It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
I can't remember spending this little on an instrument since I bought my first guitar, a second hand Marlin Sidewinder for £50 back in about 1988!
It turns out £160 buys a pretty amazing amount of bass these days. Seriously impressed with everything about it.
http://i1137.photobucket.com/albums/n505/dindude/IMG_1553_zps0qqxox8r.jpg
I went with the Ibanez over the Squier as a). It was available and b). in my experienice Ibanez are slightly better even than Squier at building a quality instrument at the entry level.
However, build wise I'm still pretty stunned with it. Can't find anything to complain about. Neck joint is tight, the neck is a nice Chucky profile (Squiers often feel a bit student like), with a nice satin finish. Ok the rosewood isn't the best grade and the frets aren't shiney, but the fretboard edges even have a little rounding so it's perfectly comfortable.
Seems to hold its tuning fine, machines feel fairly positive in their action.
The black finish is very good and not too plasticky. Supposedly the body is mahogany and there is some neck dive but I'll be playing seated so it's no real issue.
My only point of comparison is my guitars which are all quality USA things, and whilst obviously not on the same level, it's not embarrassed at all. Far better than most Gibsons I've owned!
Acoustically it has a nice vibrant ring to it. Plugged in, well I have no bass amp so I'm into the DI on my audio interface into Yamaha monitors and it sounds great. Not too plinky at all, enough solid low end for what I need. Really please I went with the short scale tbh as it just feels so comfortable to play and it still sounds great.
First impressions are such that I'm not inclinded to change anything on it (unlike every one of my guitars however much they cost!), probably because I don't have such strong opinions or standards when it comes to bass, but also because it fulfils my brief perfectly for £160.
Job done.
Don't worry, I'm not an obsessive Fender bass type.
I have a Stingray as well - which I love, and is part of the reason I enjoy winding @Sporky up about it so much
On a serious note - I have a real hankering for an Ibanez - one of those higher end natural wood ones - mmm, look fab. Also, I would like to try a violin-style just to see how tubby and thumpy it is, and I saw a mid-60's Hofner Senator recently that was hard to walk away from.. Of course, my first bass was a Peavey T-40 (I say mine - I borrowed it)
Never got on with Warwicks. Dunno why, just left me cold. I have a list of tryouts as well - Lakland, Status, Alembic.. it goes on and on.
If you're ever up Peterborough way, drop in with it and you can crank it through a whopping big bass amp to see what it's like..
For DI sounds - if you wanted a bit of tonal grunt (assuming you aren't doing PC based modelling) there's some fab preamp pedals which would really make it sparkle - like the Darkglass B3K, the Aguilar Tonehammer, or even the Ampeg Classic Analog bass preamp. You'll get some really nice tonal variation from one of those..!
Ahem.
Anyways, while @dindude did not buy a Stingray, he has bought a very handsome instrument. One of the new Talman ones I think?
I'm just planning a Bass Pedal board at the moment. Thought I'd need maybe 3 or 4 pedals on it. Bah. Once I put wireless receiver on, tuner, a decent preamp or two for different amp sounds, an OD, a Fuzz, a reverb, a delay, a chorus etc. etc.
My Helix does a great job with bass, and I suspect the soon-to-arrive desktop app will be the same. Boss also does a decent Bass multi-effects unit for Bass which pops up on eBay or in basschat classifieds from time to time.
Wouldn't want you to miss out on some classic bass amp goodness to really rock up your new purchase
Meant to say - there's a Ric in my future too - if not, I suspect @ICBM would start sending me abusive mail. I'd like a vintage 4001, but suspect I will end up with a modern 4003...