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Why do people bash ibanez basses?

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Ibanez basses do not appeal to me. Yes I’ve own a few (2 sound gears, BTB1006) but in the end they are just “decent”. I owned a used 4 string sound gear back in 1995 and used that for a year. Lots of problems with the electronics and it was too expensive to fix. I used it anyway because I had no money to get a new bass. The wood was even rotting on the ears. No idea how that happened. Finally I junked that bass in ‘96 to Daddy’s (I couldn’t believe they took it for $40 I thought they would say, throw it in the Dumpster in the back) and got another Ibanez Sound Gear in 5 string in all black. I only owned that thing for 2 months before I sold it to a kid. Lots of knobs that did nothing. Sounded like a tin can. I had a classic Ampeg SVT head at the time. And then this year me being dumb bought a BTB1006 because “It looked good”. Had that bass for only 3 weeks before I returned it to dumb GC. It looks awesome but tone for me just wasn’t there for the money! Then I tried out a used Garry Willis model and was not impressed at all. The input didn’t work half the time and the tone was limited (surprisingly) . Did not like that ramp. I don’t know, maybe its because Ibanez is a giant manufacturer and they spit out so many instruments a month. I am into the smaller companies who spit out a few a month (thus able to probably do a better job). I don’t know, maybe I am stupid and don’t know what I’m talkin about!!!!
 
an ibanez soundgear 300 was my 1st bass. i gotta tell ya at the time it was the best sounding thing out there to my ears. what lured me to that bass was that it had a thin neck which helped me out cause i was a beginner. the thing that i hated about it was that it had 2 volume knobs. i hate that. Other than that it was a decent bass. i would recommend it to any beginner
 
well im gonna have to say that i dont like the SR series...i can say something because i own one. I have a sr800 4 string bass....i got it when i was 13 5 years ago. i thought ut was good back then but now that i look at it, it is a POS the sound sucks. its way to electronic like. peace
chad
 
I believe I mentioned it in an earlier post, but my SR 400 was not a "bad" bass, especially for a 1st. I liked the thin neck and it played pretty fast. I dug the P & J pickups and all the EQ...

...But, the fact that the pots were scratchy, the pickups hummed like bees and the jack kept coming unsoldered was enought to make me unsure of Ibanez's quality.

Later, I decided I liked the look and feel of a jazz bass better. So I bought one and I prefer the jazz style bass now. Ibanez make some decent basses, but as others have said, you can get better for the money IMHO.
 
I had an Ibanez SR400 for the first 4 years that I played bass. I got it for about $500 (Can) and I played the hell out of it. Towards the end the neck started to twist, so I decided to check out some other basses. I was blown away by how bad the bass sounded. Sterile, metallic... So I traded it up on an MIA Jazz V. Then I realized that the B on that wasn't what I wanted for sound, so I traded up to the Dingwall 5, and I will never get rid of it, in fact its big brother sixer is on the way.

I think that Ibanez basses are good for beginners, because it is a cheap bass that you won't really get burned on trading it, because it can only depreciate so much. My Dingwall probably already lost better than $500 of what I paid for it, hell...probably better than $1k. Whereas I sold the Ibanez fo $350.

Geoff
 
Hey Bimp
I did a gig a while back and the bass player from one of the other bands had a very nice Ibanez SoundGear Fretless 5. It looked like it was a well made bass, ie. nice wood, solid construction etc. I know that there are alot of SoundGear models and I don't know if it was originally fretted or fretless but I will say that it sounded great. it also had EMG soapbars that I believe were an upgrade by the owner.
 
Percy Jones played a fretless Ibanez for some time, I think I saw it somewhere...
I have an old Ibanez Roadstar II (1986 or so) which was made fretless and sounds nice by the way. It's a shame that I intonate like a drunk cow.

There are probably bassplayers, playing circles around and through me on their Squier Bronco bass...it's what works for you.
I don't want to spend 3k on a bass. As a single guy, I have to start thinking about things like good shoes and clothes as well. Those matter.
As do cd's from the Tea Party, that certain John Coltrane album that I'm still deciding on which it will be (feel free to pm me on that), good food instead of three-ingredient meals since I spend too much money on my weekly Pub-sessions of instant-oblivion...etc.
There's so much to do, people.
 
Originally posted by bimplizkit
q???

umm... this is a legit question...

does ibanez make a fretless other than the gary willis model???

(5-string, lined fretboard, 1 p/u, soundgear looking, 'plain-jane' wood)

hay, that's not a negative description, i've never played or heard one.....?????


Im not too sure if they still make one now a days, but back in the mid 90's they used to make a fretless sr400 series
 
Originally posted by Niels Keijzer
Percy Jones played a fretless Ibanez for some time, I think I saw it somewhere...
I have an old Ibanez Roadstar II (1986 or so) which was made fretless and sounds nice by the way. It's a shame that I intonate like a drunk cow.

There are probably bassplayers, playing circles around and through me on their Squier Bronco bass...it's what works for you.
I don't want to spend 3k on a bass. As a single guy, I have to start thinking about things like good shoes and clothes as well. Those matter.
As do cd's from the Tea Party, that certain John Coltrane album that I'm still deciding on which it will be (feel free to pm me on that), good food instead of three-ingredient meals since I spend too much money on my weekly Pub-sessions of instant-oblivion...etc.
There's so much to do, people.

That Ibanez that Percy has sounded nice and looked good, too. Not sure why they didn't make it available... it definitely had possibilities.
 
Embellisher said:
Double thumb is the technique of using your thumb to slap downstrokes and upstrokes, to maximize efficiency and to help you with those fast slap parts. I'm still in the early stages of teaching it to myself. Guys like Victor Wooten, Mark King and Bill Dickens have elevated double-thumbing to an art form. They can slap so darned fast that it isn't even musical.



Excuse me, but how does one slap "Up stroke" W/ their thumb?:confused:
 
am i the only one who has not had a bad experience with ibanez? i bought an SR800A new about 5 years ago. loved that bass. still do. it does sound electronic when compared to a passive J bass. but i like the tones it produces, its very easy to play, and the construction is very good on mine. i believe it was made in japan. nothing ever came unsolered, it never hummed, never complained. ive also got an older ATK made in america 5 string. it needs some work, namely a good setup. but the quality of contrusction of this bass is very good. playability just needs to be better. i like the thin necks, and i like the sound and looks of the basses. i have a friend whos got an ergodyne 600 series too, and i love that bass as well. it has an odd tone, but for what he plays, its perfect. anyone else? i think a lot of people charachterize ibanez by their lower level instruments. (GSR, SR300, EDB300) which of course wont be as nice as their higher level basses. i played a high end SR once. i believe it was a 1305 or something like that. beautiful bass, played like a dream. expensive, yes, but so is a MIA fender J right? btw i dont work for ibanez, and the "SR" in my name is just my initials. :) i did try out a lot of differend basses before choosing the ones i did. if i remember correctly before i bought my SR i played fenders, (MIA and MIM) fernandes (the closest contender) washburns, gibson/epiphone, and a lot of various P or J copies, as well as a friends carvin. i chose the SR800A because i liked the way it played and sounded, and it looked good to my eyes. I have gotten compliments on that bass from fellow players. maybe i just got lucky in my search, but i honestly dont understand whats to bash.
 
I still don't understand why some people have such a hard time understanding why others may like something that they find unpleasant.

Some people dig eating snails. I don't.

Some people like having sex with members of the same sex. I don't.

Some people like Soundgear basses. I don't.

Big F'ing deal.

There are good points and bad to all kinds of instruments. High price is a definite minus for those of us who are on limited budgets. It'd be great if we could all afford Sadowskys or Laklands, or even MIA Fenders, but it's just not the case. For a struggling student, a Sadowsky is not he best bass in the world because he'd have to eat out of a dumpster to afford it.

FWIW, I love my Ibanez ATK, and I'm sure that the higher end Ibanez basses are nice. The one's I've tried are not my cup of tea, but I'm sure that they are for some players.

Did I mention that my ATK kicks ass? ;)
 
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