Wilco

Pic below - not a great one, but the bass is at my local guitar shop having a pickup/electrical glitch fixed so I can’t take a better one. Appreciate, there are alternative fret cleaning methods. And yes, said fretboard was lemon oiled with Dunlop 65. Made a huge difference too.

I’ve used these many times over the years on different instruments always to good effect. I’m in the process of restoring a Westone Thunder 3 to it’s former glory & the fret board when I got it was particularly horrible. See pic - bottom two frets as they were, top three cleaned with the Planet Waves sheets. Ok, a lot of elbow (I mean finger) grease went into the job, but great result I reckon. Whole board now done. Not bad for around £7 - 8 & a bit of effort.

Mine started out like that, but are now as smooth as. Tuning has always been stable though. I’ve had it for nearly three years now.

As I was reading through this thread, this was the video that leapt into my mind as the one I was going to post 😆 My favourite band & a great song, but that video is oh so bad sadly 😬

I’ll add a couple more;- Sharon den Adel - Within Temptation Charlotte Wessels - Delain

Hannah Reid

It was that blue Ibby of yours that finally pushed me over the edge to buy my four string version! As mentioned elsewhere, yours has one of the nicest tops seen on one of those - can’t believe you’re selling it! That green one (a Shuker?) - that’s definitely a ‘forever’ bass ain’t it - bloody gorgeous!!

Great thread. Nothing against them, but can’t see myself ever acquiring a painted bass again - just not aesthetically pleasing enough for me these days. Here’s mine - all current crop (BTB now added).

Ooooh feck. That is very nice....

That’s what I found on my test yesterday - identical pre-amps both set flat, yet my 2600 & 2405 sounded completely different to each other at that setting. The 1805 I sold to Mark sounded much more like my 2405 than my 2600. That had Nord’s & the EQB-III3 SC preamp vs the 2405’s Aguilar’s & Ibanez Custom Electronics 3 band EQ preamp. Hard to put a finger on what’s causing the tone differences, but to my ears they all sound bloody excellent anyway!

I gonna suggest it is the pre-amp. I had a lovely 1805 until recently which also had Nord’s in it, but that & the 2600 did not tonally sound the same. The different pre-amp’s was the only real difference in spec.

So, to help relieve some lockdown boredom today, I did a back to back sound test of my 2600 & 2405w. Not got the means to record, so I will blurb the result. Set my amp up to as per the pic below, centred the instrument knobs & selected same mid frequency. Obviously the same hardware on both, same pre-amp & construction very similar. Biggest difference was in the pups. In a nutshell, the 2600 with the Nord Big Singles is a way brighter & punchier instrument than the 2405w with it’s Aguilar Super Doubles. That has a more ‘traditional’ sound & looking at the Aguilar website, it mentions replacements for Bartolini’s which are also ‘darker’ sounding pups. With the 2405’s trebled maxed out, it still wasn’t as bright as the 2600 set flat. It’s actually good to have them sounding different - gives me more sound options. My personal preference was the Nord sound, but that’s not to say it’s a better.

My two SR Premiums with my Maruszczyk photobombing 😆

Mark bought an Ibanez 1805 from me. Excellent communications & he was very patient while I sorted out a minor niggle with the instrument. Met him to complete the transaction. Very pleasant, friendly bloke, & exactly the sort of BC’er you would be happy trading with all day long. Enjoy your latest a acquisition Mark!!

Knew you’d love it Mark - it’s a brilliant example of an Ibby SR & goes perfectly with your other one. Great to meet you earlier today too!

Whilst I have a bit in the savings Same here. I’m in the fortunate position to be able to own a few half decent basses & I like owning them. Also guilt free;- They are all an asset worth something, so if I need to generate some cash for whatever reason I could sell. The cash return from gigging over a year is at least as good as the paltry interest being paid on my savings, so my basses earn their keep!

Very happy to own these two beauties. The pics don’t actually do them justice.

No, the 1805 will unfortunately have to go. Bought a BTB1825 last month too 😬 You’ll have to buy it from me Bas! 🤔😆