SumOne

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.

Bought a pedal from Paddy and all was good!

They definitely should have gone with your 'Petit Four' suggestion. Looks good, main thing for me was the v4 having improved accuracy and the option of speed/accuracy option (I didn't like the octave jump thing) so I was already tempted, smaller enclosure option is a bonus. Realistically, for a gigging pedalboard I don't actually mind the bigger version as my size 12 boots in a dark pub need a big area with plenty of room for stomping error....although I'm already considering what would fit well in that space saved if I go 'Petit', something like a Zvex Mastotron would fit nicely beneath it.

....I have also owned a few multiscale Basses, so there's another reason for them being nerdy!

Here's my offending Bass that started me thinking this sacrilege: It is my very nice Lakeland DJ4 (yeah, not actually a Jazz Bass, but trying to as close to one as it can without a lawsuit). ...... In many ways that Cadillac is cool, or certainly was - but cool for a certain type of person in a certain time and place, nowadays to drive one around the UK gives the vibe of a 'things were better in the good old days' MAGA adjacent mindset (not meant as an anti-USA statement - all the Union Jack waving, 'vintage' cosplay, Dads Army, Spitfire flypast, throwback stuff I get living near Goodwood gets on my tits too and is the same sort of 'good old days' mindset). In fact though, that's a bit unfair on Jazz (type) Basses as it is the case for many Bass guitars that are a throwback to at least 50 years ago. I'm contradicting my original hypothesis here as I suppose I'm not actually talking about it being a 'nerdy' bass due to Geddy and Jaco being the most famous users and their noodling connections, more that it isn't cool to be a throwback and live in a cosplay version of the past. Cool is when something comes along and upsets conventions of the past and the youth get into it, Jazz did it, then Rock n Roll, then Punk, then Hip Hop, then Electronic music etc. Playing a Bass that looks like it is modelled on being played 50+ years ago in a US Diner just isn't cool. But yeah, things that are overly technical are probably more 'nerdy' territory. Multiscale, chapman sticks, lots of knobs!

Nice. Are they going to be an additional thing (like the 'Future Compact') or a size option from FI (to either buy 'mini' or 'original' size)? And any news of when available?

You know what, I take it back. The Jazz is cool compared to a Chapman stick.

What do you reckon the nerdiest Bass is? My vote is the Jazz Bass. There's something a bit 'noodling/prog'...Geddy Lee, Jaco Pastorius sort of association about them. (And I play Jazz Basses ...and am a nerd!). Cool points for the Reggae connections though. Whereas Rickenbacker are associated with Lemmy, Precision with Soul and Punk, Stingray with Disco and Funk, ESP and Warwick with Metal. .... all are a bit Americana throwback style with people thinking they're the Fonz though. Retired Dentist from Surrey with a Harley. Ibanez would be a Boy racer with a Mitsubishi though, not high-end or exactly cool - but quite 'everyman' with a bit of forward thinking and somewhat youthful....so my vote for a cool bass goes to Ibanez.

+1 again (so that must be = 4 now?!) for the Fishman Platinum Pro EQ if going for 'hands-on' analogue. I kind of regret selling it, but once you are considering £250 for an EQ and compressor I started considering multi-fx. The Zoom B1-Four or MS 60B will do the similar EQ and compression and whole lot of other stuff for half the price....Or personally, I've now gone for a Boss GX-10, £75 more than the Fishman, but decent compressor, EQ and everything else it has. I mostly just use it for EQ and compression and drive though so Fishman +Drive could do similar- but having presents is useful.

I must have bought and sold on here more times than I care to remember! Probably 50 transactions. I've never had an issue with bank transfer of Paypal F&F. As others have said, a quick check of feedback is useful, and check that they seem like a real bass player (e.g. getting annoyed about 'tonewood' opinions!) , if it is someone brand new to the forum with no feedback (or only feedback from another brand new account!) then use caution. Basses being more expensive and delicate I've tended to try and meet up with people and do bank transfer. Pedals I've usually just done by post so there is a bit of trust involved.

I'm not sure I'd accept selling via Paypal as a business as isn't the issue then that all of the risk is with the seller: If I sell a £1k Bass as a Paypal 'business' rather than F&F and the buyer scams me (e.g. says it never arrived, or isn't what it should be) then Paypal refunds the buyer and leaves the seller out of pocket. Or I imagine the onus is on the seller to somehow prove that the buyer did receive it and it was what was described (good luck with that! my experience with trying to talk to Paypal is 'computer says no').

I think sellers sometimes go off RRP and that's possibly it is what they bought it for - but often there are shop reductions a year or so later (when they are also trying to sell second hand). I'm eyeing up a new Ray34 that is £800 from one shop, RRP £1,200. Someone that bought one for £1,200 new would perhaps try to sell for about £800 after a year of owning it and they'd think that's fair enough, it is the average sort of price on eBay and Reverb. For me though, as a buyer it'd have to be quite a bit cheaper (£500 ish) for me to get a second hand one from eBay with all the risks associated and wear and tear etc vs £800 for a discounted brand new one from a shop with Warranty etc.