoughts as I finish up vacation and don't have much to do during the days haha.

I’d say it works out pretty good…!

Since I paid something like $169 out the door on this bass, I didn’t really care too much about it. I routed the pickup cavity with a dremel and a big chunk of paint chipped off below the pickup. I will try to get some white nail Polish to touch that up one day, and smooth out the rough edge of the routing there too…one day…

But this is the cheapest ceramic MM pickup I could find on Amazon, cost like $13 at the time.
I wired it to a 3-way toggle for Bridge Coil/Parallel/Neck Coil. Parallel and Single Coils match up very well with the P pickup volume-wise. I tried Series first, and it was WAY too hot.
The pole pieces of the MM pickup are smooth. The only pickups I found to have that sort of “machined” profile like the original P and J have, are the Seymour Duncan SMB-4D and Wilkinson WJM
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01M0RSO1M/ref=ox_sc_saved_image_7?smid=AP3VA1GJZM3EQ&psc=1
. But those are a bit more coin than I really want to spend on this bass…

I positioned the MM pickup where the Bridge Coil is in the exact same spot as the original J pickup was, that way it will give my more or less the same tone. The Neck coil have a bit more low-mid…kind of like the difference between 60s and 70s J positions. And believe it or not, they each give a different voicing when blended with the P, too. Really cool sounds!

Edit: after writing this long-winded response, I just realized you have a 605 - a much better version of this instrument. I think a Duncan SMB-5D would be a badassed pickup to put in there.
I have one waiting for a build I have planned…

 

[stingray69]

Hey all, been a long time since I posted in this thread. I went on a walkabout for the last couple of years with some other instruments (as we sometimes do) and had put away my Talman basses for longtime storage. My recent Ibanez SR1345 has been my main instrument for several months now. My ears hadn't heard my Talmans for a very long time, so I decided to dig one of them out of storage and give it play. Holy Cow!! I'm just saying, I recall now why I bought them in the first place. My modified TMB105 sounds killer - supportive, meaty, and brings the punchy low end like nobody's business.

Been playing my TMB105 several hours today/tonight and doing A/B recordings between it and my Ibanez SR. I hate to say it, but it makes my fancier and MUCH costlier SR sound a little, uh, anemic? Honestly blown away by how much more supportive the TMB105 is on recordings & through my bass amp. Going to be taking out the TMB105 while the SR is going to have to sit out of some gigs. These Talman basses are unbelievable values - even if we tend to forget it sometimes.

 

[Davidus1]

Been wanting a new pickguard since I bought this thing nearly five years ago. Not a fan of tort in general and especially not what this comes with. Never had luck finding a white pearloid that didn’t cost an arm and a leg to ship from Europe. My wife knew this and found this gold pickguard on Etsy and got it for my Christmas. Fit was pretty good but I did have to file it down a bit by the input jack. Otherwise I think it looks pretty sharp. Even came with the gold screws.View attachment 4913770

I like it!

 

[JIO]

Hey all, been a long time since I posted in this thread. I went on a walkabout for the last couple of years with some other instruments (as we sometimes do) and had put away my Talman basses for longtime storage. My recent Ibanez SR1345 has been my main instrument for several months now. My ears hadn't heard my Talmans for a very long time, so I decided to dig one of them out of storage and give it play. Holy Cow!! I'm just saying, I recall now why I bought them in the first place. My modified TMB105 sounds killer - supportive, meaty, and brings the punchy low end like nobody's business.

Been playing my TMB105 several hours today/tonight and doing A/B recordings between it and my Ibanez SR. I hate to say it, but it makes my fancier and MUCH costlier SR sound a little, uh, anemic? Honestly blown away by how much more supportive the TMB105 is on recordings & through my bass amp. Going to be taking out the TMB105 while the SR is going to have to sit out of some gigs. These Talman basses are unbelievable values - even if we tend to forget it sometimes.

Looks good!

 

[HEADLE]

Hey friends, still thinking about the possibility of this and wanted to get some opinions from those that know this stuff better than I.

On my 605, I only ever solo the P or maybe about 50/50 p/j. I never solo the J and don't love the sound of it soloed, and it doesn't add much when blended. I thought it might be fun to install a musicman style humbucker instead of the J. I'd get it professionally routed and installed since I don't have any of the tools or knowhow to attempt such a thing.

Am I nuts? Would the placement work? Would it just be cheaper to buy a sterling to get the humbucker sound instead of paying a luthier a lot of to route out and install a new pickup? Would it make sense to keep it as a blend or will the P and H not jive well, and instead install a selector switch?

Just my rambling thoughts as I finish up vacation and don't have much to do during the days haha.

I'm sure it would work just fine. The 300 series has a double j in the MM position and works great. Give it a go.

H

 

[eastcoasteddie]

I went ahead and did it (after thinking about it on and off for a couple months).

I installed HipShot HB7 Lollipop tuners on my TMB100. I was originally thinking to install my old Squier VM tuners, but wound up putting those tuners back on the Squier, leaving the HB7’s without a home.

I think the Lollipops match the lines of the TMB better than the clovers…but that’s just my opinion…

There was a slight overlap in the larger back plates, necessitating a slight notch to be made in one of them.

The screw holes don’t line up to the originals, so I had to plug them and drill new ones.
Overall, I like the upgrade, and though the bass cost me $170 overall, this could be considered a $130 upgrade…something I really wanted to avoid, but the bass is so dang awesome, I had to…

 

[bigthemat]

that looks so sick! I gotta get some for my 605

 

[Blues Bass 2]

They look great on a 605 and they look great on your bass too .