petebassist Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 Double-bass purists look away now - After spending ages looking for an EUB for rehearsals and the occasional tiny-gig where the big guy is too much hassle, I happened upon one of these Ibanez hollow bodied electric basses in my local music shop, and ended up buying a fretless four string. After tweaking the truss rod and raising the saddle height for the E and A string to that I can dig in, and adding a bit of sponge to dampen the sustain, I'm getting a very usuable tone that does a good impression of my amplified acoustic upright. It even growls on the E string. I found this clip in YT that shows a nice example of what it can do. 1 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jezyorkshire Posted November 8, 2018 Share Posted November 8, 2018 Funnily enough I was thinking of going to Gear4music to try one of these and the Godin A4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petebassist Posted November 9, 2018 Author Share Posted November 9, 2018 @Jezyorkshire I nearly went for the A4 on eBay at the moment, I bet they sound fantastic, but couldn't get over there to try it out. Very happy with the Ibanez though, in fact I like it a little too much. The build quality and neck on mine are first rate & I like just having the piezo pickup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jezyorkshire Posted November 9, 2018 Share Posted November 9, 2018 I’ve seen the used A4 on eBay if it’s the one you mean, it’s just got the pickup under the bridge rather than the extra pickup on the new A4 ultra, I have read reports that some have had sound problems with them but maybe that’s the older ones it may seem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jezyorkshire Posted November 9, 2018 Share Posted November 9, 2018 Have been looking at YouTube and comparing the Godin and the Ibanez, I think that even though the Ibanez seems less versatile it looks better value for money and the Godin comes across not much different that an electric bass? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petebassist Posted November 9, 2018 Author Share Posted November 9, 2018 52 minutes ago, Jezyorkshire said: Have been looking at YouTube and comparing the Godin and the Ibanez, I think that even though the Ibanez seems less versatile it looks better value for money and the Godin comes across not much different that an electric bass? Yeah I did look at a few Godin clips myself but could only find those with a fretless EB sound, so I guessed it was the tone dialled in with more of the the magnetic pickup, but I don't having not tried one. The only thing I thought I'd miss with the Ibanez was the thumb-rest so I did think about buying one from RedDogMusic on eBay and adding it myself, but so far I've just been doing my usual thumb anchored around the end of the finger board so probably won't bother. The AeroSilk piezo seems to do the job & works nicely with the stock strings (D-Addario ECB81 flat wounds), which growl and resonate nicely. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJJS Posted November 9, 2018 Share Posted November 9, 2018 Prior to getting my upright, I was using a 705srf with black nylon labellas. Using just the piezo it does a very good upright impression. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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