Ibanez Electric Basses

I've been playing guitar since I was a little kid but have been playing the bass since January of 2007. I play blues and classic rock basically. I've been in a band for a little over a year now. I bought this from BISCo for about $220(if memory serves). I bought it because my friends and I were starting a band and we needed a bass guitarist(already had a lead guitar) so I figured I'd take on that role since I already knew how to play guitar. I picked up this bass guitar in January of 2007. I was VERY pleased with the great sound that came out of this. I didn't have a bass amp at the time so I used my friends electric guitar amp and it STILL sounded perfect. Even with an electric guitar distortion pedal this thing adapted very very well. You can't get a better bass guitar for the price. Very sturdy. I accidentally dropped it from waist-height and it barely got a scratch on it, you can't tell it's there unless you look for it. I was more than happy with the quality of this bass guitar. Overall, considering the price, I believe you get your money's-worth, if not more. You won't be disappointed. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

been playing guitar for 25 years.just switch to bass for a change. paid $500 for an upgrade.i was looking for a decent bass guitar. the unit is very light.and the price is very much reasonable. of course its not a warwick.but i'd take and will probably keep it for good. the quality of the finish was not as impressive but again it's not a warwick. the guitar sounds really good for my taste. I play rock and country.the pick ups are excellent.very quiet. this guitar is a versatile performer.I'm gonna take care of it. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

My name is Anthony Way. I have been playing bass for 27 years. I am currently the bassist for The Adopted - www.theadopted.com I am a fan of alternative rock music including Pearl Jam, I Mother Earth, Cold Play...etc. I actually owned 3 Ibanez SR series basses - SR406, SR506 & SR1206. I recently gave up my endorsement with Godin Guitars to play Ibanez exclusively. Godin makes great guitars but they did not make a 6 string bass which is all I play now. In my current bass lineup I only use 2 basses - my SR506 (natural finish - backup) and my beautiful SR1206 (oil finish...NICE!). I think Ibanez makes some of the best basses in the world. I have owned many basses over the years including original Fenders, Kramer, Yamaha's, Rickenbacker 4001, Godin, Aria Pro II (80's version), Hondo II, El Degas, Peavey, OLP, Rogue, Dillian, Douglas, Dean & Ibanez. Honestly there is nothing I do not like about my Ibanez SR506. Actually all the Ibanez basses I have owned have been excellent. The SR406 did not have the bite that the SR506 had (especially when thumbing) but that was understandable since the 406 did not have active pickups only an active circuit (lower end model with DX6 pickups - the 506 has ADX6 pickups). The necks where the same - SR6 hard maple. They felt the same. I am an active bassist and I play hard. The Ibanez basses I own handle all I can give. These basses are great and stay in tune. The quality is top notch in my opinion. Overall I highly recommend Ibanez basses especially the medium to high range models. I have never played a bass that has felt as good as an Ibanez SR series bass and what I mean is the fit to my body. The sound I get is perfect for my style of play and music (alt. rock mostly). I love the look of the SR series - I think Ibanez did a great job designing these basses. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Got this amzing beast for £500 from a music shop in England. Wanted a decent bass to progress on. The color is orange. The shape is wierd, but is so easy to get on with - is lightweight, fits well to your body, the neck is slim and really easy to play . The tones and volumes are compltetly adjustable to your own sound and each string can be adjusted for volume. The blend between the piezos and magnetic pickup can be adjusted to your own sound! Just amazing for orginality. At first the piezos were too sensitive and tremble for my liking so I adjusted the pots at the back to suit me, but then again that's more of an advantage. I've found that it goes out of tune quite quickly, but that's not much of a prob. As it can be changed quite a lot it's quite hard to keep it at the same tone. I would say that the construction and quality could be improved as it is a mid/high cost bass and doesn't use wood for the body. I've found that the action has changed sometimes - from being too tight on ist fret until I lossened the screws a bit on bolt on. It's a versatile bass built for orginality and diversification in mind. However, if you just want a quick, easy bass to pick up and play this is not the one as it takes a bit of tweaking to get your sound. As I've only owed one other bass before I cannot really give an informed judgment, but I can say it feels great to play; has a unique and varied sound and looks fantastic! This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

i got this from my local music shop, it cost me £479 as far as i know ibanez dont make the sr 705 anymore, i was lucky to find it in a shop, basically it had sat in the cellar and was forgotten about, i love the dark mahogany finish and the black hardware, gives the bass an aggressive look, the 5 piece maple and rosewood neck is very fast and slim for a five string neck and the profile on the neck is fantastic, action is nice and low aswell, , it balances well and the neck doesnt dive, the sound is strong and i can get a really stringy sound or a fat bassline out of it, so soundwise its fairly versatile, it also came equipped with elixir strings and not cheap junky strings i have experienced a little fret buzz when i play this bass acoustically but it doesnt buzz through the amp, being that its a wood finish which i really like, it is, unfortunately, easily marked if your not careful, the bridge had a slight green streak running through it, so im changing it, other than that no complaints construction feels solid, bass is medium weight and looks well built, neck is bolted on with four bolts, bridge is strong and easily adjusted basically a great all round bass, if u can get your hands on one then i reccommend you get it, seeing as japanese ibanez basses are becoming increasingly rare so im guessing it will retain its value quite well, its basically a poor mans warwick, This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I got it from Academy of Sound in Leeds. Cost me £250 (shoulda been £430 but it was in a sale!!!) Its a great active bass with a fantastic range of sounds achievable once you've got used to the controls. You can go from thick, heavy muddy tones to trebly funkness really easily. People have been saying about it having weak pickups and i can see where they're coming from but ive had no problems. Build quality is solid, its taken a few hits an isnt showin any signs. It stays in tune for ages too (probly cos of the monorail bridge). Can be a bit over trebly sometimes and thres a fair bit o fret buzz round the 15-17 on all strings but i guess if you knew what you were doin you could sort that. (sadly i dont) Very very solid. I was well impressed. A fantastic bass well worth buying by anyone up to sort of high intermediate/low end of pro. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

oh man,this is a long story.I started playing bass around 2002-2003 with a 1970 fender music master that was given to me by my youth paster.but it got stolen at our hotel while on a road trip through arizona.i play bass for my church so i needed a bass immediatley.i decided that i liked ibanez(after about 3 hours research)and went to The Guitar Center and shopped.i found a nice sr400 clearanced at $449.99 and talked the dealer down to 400.after ibought it i went to my cousin's house and borowed his musicians friend magazine and found my same exact bass for $249.99!!!!!!!.i went back to guitar center and they handed me a check for 150 bucks!!!!!!!!(because they have a best price guarentee) . i feel like i got the best deal in the world!!.i walked away that day with a $500 bass that i got for $300, a big smile on my face,and a check for a new bass amp(i just bought a fender rumble 100, its awsome). i personally think that the Guitar Center and Musicians Friend are the best music dealers ever.period everthing.the style is aawsome.the axe look is cool.the neck is so thin and fast.you can control the sound so much without even touching your amp 'cause of all the controlls(bass,volume,treble,tone,and more) the pickups sound awsome i dont like the weight of it.after about 15 minutes my shoulder starts to hurt(even with a pad).and after a bout 6 months the input jack came loose and started crackling, but once again the guitar center saved the day.they repaired it for free!!!. well i dont know the input jack came loose fro no reason. the pickups get in the way of slapping,but you can get used to that. just stupid little stuff alright i woould probally have to say that its a good quality guitar for a good price.sound awsome . beginner to expert ,jazz, punk, country, worship, rock, metal, it sound good fror all of those. p.s. dont buy this guitar it sucks just kiddin' This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought my bass in 1999 from Sam Ash for just under $500. I tried a few basses out including the Soundgear but this was the one I fell inlove with. First off, the neck is nice and small making it very easy to fly around the frets. The bass itself is very light and fits perfectly against your body. The sound is very versatile though I'm not sure how good it if for funk style playing. I have no complaints. The one knock I've seen from people who like this bass is about the low end and having difficulties with the action. I had this problem aswell when I tried tuing my 4 string down to C. It was easily solved by using Rotosound Flatwound strings (the heaviest gage they have..I believe the E string was a 115.) The low end was like melodic thunder and I had no problem with buzzing at all. It's one of those basses that no matter what level you are at..you pick it up and go..hey I can play this thing. It's a beautifully made bass and just looks cool. Excellent bass. I recommend it anyone. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I got it at, Marshals music for $299, as a show model. It is really balanced in my mind with a good string spacing, whoops the ass on a fender p-bass in weight and feel, it seems like half the weight, and handels better. Thin neck,34" scale 24 frets, its a great bass. some buzz on the e at the 12th, but that depends on the playing style Good quality, my only issues are minor cosmetic dings, but its an show model so i expected that Good unit, i would have payed full price for it, doesnt wear down on the shoulder. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

bought in a store in Spain, Alternativas Musicales, who give BIG discounts ;) It´s listprice is 480€ but I paid 385€... Bought it as a second bass after having played lots of basses in stores and having read like 1000000 articles on all basses. I was between this one, a yamaha bb404, a yamaha rbx370 and an ibanez gsr series. I also looked at the squire special P-bass, but this one outmatched all of those in features, apparent quality and finish. and looks ;) Ok i have like a few likes, almost everything actually... First of all, as mentioned in another review, only Iron Pewter finish seemed to be available (the other finish is moonlight shadow and looks like... like an ugly guitar-shaped moon :) BUT.... Ibanez has made a change in its offer: moonlight out, Bright Blue in. It looks awful to me at the internet site but now they told me iron pewter wouldn´t come untill june... so i got the blue one and it´s... SOOOOOOOOOOooooooo beautiful!!!!! It doesn´t look ANYTHING like the picture!!! it´s a transparent dark blue finish, like a dark sea colour. and its all glossy´and you can see the wood :) Next are the pickups: 2 MASSIVE humbuckers with MASSIVE exposed polepieces (really really BIG) and more important they sound great. The same ones are used in high end srx basses so... They have built in thumb rests so you don´t misform your thumb :) Though they are PASSIVE (not like someone else said) it has an active pickup, great combination, with simple controls (volume, pickup balance, bass boost/cut, treble boost/cut), and heavy duty knobs. Zero hums by the way (not like the yamahas or the squire...) neck is 2 octave, slim and fast, and the body is a bit less rounded than other ibanez models. I like the style of it but others may find it a bit too square. Bridge is fine, heavy duty end is 1cm thick or so. Tuners are fine too (adjustable). I don´t know what kind of strings are on it, but i would like to know, they´re pretty good, although high-end srx come with elixir strings and this one I think not. I would have liked a gigbag coming with it but instead it came with a cardboard box, a cable and an instruction booklet (yes, an instruction booklet) which explains where we can find the "strings" on the bass, how to tune them with the "tuners", etc... yep, a gigbag or a case would have been better, but for this money its this or a very-low-end yamaha/squire... Also, I would have liked a cable lock since I tend to step on my cable like every minute... The only thing that bothered me a bit at first was the space between the pickups, its a bit small, not because they´re too close together, but because they´re TOO BIG :) So the first few hours my fingerplaying hit the bridge pickup but i´m used to it now... maybe it was because my playing style was a bit retarded I don´t know. No major dislikes thus. bolt on neck, solid basswood body, medium frets, Ibanez PFR pickups, everything solid state, everything nice, no flaws whatsoever. I especially like the finish of the fingerboard at the body side... For the price, it hasn´t any real competitors. Great finish, great sound, REALLY REALLY POWERFUL SOUND (very very nice lows), and beautiful... I´m in love with the colour... Its a bit heavy and corners aren´t very round-shaped but other than that great bass. I´ve played the srx500 too and it´s not worth the extra 200€ unless you´re bill gates :) almost exactly the same features except for the sunburst colour, the hardware COULOUR and a maple top. I´ll give it 4 of 5 because I believe that there are better basses like the warwicks, but believe me for this money its the best you will find. (it beats EVERYTHING out of the gsr series by the way) This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I got my bass pre-owned from my local music shop for $350 AUD it was in perfect condition and saved $200 on the new price. I bought it as a beginners bass when i started playing but i still have it because i find it good enough to use it for gigs. It tis the best sounding beginners bass i've ever played. Body is lightweight and goog looking. Never had any trouble with it. It Needs another tone control knob like the GSR200 It is very good quality like i said i haven't had any trouble with it. I would reccomend this to any beginner that wants to play bass. It's better than a yamaha or a samick. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I played this bass at Guitar Center on Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles. It was selling for $550, used. This has got to be my favourite bass design strictly on an aesthetic and comfort level. It's unbelievably light, making Parker's "Fly" bass (which, contrary to its rep, isn't all that light) feel more like a "Rhino". This Ibanez' contours are also hyper-stylish, and the silver-flat pickup on the one I spotted was perfect for the shape. A built-in piezo pickup offers much tonal variety. There is almost no acoustic volume. Sure, it's an electric bass, but forget about practising without an amp. Very high, beautifully finished. Eye candy! I found this bass a little difficult to control -- I tend to have problems mixing piezo and magnetic signals -- but the sound options are great to have. If it weren't so expensive, or if my primary instrument were bass, I'd snap it up in a second. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com