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New Ibanez Headless basses

bnt

By bnt,
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lowregisterhead Mentor

lowregisterhead

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Posted

SHORT REVIEW:

The basses finally arrived at Andertons in Guildford earlier this week, actually a couple of days ahead of the delivery date they gave me.

They got four 5 strings in stock - two of the EHB1005MS model (multi-scale, solid colour, Bartolini pickups - one in black, one in seafoam green) one EHB1505 model (standard scale, Nordstrand pickups, pacific blue burst with poplar burl top) and one EHB1505MS (the same specs as the EHB1505, but with a multi-scale neck).

On playing the 1005's, they both had one glaring issue - a really noticeable dead spot at the E at the 9th fret on the G string. There was another less serious problem: the neck pickup on the seafoam bass was flapping about loose (the screw had literally fallen out). They had only come into the shop that day, but it makes me question the standard of quality control at the factory and at the UK distributor. The roasted maple/walnut neck was comfortable, slim and fast, but the Bartolini pickups were pretty bland and lacklustre to my ears, although the Vari-mid 3-band EQ did help to lift the tone.

So, slightly disappointed, I moved on to the more expensive EHB1505 basses. Tonally, they were very different from the cheaper models. The Nordstrand pickups had much more breadth, bottom end, mid and high end detail. They sounded good in passive mode, and switching in the preamp improved them even more. The panga panga / walnut neck felt a little more sleek than the maple of the 1005, although the general standard of finish was very good on all the basses. There were a couple of other QC issues with the 1505MS, however. The stacked mid controls were badly fitted so they were off-centre in their recess in the poplar top, and the outer ring was rubbing against the edge of the recess. The bass also rattled when moved around. On closer inspection, the sound was coming from inside the battery cavity. I took out the battery, moved the bass around, and a screw fell out! The 4 screws securing the battery compartment were all in place, so I can only assume a stray screw must have fallen in during assembly. Not a great place to have a loose piece of metal rolling around.

They all shared another problem that may be more difficult to fix, for me at least. The range are well balanced, and also very light, due to the chambered bodies. With the bass on a strap, and the strap button position being above the tuners, along with the bevel of the upper part of the back of the body, the bottom of the bass tends to sit up. This makes the fingerboard easier to see, but forces you to bend the fretting wrist round a little more, which I didn't find particularly comfortable. More importantly, if you have a playing style that involves pulling on the strings (slapping/popping for example) the bottom of the bass lifts up and away from your body easily due to its light weight.

One way to counter this problem would be to fit the strap button lower down, but the cutaway to accommodate the tuners, and the position (and size) of the jack socket makes that difficult. The strap would end up getting in the way of one or the other. The action on all of the basses was acceptable, but on the 1505MS I got a marked increase in fret buzz in two positions on the G string, indicating a couple of high frets. In the age of PLEK technology and high-tolerance manufacturing techniques, that shouldn't really happen, especially on a £1400+ bass.

So all in all, something of a let-down. I'm a fan of this kind of design, having owned many headless basses over the years, and I like the concept of a headless multi-scale bass, but in reality it has too many issues for me to take on board. You may feel differently of course, but I'd strongly recommend trying one out before taking the plunge.

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lowregisterhead Mentor

lowregisterhead

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Posted (edited)
12 hours ago, visog said:

Agreed but the points sound like teething issues as the rush to get these out. Hopefully Anderton's feedback will result in better shipments to follow.

Perhaps, but I don't see how they can change the strap button location, and the dead spots could be a design problem.

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Raslee Veteran

Raslee

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Posted
21 hours ago, lowregisterhead said:

SHORT REVIEW:

The basses finally arrived at Andertons in Guildford earlier this week, actually a couple of days ahead of the delivery date they gave me.

They got four 5 strings in stock - two of the EHB1005MS model (multi-scale, solid colour, Bartolini pickups - one in black, one in seafoam green) one EHB1505 model (standard scale, Nordstrand pickups, pacific blue burst with poplar burl top) and one EHB1505MS (the same specs as the EHB1505, but with a multi-scale neck).

On playing the 1005's, they both had one glaring issue - a really noticeable dead spot at the E at the 9th fret on the G string. There was another less serious problem: the neck pickup on the seafoam bass was flapping about loose (the screw had literally fallen out). They had only come into the shop that day, but it makes me question the standard of quality control at the factory and at the UK distributor. The roasted maple/walnut neck was comfortable, slim and fast, but the Bartolini pickups were pretty bland and lacklustre to my ears, although the Vari-mid 3-band EQ did help to lift the tone.

So, slightly disappointed, I moved on to the more expensive EHB1505 basses. Tonally, they were very different from the cheaper models. The Nordstrand pickups had much more breadth, bottom end, mid and high end detail. They sounded good in passive mode, and switching in the preamp improved them even more. The panga panga / walnut neck felt a little more sleek than the maple of the 1005, although the general standard of finish was very good on all the basses. There were a couple of other QC issues with the 1505MS, however. The stacked mid controls were badly fitted so they were off-centre in their recess in the poplar top, and the outer ring was rubbing against the edge of the recess. The bass also rattled when moved around. On closer inspection, the sound was coming from inside the battery cavity. I took out the battery, moved the bass around, and a screw fell out! The 4 screws securing the battery compartment were all in place, so I can only assume a stray screw must have fallen in during assembly. Not a great place to have a loose piece of metal rolling around.

They all shared another problem that may be more difficult to fix, for me at least. The range are well balanced, and also very light, due to the chambered bodies. With the bass on a strap, and the strap button position being above the tuners, along with the bevel of the upper part of the back of the body, the bottom of the bass tends to sit up. This makes the fingerboard easier to see, but forces you to bend the fretting wrist round a little more, which I didn't find particularly comfortable. More importantly, if you have a playing style that involves pulling on the strings (slapping/popping for example) the bottom of the bass lifts up and away from your body easily due to its light weight.

One way to counter this problem would be to fit the strap button lower down, but the cutaway to accommodate the tuners, and the position (and size) of the jack socket makes that difficult. The strap would end up getting in the way of one or the other. The action on all of the basses was acceptable, but on the 1505MS I got a marked increase in fret buzz in two positions on the G string, indicating a couple of high frets. In the age of PLEK technology and high-tolerance manufacturing techniques, that shouldn't really happen, especially on a £1400+ bass.

So all in all, something of a let-down. I'm a fan of this kind of design, having owned many headless basses over the years, and I like the concept of a headless multi-scale bass, but in reality it has too many issues for me to take on board. You may feel differently of course, but I'd strongly recommend trying one out before taking the plunge.

Thank you kindly for this review. I am still keen to try one but certainly less inclined to buy one. Really glad i recently pulled the trigger on a lightweight Sandberg i bought off here...have to say I'm totally smitten with the Sandberg, top quality, and at second hand prices it was half the price of the Ibanez headless I had my eyes on. I also would also worry about the depreciation on these Ibanez basses.

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bnt Veteran

bnt

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From that video you can really see how light the body is - as lowregisterhead said, it's moving around a little under aggressive playing. I can't say that would be a problem for me, being less aggressive than that in general (though there have been exceptions).

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BassApprentice Mentor

BassApprentice

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Right, my brief review of the EHB1005MS - Seafoam Green. Caveat - I am no Ibanez aficionado and I am not really familiar with the Ibanez preamps so might not have been able to get the most of this bass. 

Firstly, if you like modern basses these things very cool. Nicely finished the flat green is really bright and i liked it. It is also very light, like stupidly. I checked and there were no rattles or anything loose on this specific one. 

Set everything flat and started to play, sounded decent enough. The neck is very flat and super easy to play. You adjust to the multiscale thing almost instantly and the curves on the body fit me just right. The shop had set up this bass a bit and the G string was noticeable lower than the others so there were one or two of the frets where it just started to bottom out and become a bit buzzy but not sure whether this was the same issue mentioned in the previous review

Set balance to the front pickup. Nice and full sounding and got some good tones then the bridge pickup....

Oh dear.

Not sure what was going here, as I said the G string was lower and closer to the pickup but the balance was all off. The D and G were so quiet but the pickup was set completely level and I know that could be tweaked but I wasn't really impressed.

Fiddled about with the controls a bit but since I wasn't quite familiar I struggled to get a tone I was happy with.

I've asked them to give me a call when they get the 1505 in so I can compare the Barts and Nords and see how different they are.

For comparison I tried the only other 5 they had, an SR305E and found it far easier to get multiple tones I liked from the PowerPan pickups but that is of course personal preference. 

Let me know if any of this ramble has helped or is just nonsense 😁

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Lunatique Rookie

Lunatique

Posted
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On 07/03/2020 at 06:02, lowregisterhead said:

SHORT REVIEW:

The basses finally arrived at Andertons in Guildford earlier this week, actually a couple of days ahead of the delivery date they gave me.

They got four 5 strings in stock - two of the EHB1005MS model (multi-scale, solid colour, Bartolini pickups - one in black, one in seafoam green) one EHB1505 model (standard scale, Nordstrand pickups, pacific blue burst with poplar burl top) and one EHB1505MS (the same specs as the EHB1505, but with a multi-scale neck).

On playing the 1005's, they both had one glaring issue - a really noticeable dead spot at the E at the 9th fret on the G string. There was another less serious problem: the neck pickup on the seafoam bass was flapping about loose (the screw had literally fallen out). They had only come into the shop that day, but it makes me question the standard of quality control at the factory and at the UK distributor. The roasted maple/walnut neck was comfortable, slim and fast, but the Bartolini pickups were pretty bland and lacklustre to my ears, although the Vari-mid 3-band EQ did help to lift the tone.

So, slightly disappointed, I moved on to the more expensive EHB1505 basses. Tonally, they were very different from the cheaper models. The Nordstrand pickups had much more breadth, bottom end, mid and high end detail. They sounded good in passive mode, and switching in the preamp improved them even more. The panga panga / walnut neck felt a little more sleek than the maple of the 1005, although the general standard of finish was very good on all the basses. There were a couple of other QC issues with the 1505MS, however. The stacked mid controls were badly fitted so they were off-centre in their recess in the poplar top, and the outer ring was rubbing against the edge of the recess. The bass also rattled when moved around. On closer inspection, the sound was coming from inside the battery cavity. I took out the battery, moved the bass around, and a screw fell out! The 4 screws securing the battery compartment were all in place, so I can only assume a stray screw must have fallen in during assembly. Not a great place to have a loose piece of metal rolling around.

They all shared another problem that may be more difficult to fix, for me at least. The range are well balanced, and also very light, due to the chambered bodies. With the bass on a strap, and the strap button position being above the tuners, along with the bevel of the upper part of the back of the body, the bottom of the bass tends to sit up. This makes the fingerboard easier to see, but forces you to bend the fretting wrist round a little more, which I didn't find particularly comfortable. More importantly, if you have a playing style that involves pulling on the strings (slapping/popping for example) the bottom of the bass lifts up and away from your body easily due to its light weight.

One way to counter this problem would be to fit the strap button lower down, but the cutaway to accommodate the tuners, and the position (and size) of the jack socket makes that difficult. The strap would end up getting in the way of one or the other. The action on all of the basses was acceptable, but on the 1505MS I got a marked increase in fret buzz in two positions on the G string, indicating a couple of high frets. In the age of PLEK technology and high-tolerance manufacturing techniques, that shouldn't really happen, especially on a £1400+ bass.

So all in all, something of a let-down. I'm a fan of this kind of design, having owned many headless basses over the years, and I like the concept of a headless multi-scale bass, but in reality it has too many issues for me to take on board. You may feel differently of course, but I'd strongly recommend trying one out before taking the plunge.

Thank you for sharing your review. It's got me a bit concerned because you're not the first person to report bad quality control--I've seen another review on talkbass that mentioned similar problems. 

I have a EHB1000 and EHB1505 on order and I hope they won't have the same problems. But if they do, I could just return them, so I'm not too worried. 

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lowregisterhead Mentor

lowregisterhead

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1 hour ago, BassApprentice said:

Right, my brief review of the EHB1005MS - Seafoam Green. Caveat - I am no Ibanez aficionado and I am not really familiar with the Ibanez preamps so might not have been able to get the most of this bass. 

Firstly, if you like modern basses these things very cool. Nicely finished the flat green is really bright and i liked it. It is also very light, like stupidly. I checked and there were no rattles or anything loose on this specific one. 

Set everything flat and started to play, sounded decent enough. The neck is very flat and super easy to play. You adjust to the multiscale thing almost instantly and the curves on the body fit me just right. The shop had set up this bass a bit and the G string was noticeable lower than the others so there were one or two of the frets where it just started to bottom out and become a bit buzzy but not sure whether this was the same issue mentioned in the previous review

Set balance to the front pickup. Nice and full sounding and got some good tones then the bridge pickup....

Oh dear.

Not sure what was going here, as I said the G string was lower and closer to the pickup but the balance was all off. The D and G were so quiet but the pickup was set completely level and I know that could be tweaked but I wasn't really impressed.

Fiddled about with the controls a bit but since I wasn't quite familiar I struggled to get a tone I was happy with.

I've asked them to give me a call when they get the 1505 in so I can compare the Barts and Nords and see how different they are.

For comparison I tried the only other 5 they had, an SR305E and found it far easier to get multiple tones I liked from the PowerPan pickups but that is of course personal preference. 

Let me know if any of this ramble has helped or is just nonsense 😁

Thanks for your review, it serves to confirm some things I thought too - glad to know I wasn't just being picky!

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Funny you should say that, I have Bartolini mkII pickups in my Ibanez BTB676 and am waiting on some US H66CBC replacements as the balance is all over the place - the B string is about 1.5 times louder than the other strings with everything flat and the pickup tilted slightly away from the lower strings. At the same time the top C sounds weedy and thin. Of course the Ibanez circuit may be the culprit (and I’m replacing that with a Bartolini circuit and pots anyway) but it sounds just fine acoustically so good enough to upgrade. It’s a shame and not the first Ibanez I’ve played with poor electronics. Hopefully the QC issues will be sorted on the new range.

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BassApprentice Mentor

BassApprentice

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18 minutes ago, FDC484950 said:

 the B string is about 1.5 times louder than the other strings with everything flat and the pickup tilted slightly away from the lower strings. At the same time the top C sounds weedy and thin. 

That is almost exactly what my experience was with the bridge pickup yesterday. The neck pickup wasn't as bad but yeah, not impressed 

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Lunatique Rookie

Lunatique

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Okay, folks, I've got some bad news. I got my EHB1505 today, and it's got problems.
 
The quality control on this batch of headless basses is horrendous. I've already seen at least two other people post about the shoddy work done on their EHB models, and now I'm adding myself to that list. 
 
Before I get into what's wrong, I'll just say that I love how fast and smooth the neck feels, how low the action is but without any fret buzz--this is by far the best action I've ever played on an instrument with default factory setup. In the brief moments I was able to play a few lines without excessive static noise, it sounded awesome--punchy and aggressive. And it plays a lot smoother than my Dingwall NG-2 (probably because I love thin/fast Ibanez necks). 
 
My EHB1505 weighs 7.9 lbs., and considering it's a headless with chambered body, I think it could be a little lighter. I was hoping for 7.5 lbs or less, but I guess I can't compared it to something like the Strandberg Boden bass, as that body's got a large chunk of its corner missing, so it's bound to be significantly lighter (it's about 6.5 lbs.).
 
Now, here's what's wrong with it. The electronics are not put together properly at all. There' no sound from the active preamp, and the treble/bass knob is loose and when I jiggle it, makes loud static noise. So I unscrewed the back cover and checked, and it seems okay, then I took off the treble/bass caps with the smallest Allen wrench supplied with the bass (there are four sizes included) and tightened the knob. That gave me back sound for the active preamp, however, there's still stuff loose with the connections, as the sound is intermittent, punctuated with loud static noise, and if I try to use the treble/bass, mid/frequency knobs, touching them makes the loud static noise too, and even applying light pressure to the instrument cable at where the jack is, creates the same loud static noise. It's basically unplayable as is, and needs to have to electronics repaired/tightened/whatever. I'm not an electronics expert so I wouldn't know how to troubleshoot and fix it myself (but if any of you wants to give a tutorial, I can try), so I'm going to have to call Guitar Center and tell them send me a replacement and return this one (unless I figure out how to repair it myself). 
 
For $1,500 this is unacceptable. What the hell is happening with Ibanez's quality control in Indonesia? 
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lowregisterhead Mentor

lowregisterhead

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Posted
1 hour ago, BassApprentice said:

Remember that time that GAK said they sent a shipment back due to quality control issues and we said they were liars....😅

That might have been true if there had been any of the basses in the country at the time... maybe they're clairvoyants!!! :-)

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