The Soundgear Club

[gregvds]

Here you go:

Front is very nice. I'd hoped for a more contrasty rosewood, but if this is the price for no joint problems, I'm eagerly paying it. Some detailed shots:

On the next one, one can see the trace of the sanded and retinted area right to the strap button, a rather large one:

No problem here; I remember now one of the neck screws on the last one was awkwardly tilted and not enough inside its hole (the closest one to the camera). Here it's perfect as it should be...

Beautiful long neck:

Here is the fingerboard box, between the fifth and seventh, where someone scraped a bit of the rosewood to clean a blot. Part of it is still visible behind the D string, scraping mostly visible behind G string. I hope the luthier will be positive on making this disappear:

And here is the rosewood 'inlay' (don't have the proper word for the long pieces of rosewood that close the fingerboard on each sides along the neck, to hide the frets insertion grooves. It seems to me it could be darker from the head to the third or fourth fret. Maybe I'm picky. Anyway, no more rough sanding finish here, everything is smooth:

Hope you enjoyed these . I'm happy, and surely the luthier work will help a lot. I'll have the action set a tad lower than the original one, Now I'll go and play it!

 

[Pachap]

That has to be the best looking bass in Belgium

 

[gregvds]

Thanks Pachap. She's quite gorgeous, yes . I should give her a name maybe.

 

[Pachap]

Hey SR owners, what strap locks are you guys using? Just want to make sure I pick up a set with the right screw size.

 

[wlater]

Well, I can tell you that Ernie Ball 4601 Black Super Locks do NOT have the same length screw as the stock SR (SR500 at least). They are longer. I had to drill out the holes to install on my 2nd SR500. Not difficult, but a little nerve racking. I still haven't decided whether to drill out my 3rd SR500 yet or buy different locks.

 

[car_man65]

I have the loxx brand locks on all my ibanez'.. they are good but not great. They eventually start to loosen up and make you feel as if they aren't secure anymore even though they still are. They are the correct size screw and very close in length (IIRC)

 

[Awesome Sauce]

None. Planet Waves Locking Strap or rubber washers over the button after the strap if it's "permanent." Fender makes nice ones.

Rob

 

[Stevorebob]

None. Planet Waves Locking Strap or rubber washers over the button after the strap if it's "permanent." Fender makes nice ones.

Rob

I found the Fender rubber washers to be difficult to get over the buttons. The ones that come with free beer are better in my opinion.

 

[gregvds]

No straplocks for me. I find them to put the actual attaching point of the strap further away from the body, which mechanically is not a good idea, as the leverage force on the screw increases.

I was once interested by putting recessed ones (https://reverb.com/item/181503-planet-waves-elliptical-pins-oversized-oval-strap-buttons-black), because these keep the strap close enough to the horn and body so as not to add leverage, but my luthier shop at that time found the SR1305 upper horn to be too small to drill the recessed chamber to take the recess straplock part without braking. I think it surely can be done, but he didn't want to take the risk, neither I.

On the Premiums and Prestige, the strap buttons are big enough to hold very tightly the thick leather strap I use, so I don't worry. I'm not the kind either to jump around with my bass, so...

I think there are ovale strap buttons that seem to add security to it (http://www.talkbass.com/threads/inset-strap-locks.1053339/).

All the best,

 

[Pachap]

I have used the Fender strap holders for a while now with good success. I am going to stick with those. I did order some Ernie Ball strap locks and might give them a try. Also got some Ernie Ball flatwounds on the way too. Just curious to see how those work out.

 

[Bassworship1]

I've had 4 Ibanez Premium basses in the last 6 months and have used the Gold Shaller strap locks on all of them. Couldn't ask for a better fit and they look great too.

 

[Technotitclan]

Gregvds, The new one looks GREAT. very classy looking. The spots you pointed out do look a bit strange but not at all out of place. Deff adds character. Congrats!

For straplocks I use Schaller locks. Have been using it for more than a decade. Highly recommend. I believe that the screws that come with it fit with no problem. I've never needed to re-tighten. If you get them make sure you use a wrench and some force to sintall the piece that goes on the strap. Lots of people say that the nut came off on them. I've never had it happen, but I really tightened that sucker down.

 

[Pachap]

Just traded a guy my SR305 for a Fender Rumble 75. Sounds good to me, but I'll get a chance to put in through it's paces later this evening. Can't crank it up too loud because worked last night and is sleeping it off right now.

Once again, thanks for all the help and motivation from the SR club. And hey.... where is my number

 

[gregvds]

I agree, we wait for our numbers! Who's in charge here? ;-)

 

[gregvds]

And here are two more, from the sides, simply because I can't find a lot of these on the web, and that if I searched for these views, someone else could too:

 

[Pachap]

I've had 4 Ibanez Premium basses in the last 6 months and have used the Gold Shaller strap locks on all of them. Couldn't ask for a better fit and they look great too.

Pics man, we gotta have pics.

 

[honeyiscool]

I have used the Fender strap holders for a while now with good success. I am going to stick with those. I did order some Ernie Ball strap locks and might give them a try. Also got some Ernie Ball flatwounds on the way too. Just curious to see how those work out.

Honestly, I don't know why anyone would bother with strap locks when Grolsch washers work just as well or better and for a lot less money, too.

Just slip them over the strap. I've done so on every single one of my guitars and basses.

Anyway, I don't have good pictures at the very moment, but I'm a proud owner of two new Ibanez basses, an SR305M (white) and an SR375 (brown burst). Can I get a number?

I chose the 3-series over the higher end basses because I don't really care for boutique styling. I like a simple flat or burst finish, none of that natural antique furniture look, but I love the cool input jack so it was really between the 3-series and 4-series for me, and I chose the models I chose. Thing is, I prefer simple bolt-on necks with a standard 4-bolt joint that isn't visible from the front. Also, I prefer lightweight and it seems like some of the higher end stuff (esp. the neck-throughs) weighs a bit more. My SR305M is a mere 7 lb 14.5 oz, my SR375 is still pretty light at 8 lb 12 oz. Still mulling over the proper upgrades.

The EXF-N2 pickups are surprisingly outstanding, IMO. They're flat in a good way, whereas I felt like the Yamaha TRBX505 that I was testing out were flat in a boring way. I have a feeling I'll eventually spring for Nordstrand Big Splits (which cost almost as much as I paid for the bass, ha) because I do want that split coil sound, but until then, the EXF-N2 should be excellent. One thing I want on my bass is a preamp bypass. I looked inside the cavity and it looks like the blend pot is 500k (indicating passive pickups) and the volume control is a 25k pot that's after the preamp, but it also looked like it'd be pretty straightforward to rewire it to be before the preamp with a passive option, just by moving some wires around. I'd love to hear what these pups sound like straight through, although I like the EQ very much as well. I feel like for some music, passive just sits better in the mix. I also prefer a pickup selector switch instead of a blend control so I might switch that, because to me, the in-between positions always sound mostly like one pickup anyway.

The one thing that I never liked about low-end Ibanez basses in the past is that they seemed to be a little quirky, with the style sweeper and stuff like that. Also, not a huge fan of stacked pots unless necessary. So, when they did the somewhat recent revision of just giving nearly every bass up and down the price range the same three-band EQ, that's when I felt I could really vibe with Ibanez because the lower end models had more of the style and look I liked, and finally they had just that straightforward sensible EQ I wanted from the beginning.

My maple neck SR305M is currently strung with La Bella 760FL-B, my favorite flatwounds in the world. It is simply wonderful.

My rosewood neck SR375 will be strung with Ken Smith Compressors, but it currently has GHS Pressurewounds. I like those strings, but I'm just convinced I can do a bit better. If the Ken Smith strings don't perform to my liking, I actually really like the D'Addario rounds the bass came with, so I might just go back to those and let them mellow out.

 

[Bassworship1]

 

[honeyiscool]

Oh, yeah, I forgot that Sweetwater took pictures of my bass before shipping it.

White is such a beautiful color for an instrument. They look stunning and are surprisingly rare. It's a neutral color that's also quite showy. I love it.

 

[Pachap]

honeyiscool, I've got a white SR300M right there in my pic.... I didn't think much of the pictures on the Craigslist ad, but when I saw it in person.... yeah white is really nice color, especially with the maple neck and board. It has a very classy look to it.

Well, I traded my silver SR305 for a Fender Rumble 75 this morning. Really got to shake down both the SR1200E and the new Rumble this afternoon. Holy cow I am really impressed. The set-up on the SR1200E is pretty spot on for me. Really fun to play and I was getting some good punch and thump with it. It's going to take a while to get it dialed in right, but I am really enjoying the process of exploring the different sounds this new combo has to offer.

Highlight of the night was jamming along repeatedly to HellYeah's "You Wouldn't Know." Man, I don't know how, but I had that bass thumping along really nicely.