pantherairsoft

Ha! They are regular hip-shot O-rings. Normal sized knobs... Just a tiny body!

Woohoo! Body waxed. The finish is finished so-to-speak Pre-amp and assembly here we come.

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='1007851' date='Oct 31 2010, 09:04 PM']Full review, please! One of the few current production basses I find genuinely intriguing.[/quote] As promised - [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=109041"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=109041[/url]

I picked up one of these basses, firstly out of curiosity, secondly as I thought the idea was cool and thirdly as I hope it will do what the last Ibanez 'Out of the norm' limited edition did (The Afirma) and sky rocket in value over the next few years. Unlike most reviews I am going to update this a few times over the coming weeks as I discover more about the loves and hates of the instrument, after a rehearsal, after a gig, trying it though different gear etc. This opening post will serve as a 'first impressions' concept and a few pics… (I will get some others don under daylight I promise)... [b]Bass/Model[/b] - Ibanez SR2010ASC Ashula. This is a limited edition for 2010 and can no longer be ordered by shops, meaning when current stock in circulation has gone… it's gone. The bass is a 6 string bass, but strung as a 4 string, with 2x D and 2x G strings. Effectively it is a fretted 4 string bass, then the D & G strings are repeated on a fretless fretboard. I won't go into the in's and outs of what it is, if you don't know you can look here - [url="http://www.ibanez.co.jp/la/news/f_products/2010/showcase2/Ashula.html"]http://www.ibanez.co.jp/la/news/f_products...se2/Ashula.html[/url] [b]Cost/Bought from[/b] - I paid £722 including courier delivery. The price also includes a 1 year warranty and a 7 day money back guarantee if I simply don't like the product. This was bought from www.guitarguitar.co.uk This was in fact the 2nd best deal I could find online. DV247 were offering it at exactly the same price, but with a 4 year guarantee & a 30 day money back, however after speaking to both companies, DV247's stock was sat in a shipping warehouse, untouched since arriving from Ibanez and would be sent onto me unopened. Having worked at a guitar shop, this means it has a 30% chance of being damaged meaning I have to send it back and the neck will be banana shaped and take ages to sort out. DV247 wanted to charge me £30 to take it out of the box and inspect it as they consider this a job for a guitar tech! GuitarGuitar's stock was sat in one of there shops, having been unboxed, set up and played by guitar sales people. I was also promised a thorough check over and that it would not be sent unless it was completely spotless. I went with this option. Given that the Prestige range Limited editions cost over 2k, I thought this was a pretty impressive price given that I was not bothered about and exotic wood! [b]The Physical Stuff[/b] - Right. First impressions are VERY VERY good. As promised by GuitarGuitar, the bass is spotless and you'd never know the bass had been sat in a shop for a few weeks. The set up is certainly not for my liking, but better than out of the box set ups. Pickups really low, strings very high. Necks pretty straight though, a simple set up and I'll be happy. The finish on the bass is translucent white, its nice, and really brings the grain out on the body… I personally like how it looks, certainly no quibbles there. The body shape is very ergonomic and rounded off well. It's quire a wide body, but its not thick and they have done a great job of balance with only a tiny bit of neck dive. The most surprising thing is how light it is, just tipping the scales at 9lbs and feels even lighter than that on the strap! A genuinely good bit of engineering. There are no rough edges, the jack socket is nicely drilled and the saddles (18mm string spacing, not adjustable) are fitted nicely… The only let-down are the tone dials. There are 2 chrome ones used for the fretless controls. These are pretty industry standard metal knobs and I have no issue with them. he 4 relating to the fretted pickups are however very cheap plastic ones that don't even fit correctly. They are not very positive when you turn them and actually slip a little on the peg meaning you can't correctly located the central point. Come on Ibanez, such a silly thing to let yourself down on! I will be replacing the dials with Hipshot O-rings which will sort that issue out! The neck join is also very smooth and sets well against the finish on the body… The neck profile is almost identical to my old Yamaha TRB1006, which is no bad thing. It's slightly narrower across the fingerboard than most 6ers, but about the same as the Yamaha was. The profile is quite slim, flattening off in the middle where your thumb rests. Its very comfy and very very fast. There is one oddity with the neck though… Whilst the bass is a 34" scale (already 1" less than I'm used to), the neck is tiny like that of a 32"! This seems to be achieved by having the bridge very far back on the body (and the saddles being quite compact). I couldn't get my head around it at first and not sure how I feel about it. It makes the bass very quick to play, but I feel like i'm over-shooting slides lots. Side by side with my 35" scale roscoe here you'll see what I mean as I've lined up the nuts(you'd expect an 1" difference tops on the location of the 24th fret)… That means the Ashula neck os over 2" shorter than the Roscoes. It actually makes it very very comfy. I would however expect regular 34" players to think this felt small, even though the scale is what they are used to. It does however mean it really doesn't feel like playing a 6 string bass. All in all its, light, pretty & comfy. It may take some adjustment to how 'small' it feels, but I think it's an adjustment I'll make. [b]The Sound[/b] - This was the big one for me (and I'm sure most other people) as I've always found Ibanez basses to be hit or miss. I love the sound of the ATK, but hate the feel. I love the feel of the SR's but hate the weak sound etc… I was concerned this would be a lovely boutique looking beast with a crap sound, however the newly developed Sonic Arch pickups and Preamp held promise to sound like nothing Ibanez have made before… I'm happy to say that claim is true! Fist impressions of the tone (and I will add more to this over coming weeks) is that the fretted sound has an almost Warwick 'thwang' to it (if that makes sense). It has a fantastic natural punch which lends itself well to slap tones and cuts through nicely. The preamp for the fretted part is 2 band with a nice sparkly treble that doesn't give much hiss. The bass cut/boost seems nice, but there is a fair amount of bass/low-mid in the natural sound and boosting it seems to muddy the clarity a little. As a 4 string fretted bass it is the cleanest sounding Ibanez I have heard. The fretted sound is also very good. It is not as versatile as owning a fretless bass, not because of the 2 missing strings, but due to only having a single pickup at the bridge. I think this may of been done deliberately to achieve the goal of making the bass sound like 2 totally separate instruments… and it does. It has a jaco-esque tone at one end of the tone dial and a soft, round muted fretless tone (closer to a bridge-pickup style sound). It would be nice to of had a 2 band EQ on the fretless, but it does it's job of sounding like a classic fretless, with a very different natural tone to the fretted strings. [b]Overview[/b] - A pretty impressive and unique bass that feels and sounds like it should be worth well over 1k, id say £1500 and they still would of sold these over time. Sure there is no exotic wood, but it doesn't need it. The finish is simple and I'm sure will be love or hate for people. It does have its downfalls, like cheap control knobs and limited fretless tones, but these are outweighed by a seriously punchy sounding bass with pickup and a preamp that i fully expect to see in other high-end Ibanez basses in the future. Until I have gigged, or at least used this for a few rehearsals I won't add anymore as I'm sure more positives & negatives will rear there heads. I'm off now to give it a good setup and lower the action. Shep

Agreed dude. I don't always notice it, and in fact if the frequency knob is below 50-60% it isn't audible either. I use an expression pedal on the freq' control and I it's in heel position or close you can't hear it. I wondered if it was interfering with another pedal causing it but it seems not. It's slightly more audiable through my HD350 than it is through my Fafner as well which is odd. On the Fafner you really have to hunt for the sound to find it. Odd I'll give the insulation idea a try!

My EBS neo115 is now used more than my 212. Amazing sound as a stand alone cab

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='1007851' date='Oct 31 2010, 09:04 PM']Full review, please! One of the few current production basses I find genuinely intriguing.[/quote] No worries I will. Also the only production bass that appeals to me and a price that seems to good to be true. i'll report back soon!

[quote name='funkypenguin' post='1007423' date='Oct 31 2010, 02:54 PM']WOW....the grain has really popped with the oil!!! how long till assembly now?[/quote] Waxing over the next few days then assembly. Speaking of which… Electrics are already being started. [quote name='silddx' post='1007441' date='Oct 31 2010, 03:08 PM']Although this is everything I wouldn't want to be seen with, but that's just my own personal taste, it looks incredible! It's a gorgeous bit of wood! I really wish I liked basses like this sometimes [/quote] Lol. Thanks. I think! [quote name='umph' post='1007981' date='Oct 31 2010, 10:56 PM']great stuff love thee gibbo style headstock[/quote] Ooooh yes. One of my fav features. Between that and the fishtail I was sold on the design.

Cheers for you replies guys… I have done some looking around other sites and most views concerning the V-Bass floor system seem to mirror what you say. Its an amazing amp modeller and multi-effects, but with drawbacks. However the VB-99 seems to of ruled out a few issues. Obviously the attachment of the pickup etc still exists, but issues like mismatched volume has gone as you can set it to default to your clean line volume no matter what patches you use, unless you specifically programme specific patches to boost or cut (for solo purposes). By the sounds of it, as a Synth it is also the best one about with the exception of buying a keyboard synth. The VB-99 has the added benefit of having the hand-wavy control, the ribbon controller and 2 expression pedals, all of which can be programmed to effect different parts of each patch, which means there is more real time control of the sound than you know what to do with. I think what I've heard here and elsewhere over the past 24 hours has written the V-Bass floor system off for me. I shall be investigating the horrifically priced VB-99 though still.

Well I've had a good look at the pick up, and from what I can see it will happily attach with double sided tape (aka Bernie Goodfellow Scratch Plate Magic). I also beleive (correct me if i'm wrong) that the control block (that the pickup connects to) just clamps to a bass anyway (by use of the end pin, or a range of other methods to suit the basses layout) and does not require and screwing on… Shep

[quote name='PURPOLARIS' post='1007016' date='Oct 31 2010, 09:16 AM']Is that the one that makes a High Hat sound ? I've heard they're quite realistic [/quote] Ha! Yeah, You'd be surprised the use I get out of that. Its attached to a prosthetic shop dummy arm and when I hot the pedal the outstretched finger on the arm, pressed a low A on my synth so I can play bass and have a deep droning sound in the background. OK. That was a lie but the ideas cool! :-) Yeah, GAS is a swine. Actually I wouldn't change anything for other stomp boxes. But the board weighs a tone and is huge, The fact I could have (almost) all of it (some slightly more versatile even), in a tiny package, with the added benefit of midi sync to every effect is very appealing. I've dropped ped a message (think he has the V-Bass floor system, rather than the VB-99).

[quote name='Clarky' post='1007049' date='Oct 31 2010, 10:02 AM']Hey Loz that's a bummer. But don't sell your pride and joys due to one bad shipping experience! All the best, Clarky[/quote] …Unless it means we get to pick up some tasty instruments

Pre-wax oiling ...

I think you never know. When Ibanez released the Afirma as a limited edition it wasn't high priced, but unlike there other limited editions it now fetches more than it cost. Maybe because it was unusual. Ibanez's prestige stuff, made of luxury woods etc devalue quick… You never know. I think something mid-priced, and a little out of character, the kind of thing that might not take off and then disappear soon is a better bet! Thats one reason I just bought an Ibanez SR2010ASC Ashula. Unusual and a mid-priced limited edition.

Hi guys, seriously thinking about moving from my Synth setup in stomp boxes and getting either the Roland V-Bass, Or the full VB-99 (plus extra floor controller when I can afford it). From the experience I've had with the V-Bass stuff it seems to do absolutely everything I use and all the sounds seem to be real good quality. I consider the synth tones on par with my MarkBass Super Synth (which I consider to be fantastic) and most other stuff sounds good as well. I have not had much experience with the Delay part of the V-Bass system, but I currently use a Boss DD-20 and will assume it has much the same capability. Only thing I'm not sure it would do is cover the job of my Boss SL-20 Slicer (Arpegiator)? This is what I'd be dropping… Any thoughts or opinions on my moment of madness?

Frigging Awesome. Thats the bassist from Miloopa. Love their album 'Unicode'. he and the drummer from Miloopa did a session at Bassday a few years back if I recall. He has some great ideas… but a pedal board even bigger than John Davis!

Nottingham Drum & Guitar centre still have a Hartke Transient Attack 2x10 Combo with Ali cones. One of the ok discontinued ones, but they've had it since new hidden in the stock room. Man that combo sounds AWESOME!!!

2 amps (EBS Fafner & EBS HD350) 2 cabs (EBS Neo212 & EBS Neo115) 1 combo (EBS Session 60). I aim to sell the combo and add an EBS Neo112 to the cab collection. Very happy with my amp sound.

Hi guys, I am experiencing the sound of my ring modulator very quietly in the background when it's switched off!? The effect works perfectly. When th pedal is engaged and the strings are muted it's silent, no issues at all. When I disengage the effect and stop playing you can hear the effect very feintly in the background. Whilst not playing, turn the pedal on again and the background noise goes. I'm wondering if I'm getting some kind of bleedthrough of sound? Any one have any idea what could cause this? It's not 'major' issue, the background noise isn't 'loud' but I can hear it and it shouldn't be there Shep

Certainly not something I've come across with mine!

I'd Defo neg him and walk away. Your not going to get the item, he's made that clear. Sucks, but the moneys better spent here on Basschat