Ibanez SR600

[Krysbass]

• Features: *****
• Action, Fit, & Finish: ***
• Sound Quality: *****
• Reliability/Durability: ****
• Ease of Use: *****
• Customer Support: not used
• Overall Rating: ****

Cost: £465 from Gear 4 Music, November 2010.

[attachment=75551:SR600FULLL.JPG]

[attachment=75549:SR600BODYL.JPG]

[attachment=75550:SR600HEAD.JPG]

I had tried out a friend’s SR500 before buying this SR600 - these 2 models are very similar; the 600’s body is ash instead of mahogany and hardware is matt black instead of a “cosmo black” finish. The electronics and other features are identical and there was only £5 difference in the price, so my choice came down to preferring the light wood on the SR600 – marginally influenced by having read somewhere about avoiding mahogany for ecological reasons.

[b]FEATURES & EASE OF USE[/b]
The bass is made in Indonesia, but the pickups are Bartolini mk1’s - apparently USA-made. It arrived well packaged, with instruction manual, a basic quality lead and a set of 3 allen keys. 2 of the allen keys are for adjusting the truss-rod and bridge and the 3rd is to tighten or adjust the screws holding the knobs onto the 5 control pots. The controls are intuitive; there’s a 3-band active EQ with centre-notched boost/cut rotary controls for bass, mid and treble. Each EQ knob has a small white dot so you can see the setting. Then there’s a single volume control and a centre-notched rotary pickup-blend control. It’s worth mentioning that neither of the latter 2 controls have any sort of marking, so unfortunately you can’t see what volume or pickup settings you’re currently using.

A new feature on the 2010 model is a switch enabling either 250Hz or 600Hz to be selected as the mid-frequency. The chosen frequency is then either boosted or cut via the mid tone control, giving this bass a much broader range of tonal options.

The output from the active pickups is strong and battery consumption is low – the supplied, non-alkaline, single 9 volt PP3 battery was still going strong around 4 months after the bass arriving (for me, that’s about 110 hours’ playing). But this bass won’t work without battery power, so carrying a spare is advisable – changing the battery is easy and needs no tools to open the battery cover.

The neck is a 5-piece laminate of jatoba/bubinga; two similarly coloured dark woods, evidently with a lot of inherent strength as the neck is quite slim. The fingerboard is rosewood, inlaid with oval abalone markers. Elixir strings are fitted as standard – I like the tone, but the coating started to peel off after less than 2 months leaving the strings looking increasingly furry and distressed. Although the tone is still fine, it looks terrible! Once the strings are dead, I think I’ll be going back to my favourite uncoated stainless steel roundwounds.

[b]ACTION, FIT AND FINISH[/b]
The medium sized frets were well finished and the action was set fairly low. I wanted to make some very minor adjustments and this was easily done by sliding open the truss-rod cover (no screwdriver needed) and releasing the truss-rod tension by a quarter turn. I also raised the bridge saddles by a quarter turn. The intonation was fine as supplied.

After about a month of owning the bass, I was playing it unplugged and noticed a slight rattle when playing certain notes. To check the bass over, I removed the strings (quick and easy due to the bridge design) and found that the nuts holding the tuning heads to the headstock were all very loose as were the small screws holding a couple of the tuning heads to the back of the headstock. I checked the bridge and neck securing screws were fully tightened too, and although most of them could be tightened further, none were as loose as the tuning heads. Perhaps some of this will have been the bass settling after manufacture, but it looks like the QC was a bit lacking too – if it hadn’t been for this, I’d have given full marks for action fit and finish. Putting the strings back on, I re-checked the intonation, finding that it now needed adjustment, but the annoying rattle has been absent ever since.

I’m pleased with the quality of the hardware on this bass – the bridge is solid and visibly better engineered than the piece of bent steel still favoured on some new basses, and the tuning heads feel smooth in operation.

[b]SOUND QUALITY[/b]
The overall tone of the SR600 is bright, but cutting the treble on the active EQ tames things substantially, so the natural brightness of this bass doesn’t have to be a problem if you don’t want it. Some basses have a very obvious drop in volume between the neck and bridge pickups, but this isn’t one of them – the volume is very evenly matched.

I’ve found that soloing the bridge pickup with a cut in the treble and a boost in the bass cuts through the wall of sound from the 2 guitars in my originals rock band. Using both pickups equally gives a more bassy, mellow tone, but even this can be given more presence by boosting the mids at 250hz.

The placement of the neck pickup and the space between strings and body encourages my rare attempts at slap bass – rewarded by some really good tones. Using the neck pickup on its own remains uncharted territory for me, since so far I’ve found all the tones I want through both pickups or just the bridge pickup. Experimenting with getting a powerful bass-heavy tone, I found this was best done by using both pickups equally, fully cutting the treble, switching the mids to 600hz and slightly cutting this frequency, then boosting the bass – the result was thunderous!

When practicing at home I play along to a wide variety of musical styles and have found this bass is as versatile as it needs to be. After I’ve set up at a gig or practice I never alter the tone settings on my amp and can get all of the tonal variation I need from the controls on this bass.

[b]RELIABILITY/DURABILITY[/b]
I only have one reservation on this bass withstanding the rigours of life on the road: whilst the amount of wood removed from the heavily contoured body gives it a light weight and a great look, gently tap the wood around the control knobs and it sounds thin. I may be wrong there, but I’ll be taking care not to find out the hard way!

[b]OVERALL RATING[/b]
I’ve always preferred basses that don’t conform to the traditional vibe of Fender and its copyists, but I know there are many players who have the opposite view. So the looks of this bass won’t appeal to everyone and even I wouldn’t have bought it on looks alone. Where it’s really showing its worth for me is in a band situation where my tone cuts through much better than ever before and this bass is so comfortable to play for long periods of time that despite the minor issues and reservations I’ve had, my only regret is taking so long to check one of these out. Overall, I think the Ibanez SR600 is good value for money and if I ever decide to replace it, it would probably be to upgrade to one of the higher spec SR models.

Edited June 14, 2011 by Krysbass

[Balcro]

Thanks for that.

I checked those out early last year when I was casting around for a new bass. Gear4 music weren't stocking them then,
but I ended up with something of a not totally dissimilar mix. Now I'm an ash body convert.

Ah! Loose tuners. Something else to check out when you get the buzzes!

With an ash body and the Ibanez neck, I bet it's very light and easy to play. Enjoy.

Balcro.

[Bass Junkie]

I own the Amber SR 700, and have owned many, many, basses , and this Bass does it all ,

[Krysbass]

Here’s an update on my review:

First; a few words about the weight….

Curiously, Ibanez don’t list the weights of their basses on their website, so for the record; the SR600 tips the scales at a very lean 3.4kg (7.49 lbs). That’s significantly lighter than most basses and contributes to the overall playing comfort.

Since this SR600 has been my main bass for home practice, band rehearsals and gigs for over 4 years, here’s how it has fared….

Firstly, battery-life is excellent. I have yet to have a battery fail, so I just replace it every 12 months or so, regardless.

The concern I expressed in my original review about the thinness of the body wood around the control pots has so far proved to be groundless – everything has been fine here.

However, there were a couple of minor problems during the 4th year of ownership…..

The nylon sealing-washer on one of the tuning heads split and fell off. I couldn’t find a suitable replacement washer anywhere, but could have bought a set of identical, unbranded tuning heads for just £15. In the end, seeing that Ibanez fit Gotoh tuning heads to the SR Prestige and Premium basses, I decided to pay a bit more and upgrade to a set of Gotoh tuning heads – these were a perfect fit, requiring no modification to the headstock.

The only other problem was that the nut fell off during a string change – so I glued it back on!

On the subject of strings; I wasn’t impressed with the Elixir coated nickel strings originally fitted, as the coating quickly and visibly peeled off and looked awful, although this didn’t seem to affect the tone. Since then I’ve used Elixir stainless steel strings, which have a great tone and don’t seem to suffer from the very obvious peeling problem. The set currently on the bass has been there for over 2 years and counting.

All things considered, I’m still delighted with this bass and have absolute faith in it. For me, it isn’t so exotically priced or rare that it would be difficult to replace at short notice if anything terminal happened to it. This means I’m not afraid to take it out of the house! The natural body finish does a good job of hiding the inevitable minor dings, so it still looks fantastic (IMHO), it’s extremely comfortable to play, stays in tune and offers a wide range of tones.

[skej21]

[quote name='Krysbass' timestamp='1422194731' post='2669677']
Here’s an update on my review:

First; a few words about the weight….

Curiously, Ibanez don’t list the weights of their basses on their website, so for the record; the SR600 tips the scales at a very lean 3.4kg (7.49 lbs). That’s significantly lighter than most basses and contributes to the overall playing comfort.

Since this SR600 has been my main bass for home practice, band rehearsals and gigs for over 4 years, here’s how it has fared….

Firstly, battery-life is excellent. I have yet to have a battery fail, so I just replace it every 12 months or so, regardless.

The concern I expressed in my original review about the thinness of the body wood around the control pots has so far proved to be groundless – everything has been fine here.

However, there were a couple of minor problems during the 4th year of ownership…..

The nylon sealing-washer on one of the tuning heads split and fell off. I couldn’t find a suitable replacement washer anywhere, but could have bought a set of identical, unbranded tuning heads for just £15. In the end, seeing that Ibanez fit Gotoh tuning heads to the SR Prestige and Premium basses, I decided to pay a bit more and upgrade to a set of Gotoh tuning heads – these were a perfect fit, requiring no modification to the headstock.

The only other problem was that the nut fell off during a string change – so I glued it back on!

On the subject of strings; I wasn’t impressed with the Elixir coated nickel strings originally fitted, as the coating quickly and visibly peeled off and looked awful, although this didn’t seem to affect the tone. Since then I’ve used Elixir stainless steel strings, which have a great tone and don’t seem to suffer from the very obvious peeling problem. The set currently on the bass has been there for over 2 years and counting.

All things considered, I’m still delighted with this bass and have absolute faith in it. For me, it isn’t so exotically priced or rare that it would be difficult to replace at short notice if anything terminal happened to it. This means I’m not afraid to take it out of the house! The natural body finish does a good job of hiding the inevitable minor dings, so it still looks fantastic (IMHO), it’s extremely comfortable to play, stays in tune and offers a wide range of tones.
[/quote]

Just bought the SR605 myself and this is great news for the longevity of this bass! I will have totally changed mine within a few months. Upgraded pickups, preamp and tuners and pitting a ramp too I suspect. It'll be a nice little project though :-)