Ibanez EWB20WNE

[neepheid]

I recently picked up an inexpensive acoustic bass for an experiment and discovered that I quite liked the sound and the convenience of being able to pick up and play without the need for amps, cables or power.

So I'm looking to get a half decent one. The one I picked up is fine as a proof of concept, but it's 30" scale, and the pickup isn't that great (one of the strings seems quieter than the others, maybe some TLC required?)

Anyway, to business! I quite like the look of the Ibanez EWB20WNE. Here's the official info: [url="http://www.ibanez.co.jp/products/ac_page.php?AREA_ID=3&PAGE_ID=115&COLOR=CL01"]http://www.ibanez.co.jp/products/ac_page.p...&COLOR=CL01[/url]

Has anyone had a go of one of these? Anyone got any other suggestions in the >£400 region?

[ronnus]

Just got mine delivered this morning - spooky! I love having an acoustic bass in the livingroom, it's great for just grabbing to work out stuff that I'm listening to, or for five minutes of scales/noodling.

The Ibanez is a nice bit of kit, slightly high of action up around the dusty end, which I intend remedying (see [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=2878"]my thread[/url] in the Repairs section). It has a nice sound unplugged, but is fairly quiet. Loud enough for livingroom practice but won't come close to keeping up with an acoustic gu*tar without being amped. It's a replacement for my Harley Benton acoustic bass, which sounds much louder, but this is probably to do with body size - the HB is absolutely fapping HUGE! The two are hanging on a double stand in front of me, and the HB is scraping the floor, whereas the Ibanez is a good 6" from the carpet, but both basses have a 34" scale.

When plugged in, the Ib is very, very impressive. Feedback is easy to control, and it has a fantastic big, wooden, rounded tone. I'm impressed. It also has a phase reverse control which seems to help eliminate feedback when it does occur, but I've not figured out why! The pre-amp has a built-in tuner, which I'm a fan of, and it runs on AA batteries, which may be a pain if you're used to carrying around stacks of PP3's!

Build quality is very nice, finish is as good as I expect from Ibanez (which is pretty good!), and I personally think it looks very nice! Andertons have a [url="http://www.andertons.co.uk/acatalog/info_EWB10ASEOBK.html"]black finished ash one[/url] which I suspect is an import - AFAIK Ibanez didn't release this one in the UK, or it may have been available for a short time only.

I got mine from [url="http://www.imuso.co.uk/ProductDetail.asp?StockCode=EG01634"]imuso[/url], and despite the first one they sent being broken, they replaced it the next day without waiting for a return, so I'm quite happy with the service, and the price was the lowest I could find