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NGD - Ibanez SRC6


adamg67
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I've been looking out for a baritone or similar for a while, as a guitar replacement. I've been focusing on bass only for a while, and guitar is really a second instrument, so it just feels odd playing a normal scale guitar these days. It's like some kind of toy instrument :)

I looked at lots of things but in the end I had a rare bit of luck on ebay, I found an Ibanez SRC6 advertised as "New Other" - barely played, collection only within easy driving distance, starting bid £299. I thought it was worth a bid but didn't excpect to win it, but no one else bid! So I got it for the £299, and although the new other description is stretching it a bit it is in fantastic condition, not a mark on it anywhere.

The hard bit was going on holiday the day after I bought and not getting to play it for nearly 2 weeks!

So obviously it's not strictly a baritone, it's really more of a bass VI, but it has 30" scale which is what I was after, and nice pickups, and from a bit of research it seems a bass VI can easily be turned into a baritone, but not necessarily the other way round, so I can try both this way.

I've had a bit of a play now, and the first thing is that it will definitely be turned into an A - A baritone. The low E is a bit floppy and doesn't work too well with a guitar sound. There's a set of EB baritone strings on their way already. It's what a lot of people say about the SRC6 with the string spacing etc - it's not really a bass, it's a guitar that's capable of going as low as you will ever need.

After deciding that I fired up Amplitube and had a mess about with the other 5 strings (same gauge as I'll be getting pretty much, just moved over one), and I am really blown away by the sound on this thing. As a detuned guitar the sound is just massive, I'm not sure it's the big strings or those EMG pickups and the preamp but I can't remember a guitar being so much more than I expected before. The clean sound is good, but once you get into a bit of crunchy dirty rock territory it's just awesome. I've been playing it all afternoon and I'm still grinning.

There are good demos of these already, but I stuck a quick clip on soundcloud, this is how it sounds in the hands of a very average guitarist. I've just run through 3 pretty standard amp sims, clean and a couple of dirty ones - stick with it for the blow you away sound, which is IMO the second one. That's all with the bass rolled off a bit and the treble boosted on the SRC:

[url="https://soundcloud.com/adamgx/src6-demo"]https://soundcloud.c...damgx/src6-demo[/url]

I dunno if it comes across, but for me that's just a massive sound, especially considering I've not even started tweaking the amp sims for it yet. None of that is even using the lower strings, that's all up in standard guitar territory.

Here's a quick and not that good pic (click for a big version):

[attachment=225089:SRC6-1.jpg]

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[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1470644325' post='3107217']
I was on the lookout for one of these for recording downtuned guitar, but an Ibanez RGIB6 turned up instead (28" scale). Also excellent!
[/quote]

That was the other option on my list :) I bid on one on ebay in fact and didn't get it. If I ever see a cheapish one I'll grab it and do a back to back comparison.

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[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1470832205' post='3108779']
I got lucky - was only on the hunt for 3 days when mine appeared on Ebay... and the guy was only 30 miles up the road!
[/quote]

I might even have seen that one, bit far for collection from yorkshire though. Having a collection only one nearby seems to be the way to score a decent deal on ebay, I got an SR506 like that a while ago as well.

I've now got the SRC6 strung with the Ernie Ball Baritone strings, and as expected it sounds great - tuned A - A# (in 4ths) is just like the standard Bass VI with the bottom E gone and a top string obviously, so I was pretty confident that would sound just as good and it does. B - B works as well, but I prefer the feel of the A version so that's what I'm sticking with for now.

The only thing I might have to change is the nut, I think the 1st fret intonation (and maybe 2nd but I doubt you'd notice) on the fatter strings is out and the slots need deepening a touch to get it right, but I'll wait a week or two to make sure I'm sticking with these strings before I make changes I can't undo.

Edited by adamg67
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  • 2 years later...
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