pantherairsoft Posted November 1, 2010 Share Posted November 1, 2010 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BottomEndian Posted November 2, 2010 Share Posted November 2, 2010 Hats off to Ibanez for actually giving this a go when most other manufacturers just stick with the same old same old. Not sure I'm keen on the bridge-pickup-only aspect of the fretless side, but it sounds like the tone control's enough to tame it a bit. In an ideal world, I would have designed this bass to (somehow) have the fretless bit of board at the same height as the fret-tops so there's no change in feel between the strings, but it doesn't look like they've done that. Has the nut been cut properly for the two fretless strings, or have they left them at the same depth as the fretted ones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted November 2, 2010 Author Share Posted November 2, 2010 The but has been cut correctly for the D & G again. The fretboard is not raised under the fretless strings, but the fretless bridge saddles are sunk lower into the body to compensate. Under the finger you don't notice the change that much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted November 4, 2010 Author Share Posted November 4, 2010 Having spent a few days with this now the set up is lovely. The bridge saddles are a joy to work with, with tiny adjustments making noticeable differences. I've changes the control dials for Hipshot O-Ring knobs and changed the Strap pins for Schaller ones (worth noting thy the Ibanez screws are quite thick compared to Schaller ones so use filler or glue for an extra tight fit). Still finding the tone rich and deep with a great zing to the slap tone. One point which I can't overcome is that to get the fretless strings to intonate you need to play on the fretline, rather than just before it like on the fretted strings. This is bloody strange as your expect to move between strings easily but means you have to think about it a little more. I may be able to overcome this when I spend a little more time on the setup, but right now that remains the only 'downside' to the bass. Shep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted November 14, 2010 Author Share Posted November 14, 2010 As I said I would, I have upgraded the knobs with Hipshot O-Ring knobs. They feel much more positive and don't look cheap like I stole them off the front on the oven! Huge cosmetic difference and a small increase in under-finger precision when knob twiddling! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldo Posted April 25, 2011 Share Posted April 25, 2011 Had a go of one of these in Dolphin Music the other day, really cool bass! Absolutely killer for the price it's going for, very marmite though I can imagine. Interesting that you mentioned the knobs on it because two of them actually pulled off when I turned them! Seems like such a silly problem to have when the rest of the bass is top quality. I actually put the deposit down on it only for Dolphin to go and balls the whole thing up, but that's probably a whole thread in itself..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pantherairsoft Posted April 25, 2011 Author Share Posted April 25, 2011 Ha. Sounds about right. This particular one is in the hands of Me Bassman on this very forum now. If the Dolphin one went down the pan, I do believe Keith was looking to move it on... Complete with the upgrades knobs I put on it Shep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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