SamIAm

Very pleased to report that I’ve managed to acquire an Ibanez GSRM25 … a five string 28.6 inch scale bass. ‘Ibby’ arrived with some damage to the finish around the end strap pin, but Muziker refunded me £100 (apx 40%) in compensation. I’m very happy with her in all other respects (tho have some minor mods planned) and am delighted to be able to finally own one of these, I find the very short scale works great for me (preventing fretting hand cramping) and she is so light! Came with roundwounds, which I’d like to change to flats … any suggestions from other owners (I know Newtone can probably help but not sure if they do flats) S’manth x

Well, I’m happy to report that Muziker have done me right. After reporting the damage, they offered me £100 refund, which I have accepted (I’d paid £238 + Duty Paid Shipping). Apart from the cosmetic damage around the bottom strap pin, I am really happy with ‘Ibby’. The neck is a nice profile with a smooth finish and nicely cleaned fret edges. The pups sound pretty good and seem noise free. She is light (for sure under 3kg) with on,y a small amount of neck dive. The tuners are OKish, tho the E unit is a bit stiff … I’ll probably swap in some new, black, lighter ones at some point (and probably black knobs and bridge). First she needs a setup to lower the action and sort intonation and then I’ll use some superglue to reattach the surface bits that have come away … I’ll probably also need to get something to fill in any little gaps and then polish up the area. Thanks all for your ideas and support. S’manth x

Welcome to BC!

Welcome to BC Steve 😁

Nice to see you here Woolly 😁

Very nice! I love the wood pattern on the front and the edging. Where did you get those tuning machines? S'manth x

I would expect sound both sides. I believe the Vox had a “drum” effect, if you get that going does it come out both sides or just the one? S’manth x

I'm sorry to hear that Gareth, I gather there are a lot of kickstarter folks who have not yet received theirs ... yet they are for sale from places like Thomann ... I don't understand the commercial choices that led to this but it does not seem fair to me! S'manth x

Similar idea as VST plugins, but a different technology called LV2. Most of the available plugins are open source (I'm not sure yet if they can be produced by someone who does not program), but there are commercially produced plugins ones also ... for example, looperlative (who make a couple of hardware live looper units) have produced a powerful looper plugin (I think its about £20) and the Dwarf has the ability to load cab and reverb IRs of which I think there are free and commercial options. (Its not something I've played with ... yet!) The Dwarf can be used in the studio for recording but it's in a stompbox format (Like an HX Stomp or GT-1000 core) so can sit nicely on a physical pedalboard for gigging ... for example S'manth x

Gorgeous! And what a fantastic price

I've been geeking out with the MOD multi effects software on a raspberry pi + audio card for quite some months, but never got the audio quality I'd hoped. A few days ago I spotted a real MOD Dwarf in the BC marketplace ... as new and at a price I could not resist. I picked it up today and have been playing with it and thought I'd share as I haven't seen much here on BC about this amazing device. It's a really sturdy metal housed unit measuring 200mm x 100mm x55mm. Conceptually the Dwarf allows one to construct pedalboards by wiring together plugins. This is done using a web browser from a device connected to the dwarf using a USB cable or bluetooth. There are hundreds of plugins available ranging across effects such as compression, delay, reverb, distortion, eq, filters, chorus, octaving, etc but also include amp and cab simulations, looping, midi driven synths and sequencers and so on. There are no preconfigured limits to the number of plugins or routing between them on a pedalboard, but each plugin consumes CPU and memory which are finite (The CPU and Memory use is displayed), plugins such as crossovers, switches, etc allow you have have as many internal signal paths as you want (it seems). An example pedalboard The knobs can be tweaked to configure the plugins to get the sound desired and the settings of all the plugins can be saved as snapshots. Two ins, two outs (and a headphone jack), midi in and out (for the aforementioned midi plugins and also to allow midi control of the other plugins). The controls on the unit (a combination of rotary knobs, switches and stomp switches) let you change between pedalboards, select snapshots, tweak plugin settings and switch on/off plugins, they can be assigned in almost any way you want (This can also be done using MIDI) There is a built in tuner, no built in drum machine ... but using a midi sequencer + drum synth plugin addresses this. It is not perfect (what is!?) Only three footswitches so I'll need to add an external midi foot controller, whilst the plugin settings can be modified using the onboard controls, adding/removing the plugins in a pedalboard requires a laptop or tablet (Tho this is not unlike a physical pedalboard where the design and build does not happen at gig time) but for me, having played with some other multi-fx units (Zoom B1XFour, HX Stomp and Stomp XL, HX Effects, Boss GT-1b) I think this is the unit for me. It's going to take me some time to configure some pedalboards to get the sound I want as there are so many different plugins to play with ... but what fun it will be! There is an online collection of pedalboards, shared by users which can be installed onto the Dwarf at the click of a button; these will give me some ideas. S'manth x

I bought an as new MOD Dwarf from Nick in the smoothest of transactions. Nick was kind enough to meet me for a classic BC style motorway services car park rendezvous to avoid the uncertainty of a courier (and so I could play with the Dwarf ASAP). A S'manth rating of 10/10, thanks Nick! S'manth x

Some of us geeks do like to get an idea of all the tonal stuff! S'manth x

Visually it is. I reached out to Kala and they told me it was a First Generation CA Solid Body built in May 2014. Ash body, Maple neck and Rosewood 0 radius fingerboard. It has Hipshot tuners and MiSi electronics. The only thing I changed was popping on a set of Thunder Browns (Which are awesome!) and adding some more side marks using a paint based marker pen. S'manth x

@Ralf1e @tauzeroI cannot express how blessed I am to have it, it is an early model California and ... was a gift! S'manth x

The string spacing is not too different to my 4 string ubass ... but it has a 23 inch scale length (rather than 21.5) and I find that a tad better. S'manth x

I really like the tone and feel of fretless and am really fortunate to have a fretless five string ubass (which is quite amazing and I absolutely love!). S'manth x

No. I tried out an Ibby TMB-35 with that in mind but there was not enough room on the body to take the tuners I've got without them protruding beyond the edge. The HB (in the photo above) is one I'm considering for a major mod; this would involve shortening the neck (remove fingerboard, shorten it, replace truss rod with shorter one, reassemble) and converting to headless. As I can resize the neck to almost whatever length I want, I'd be able to shift the effective position of the saddle point so the tuners fit. I'd need to route a recess in the body to allow access to the tuners so I'd be looking at a total strip of the body and a natural oil or wax refin (HB say the body is alder so it could look quite gorgeous). All of this is something I'd be prepared to do myself, but the effort is large ... so it is just a twinkle in my eye at the moment, the HB is really good as it is (tho heavy!) so I could look at moving it on (I struggle with long scale fret spacing ... long scale fretless doubly so!). Alternatively, I might just well view it as a short EUB and continue to develop my Simandl technique ... it sounds and plays so nicely it would be a shame to risk bu66ering it up! S'manth x

Not sure ... I'd backordered ordered one from Thoman who are currently quoting 5-7 weeks and they seem to still be available at a couple of US sites. S'manth x

I think this and the ESP LTD B-5JR are the only examples that were mass produced. Further to this is this youtube comparison of the two S'manth x

I seem to recall seeing a youtube video where the fellow added black ink to superglue and applied it in several layers ... after scraping and polishing it came up very nicely! S'manth x

Muziker responded to my email in a very timely fashion and asked me to submit a damage claim, they indicated that a partial refund is an option; given the bass seems OK otherwise and I like the tone, look, weight and feel (and they are hard to find) I am asking them to cover the cost of a local repair, the cost of shipping to/from the repairer and a wee bit extra for the hassle involved. In total I am asking for £130 (which is about 50% of the total I paid for the bass and shipping) ... I expect they will come back with a lower counter offer, but nothing ventured and all that ... I shall report back on what happens. If they come back with a reasonable offer I would intend to carry out the repair myself. It looks that way, I'm not sure I have all the chips but I think this approach has legs. Cool! I actually have some polishing compound and a Dremel that made it thru my fire (tho I do need to replace the bit things for the Dremel) I think this and the ESP LTD B-5JR are the only examples that were mass produced. You can find details on the Ibby site (finding one to purchase tho is a difficult task!) The B string is on the floppy side, but is playable and sounds good to me. I don't have scales but I'd say it is probably in the 2-2.5kg range. Here it is with my Harley Benton B550-FL (34 inch) for comparison. S'manth x

Nods. Given it will be covered by the strap I could live with that; will just need to see what they come back with. It's just that 'sick in the tum' feeling of a damaged new thing (coupled with the angst of will they actually sort it out) S'manth x

I've been trying to get my hands on an Ibanez GSRM25, a five string sub short scale (28.6 inch) bass for some time now. About a week ago, whilst checking to see if there were any about, I stumbled across one on Muziker.co.uk listed as 'just unboxed' which they describe as meaning 'New, unused product in original packaging. 100 % functional with no signs of usage. Full warranty of at least 2 years applies. Product was purchased, unboxed and returned in non-used condition by a previous customer, or opened only for visual check or to be photographed for eshop.' and I clicked the buy button as fast as I could 🤣 UPS delivered it this afternoon, packaging looked OK... an outer box with large bubblewrap containing the inner Ibanez bass box, bass inside wrapped in the white slightly foam like bag. With great excitement I unwrapped it and took out what at first seemed to be a lovely bass ... and then discovered it is damaged around the bottom strap pin When I looked again I saw that the inner box shows damage and has been taped over. There is no corresponding damage on the outer box. I've sent an email off to them and hopefully they will resolve this ... my quandary being that the bass seems OK otherwise and there are none to be had anywhere for love nor money so I cannot imagine they will be able to send me a replacement. Given it is cosmetic damage I imagine it can be repaired, tho I've no idea of how much it would likely cost (or if I could do it myself). Great sadness at present 😢 S'manth x

@Sambrookbought my Zoom A3 pedal in a really smooth transaction with great comms. 10/10 ... thanks Sean. S'manth x