SumOne

Here' a quick noodle with Low Pass, Low Range, Drive Down. On a Jazz type Passive Bass and no compressor or preamp or EQ etc. BTronIII Bass.mp3

Perhaps, but it is hard to predict these things - there might be a resurgence of music with bands playing instruments once a new generation wants something different from the current generation. And there is already a certain youth movement for old physical things like vinyl. I think old basses might continue to be quite collectable - there is a finite number of them.

Yeah that, low pass, low range, drive down sound is really good.

I think Ibanez are stepping up creatively with stuff like this that might be future classics:

Mine didn't come with a battery included. (or if it did, the battery is dead, it does nothing without a power cable. I haven't taken the back off though)

Well, people pay a lot of money to collect all sorts of useless stuff, scarcity being valued more than practicality. I suppose at least pedals have some use compared to things like old stamps.

A bit more playing around (it is one where you need to 'play to the pedal') and I think it's a keeper. Who needs sensible practicality when you have funk?!

Yes, I suppose the aim is a clone - warts n'all and it seems to have succeed in that (although I've never actually tried the original). There are some good sounds to be had, as good as any filter I've owned for that particular thing. 00Funk comes closest that I've owned.

My first impressions are: Good quality all metal enclosure and decent quite high end look and feel. Unreasonably large - and yet the in/out and power cable are all still squashed right next to each other. On/off button seems pointless, and does a loud 'pop' if switched when footswitch is engaged. (Edit, apparently it is useful if battery powered to turn off) Gain suddenly gets very crackly and distorted when turned past 9. High Pass is useless on bass. (Edit, I have found some okay high pads sounds) Band Pass has some decent sounds if Range is set 'low', but for me the gain needs to be low to get a decent sound with the drive set 'up' - meaning the output is quiet. Drive 'down' can sound good if peak is set low and gain high, then it has a decent volume and nice squish, clean blend with it would be useful though. .....now all that considered I was ready to put it in the box and return it. But - the Low Pass, Low Range, Drive Down does do a very good lazy 'Chameleon' type of filter sound. I've not decided yet if that's good enough reason to keep it, but it is definitely a good sound.

I would go for it at Behringer prices, but I'm also eyeing up the FI v4 so am hoping that will cover that ground once I save up my pennies. (the temptation is to wait for the small version, but the original size doesn't particularly bother me - it is probably quite good to keep my clumsy size 12s a decent distance away from the display and 'edit' dial).

Ordered mine from Andertons £69 (Gear4music have them listed at £57, but not in stock until mid April). I'm now hoping they do the MF-101 clone (BM-101) they had shown off a couple of years ago.

My favourites: SA Atlas is good for doing more extreme stuff and nerding out with a Laptop. I do kind of miss it as I haven't found other compressors that can be used as such an extreme effect, but I didn't find the hardware layout to be very good live (alt buttons and all that) more of a thing to muck about with a Laptop (and if doing that, could possibly just use VSTs). Cali 76 always sounds good. Doesn't go as extreme as the Atlas, but you know it'll be useable live and reliable in almost any setting. FEA Opti-FET is very good, they aren't that easy to get hold of though and mine developed a fault - or at least was more sensitive to ground loop than my other pedals. Markbass Compressore is good, quite big and 12v power needed though. Boss LMB-3 worked well for me - basically only used to tame big peaks, I couldn't get so many different compression effect types from it as things like the FEA or Atlas - but for what it does, it does well. I didn't get on with: MXR M87 (not bandpass, and no HPF or clean blend, I find at least one of those things is usually needed or it squishes lows too much), Earthquaker Warden (on higher settings did that first note pumping thing that optical compressors can do). Pigtronix Philosopher was alright, but more of a specific effect to add sustain than than what most people would usually expect from a compressor. Some say there is no need for compressors or they all do the same thing but I've found them to be very useful - especially live, and they are one of the more variable types of pedals and you can only really tell playing them (e.g. A youtube video can never show you how it subtly is changing your playing dynamics, you need to feel that) so it is a deeper and more complex rabbit hold than, say, fuzz pedals.

It's good to give Ibanez competition on the more affordable end of things, their EHB MS range have crept up into quite 'premium' pricing levels (£1,150 - £1,600) and left a gap in the market (although the Cort Space is good for the affordable non-multiscale headless). I feel like Dingwall have dropped the ball on this, headless for a modern looking/sounding multiscale 5 string seems to make perfect sense and the higher-end Ibanez EHB MS range have filled that space. HILS are now filling the affordable space Ibanez left.

The way I convince myself is that if I buy second hand then a Bass usually holds its value, so if I spend £100 or £1500 it is just how much £ I'm putting into that investment until I invariably get bored of it and sell within a year. So you might as well spend whatever you can afford and get the better bass - more expensive ones are almost always* more expensive for good reason. *Apart from 'vintage', but they might actually go up in value. Although, I gig quite often in grotty places so £700 is about the amount where I feel the Bass is good enough but also not so fancy that I'm overly scared of damage or theft.

I assume they just have a couple of songs that go down as far as Eb for a few notes, so to hit that note you can do a few things: just tune that E string down half a step drop the E string to a D and play Eb on 1st fret (could get a Hipshot drop tuner if it's just to hit the occasional note, then switch back to normal tuning) tune all your strings down half a step to keep the same familiar patterns tune to BEAD so you have the familiar patterns - just everything is a string lower than normal. ....Or as @Boodang says - just keep normal tuning but play alternatives to that occasional low Eb (e.g. 5th, or octave up), I'd probably go for that - it seems a bit more confusing but in the long-run I think is less confusing than the alternatives. Or, in the long-run if playing lower than E is needed a lot then perhaps get a 5 string.

Looks good, but I think just traditional black pickups would look better - matching the rest of the hardware and similar to the darker wood stripes. I quite like the blue one with the pickups matching the fret markers and bridge and 'Ibanez' logo, seems more effort has gone into it all being one coherent look: ....ideally I'd like that but as a purple/blue iridescent colour-shift. No point being reserved with this sort of bass! An issue with the EHB1005MS I had though was how soft the matte paintwork is, was really easy to scratch and dent and within about 6 months it has quite significantly worn to a lighter colour where my thumb rubbed just above the B string, so hopefully this one has a bit more protection. Or I like the look of the black one (it has cheaper Bartolini pickups though) apart from it being quite obvious the darker wood is just stuck on top. I dunno, I like them all but none are quite what I'd want looks-wise. I'll be petitioning Ibanez for a purple iridescent one though! Hopefully that'll be next year, there is a new SR multiscale in 'Blue Chameleon' that I'm tempted with - mostly for the paint-job as ideally I'd prefer headless https://www.ibanez.com/eu/products/detail/srms725_1p_01.html

I'm no expert, but I think the issue is that each pedal needs their own direct earth path or the interference from things like lighting can get caught in a ground loop. The solutions seem to be: isolated power supplies, balanced cables, or add a ground lift (I assume the ground lift would need to be between the pedals, but I'm not sure). Although the Cioks is sold as 'isolated' I did have an issue with another power supply that was advertised as 'isolated' but had ground loop issues, this was what a pedal maker told me: "some power supplies advertised 'isolated' but they only have separate regulators, filters and over current protection for each of the DC output positive terminals but the output negative (ground) terminals are still bonded together - which is not a true isolated supply. You can test this using a digital ohm meter by measuring the resistance between the centre pins (negatives) between two outputs, testing without the power supply energized should show infinite resistance between the two of the centre pins if the supply has truly isolated outputs). "

Yeah, my guess is a ground loop issue. A bit slack of HX Stomp and Colourbox not to have ground lift, there is good reason most preamp pedals have one. There are things like https://www.thegigrig.com/humdinger

Yeah, the question with multi-scale is always 'how easy is it to play?' and the almost universal answer is 'no problem - it's easy' (which I generally agree with), and some people might find it more ergonomic and easier to play. What is less asked is 'does it sound better than good normal scale basses?' and after owning a few I'm not entirely convinced it makes much difference Vs a good normal scale with balanced tension strings and decent pickups etc. I'd like to hear someone scientifically testing an Ibanez EHB 1505 vs 1505MS to really show if a 35" B sounds noticeably different to a 34" and 34" G vs 33". I don't think it'd make enough difference to matter. I'm fully sold on headless though for 5 string Basses. It makes complete sense to lose that headstock weight - especially with that weight being at the end of a long neck and with 5x tuners on it, it means you can have light 5 string basses without neck dive - My Dingwall was about 4.6kg, Ibanez EHB 3.3kg, and if anything the EHB was better balanced. It means shorter overall bass length too - handy for transport and tight stage space, and headless tend to have more stable tuning. The only disadvantages I can think of are it is a bit more difficult to tune (e.g. traditional plucking with right hand and turning tuners with left hand is an odd reach-around!), can't do quick drop tuning and can't usually fit drop-tuners (not really issues with 5 strings though). The biggest downside is a lot of people don't like the look - it wouldn't fit with a band trying to look like they're a 60's rock n roll band.

I've just noticed Ibanez have quietly snuck in a 5 string SR with 18mm string spacing (instead of the usual 16.5 which is a bit tight for me). https://www.ibanez.com/usa/products/detail/sr1605dw_1p_02.html I'm not convinced on the look, but 5 string SR with 18mm spacing is a winner with me.

Mohini Dey only needs a few minutes for this:

A 'walk up' stand holds the Bass for you. Looks odd though, and must feel quite odd too play like that.

I've owned a few headless or multi scales, the main negatives I remember were: Dingwall Combustion: Heavy, big. Ibanez SRMS805: Tight string spacing Cort Space 5: Parts of the body aren't rounded. Ibanez EHB1005MS: .....not sure why I got rid of this, I think as I started only needing 4 strings for the band. It's the one I'd most highly recommend. None quite had the 'character' tone like a J or P bass or Stingray, all quite 'modern' sounding which is good but a bit non descript. But either being headless, or multi-scale, (or both), was never an issue on any of them.

It's good to have these two back on (pedal) board. ...not many things quite as smooth yet powerful 'wall of doom' sounding as these two combined.