All user reviews for the Ibanez BTB1205E

Brilliantly made bass, bought it as i was moving up in the music world and my BTB405QM wouldnt cut it with tone, playability or comfort. The through neck is the easiest i have ever used, howver if you have small hands it may be difficult or uncomfortable as the neck is very wide. the controls are simple, volume, pickup selctor, bass, mids, treble, there is also a switch to switch between mid boosts of low and high mids. The bridge is an ibanez made one as far as i know ot has individual saddles for each string, which partnered with the through neck construction gives the bass incredible sustain.

UTILIZATION

The large body of the bass means that it allows easy access to the higher frets, this makes for easy transition between playing a bass line low on the neck and then adding in a higher fill the octave up.

The only draw back to the instrument is the weight, if you own one you will know it weighs a lot, however with a decent strap the wieght is distributed evenly and is actually very comfortable to play.

SOUNDS

I use a Gallien Krueger amp with it which i feel makes this bass sound perfect.
Soundwise this bass is amazing. with a few tweaks to the controls you can go from playing harcore death metal, to heartfelt soul music. I really have never found another bass other than a musicman stingray $$ that can match its versatility. I have recorded a heavy metal album with it, i have also recorded soul tracks, funk, blues, this bass can do it all amazingly. I used to play in a heavy metal band and I currently play for a function band performing all sorts of styles, by just quickly moving a couple of dials on the bass itself i can switch between styles of music. It suits my style perfectly. The set up i use most of the time is set to the middle pickup with the mid booster set to the high mid setting, i also dial in the lows, mids and highs on the bass, i never have to go near my amp.

I use no effects and never have needed to with this bass, to get a more heavy sound all i needed to do was boost the highs, this gave it a much more aggressive tone.


OVERALL OPINION

This bass is perfect in my opinion, i have never found anything better. I tried many instruments of the same price range and nothing came close.

As for value i like to think of it as the useage i get from it, i paid £799.99 in the UK two years ago, this is below the list price, however i have got well more than £800 worth of use out of it, it has recorded 3 albums, done 4 tours and played over 300 gigs, been used practically every day and i have never had a single problem with it.

The only thing i had slight reservations about was the weight due to my intense gigging schedual, however with a thick strap this was not a problem at all.

I would recomend this bass to everyone, unless you have tiny hands, in that case go for an ibanez SR, the neck is much thinner!

(Originally written by chevaliernoir/translated from Audiofanzine FR)
I tested this bass guitar twice as I was looking for a 5-string model.

Neck-through body.

2 pickups (Bartolini, I think),

active electronics,

superb bridge.

The bass has a very good manufacturing quality. It seems to me it's bigger than most others. It's a massive and quite heavy instrument that inspires confidence.

UTILIZATION

in my opinion it's weakest point is that the neck is much too wide especially near the body.

The spec sheet indicates almost 3" at the last fret which is about 0.4" wider than other 5-string basses.

I believe that's typical for Ibanez because it's the same with some of their other models.

SOUNDS

I tested it with an average amp.

I found the sound nice but I wouldn't swear on that.

OVERALL OPINION

IMHO this bass is unplayable.

It's an instrument for bassists with pianist fingers.