GRAHAM SG1 Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 (edited) Yesterday I bought a new Ibanez BTB770 bass, I went along to Nevada Music in Portsmouth with the intention of getting a Fender USA Jazz (having always loved Fender guitars and basses) but thought I would try a few other basses as well, I tried the Fender first and liked it but when I got to this Ibanez I was very impressed, a beautiful highly figured top with through neck, fantastic glossy finish, excellent quality construction, fit and finish perfect, 3 band active EQ, powerful Bartolini Mk 2 pick ups, 35" scale, the action was perfect, the EQ is very sensitive and makes this bass seem alive with energy, best of all was the price, a whole £350 less than the Fender, now I dont want to get into a Fender versus Ibanez argument and I know Fender basses are brilliant but how can the Fender be worth £350 more than this Ibanez, is it down to far east labour costs ? Anyway, here is a picture Edited January 2, 2011 by GRAHAM SG1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBass Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Lovely!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRAHAM SG1 Posted January 2, 2011 Author Share Posted January 2, 2011 Thanks, I paid £567 for it, exceptional value for money IMO it looks like a bass costing double that ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icastle Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 [quote name='GRAHAM SG1' post='1075812' date='Jan 2 2011, 10:06 PM']Yesterday I bought a new Ibanez BTB770 bass, I went along to Nevada Music in Portsmouth with the intention of getting a Fender USA Jazz (having always loved Fender guitars and basses) but thought I would try a few other basses as well, I tried the Fender first and liked it but when I got to this Ibanez I was very impressed, a beautiful highly figured top with through neck, fantastic glossy finish, excellent quality construction, fit and finish perfect, 3 band active EQ, powerful Bartolini Mk 2 pick ups, 35" scale, the action was perfect, the EQ is very sensitive and makes this bass seem alive with energy, best of all was the price, a whole £350 less than the Fender, now I dont want to get into a Fender versus Ibanez argument and I know Fender basses are brilliant but how can the Fender be worth £350 more than this Ibanez, is it down to far east labour costs ? Anyway, here is a picture [/quote] I use Fender [b]and[/b] Ibanez so I'm not gonna argue As to the £350 difference, a lot of that is probably based around different business models. [u]Fender:[/u] The acknowledged brand leader when it comes to electric guitars\basses - even non-musicians know the logo and the name. Extensive marketing and brand reinforcement has been fundemental in achieving this dominant market position. Somewhat constrained by the popularity of their designs and market value (although Squire and MIM have made good inroads into those constraints). Fender will only supply goods to authorised dealerships and, as such, this tends to reduce competitive pricing. [u]Ibanez:[/u] Have never achieved the brand exposure that Fender has and have therefore not had the degree of marketing expenditure. Eastern factories have lower operating costs and this is reflected in the pricing. Make guitars in their factories for other brands and would therefore be able to buy branded parts (Bartolini, Gotoh etc) at much reduced bulk pricing. Not having a massive brand name to promote and maintain the pricing structure of also reduces POS costs. Ibanez used to supply anyone who passes a retail credit check (not sure if that's still true) and therefore manage to achieve a greater market penetration (and therefore reducing prices again). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 That's really nice! Beautiful top. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRAHAM SG1 Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 I agree icastle, I suspect Fenders will always have a higher resale value due to the brand name and popularity too . I was interested because having both basses at hand I could not really see any reason for the extra £350 ? but as you rightly say the far east does produce cheaper goods, which are now every bit as good in terms of quality, my GK amp is made in China, now 10 years ago I would not have considered anything Chinese other than the takeaway food Its like a lot of products though, there is always the innovator/original designer and then the copier/innovator who takes the original design and sets about creating their own version, Leo Fender`s designs are the benchmark IMO . Japanese motorcycles are a prime example of the above and look at them nowadays . I would not bet against me buying another Fender in the future though ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jean-Luc Pickguard Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 [quote name='icastle' post='1076201' date='Jan 3 2011, 12:30 PM'][u]Ibanez:[/u] Eastern factories have lower operating costs and this is reflected in the pricing. Make guitars in their factories for other brands and would therefore be able to buy branded parts (Bartolini, Gotoh etc) at much reduced bulk pricing.[/quote] Rather than this, isn't it the case that Ibanez is a brand rather than a manufacturer so owns no factories & contracts manufacturing to the same far East factories used by other companies, ie Cort, Samick or whoever else gets the contract for any particular model? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jspindle Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 I really want the Ibanez BTB770PB. Shame it doesn't come in any other colour though. I've considered getting the 5-string version, which I aesthetically prefer. It's not much more in cost. £567 is a good price. Did you knock them down? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icastle Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 [quote name='Jean-Luc Pickguard' post='1076307' date='Jan 3 2011, 02:20 PM']Rather than this, isn't it the case that Ibanez is a brand rather than a manufacturer so owns no factories & contracts manufacturing to the same far East factories used by other companies, ie Cort, Samick or whoever else gets the contract for any particular model?[/quote] Could be. I thought Ibanez owned a manufacturing plant that other brands used but it could easily be the other way round (and knowing me, it probably is!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 [quote name='icastle' post='1076390' date='Jan 3 2011, 03:50 PM']Could be. I thought Ibanez owned a manufacturing plant that other brands used but it could easily be the other way round (and knowing me, it probably is!) [/quote] Cort make a massive quantity of Ibanez branded stuff and I think Samick made or make some of them. I know that Ibanez have their own place in Japan for the high end instruments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icastle Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 [quote name='Sean' post='1076400' date='Jan 3 2011, 04:00 PM']Cort make a massive quantity of Ibanez branded stuff and I think Samick made or make some of them. I know that Ibanez have their own place in Japan for the high end instruments.[/quote] Aha! I was half right then. As it's only the first week day of 2011 things are looking up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRAHAM SG1 Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 [quote]£567 is a good price. Did you knock them down?[/quote] It was originally £630 but yes I did bargain a bit, they were doing 10% off if bought online before 1st January but I said I would not have been there if I had not seen the ad so they gave me the discount, they are pretty good at Nevada Music . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markstuk Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 (edited) Yup.. My SR765 is MIJ for instance... Made in the Fujigen factory where a lot of the Japanese Fenders were made.... So it's possible to get an Ibanez from the same factory as some of the best Fenders ever made were :-) [quote name='Sean' post='1076400' date='Jan 3 2011, 04:00 PM']Cort make a massive quantity of Ibanez branded stuff and I think Samick made or make some of them. I know that Ibanez have their own place in Japan for the high end instruments.[/quote] Edited January 3, 2011 by markstuk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doctor J Posted January 3, 2011 Share Posted January 3, 2011 That is one seriously beautiful instrument. Well done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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