NBD: Ibanez SRMD205 Mezzo 5 string. Medium scale

[shoulderpet]

And I have an Artec se3pa 3 band eq on the way,seesm to be regarded favourably and , I figured that it certainly can't be any worse than the stock preamp with its ear piercing treble

Edited March 30, 2021 by shoulderpet

[ezbass]

I only discovered Artec pickups in the last year. I was blown away by the quality, especially coupled with the price. I can only imagine that their preamps will will just as stunning. Looking forward to your findings.

[shoulderpet]

39 minutes ago, ezbass said:

I only discovered Artec pickups in the last year. I was blown away by the quality, especially coupled with the price. I can only imagine that their preamps will will just as stunning. Looking forward to your findings.

The feedback on the preamps seems to be solid and looking forward to having a midrange control, the stock Ibanez preamp seems to have a big scoop in the low mids and a huge boost in the treble so will be good to have a 3 band preamp

[Woodinblack]

I have a couple of them, they are good preamps - pots not fantastic, but good enough and obviously the better shielded the better.

[shoulderpet]

Ok so I have got the bass back from the tech and the Artec preamp is faulty  bass and treble function as you would expect, the mid pot has no sweep at all and full on sounds very bright, rolled back at all is like a dub bass tone, like a really extreme treble cut, very dissapointed to be out not only the cost of the preamp but also the cost of the labour in fitting what is a faulty preamp

Seriously considering going passive with volume,blend, tone, tone setup

Edited April 14, 2021 by shoulderpet

[shoulderpet]

23 hours ago, shoulderpet said:

Ok so I have got the bass back from the tech and the Artec preamp is faulty  bass and treble function as you would expect, the mid pot has no sweep at all and full on sounds very bright, rolled back at all is like a dub bass tone, like a really extreme treble cut, very dissapointed to be out not only the cost of the preamp but also the cost of the labour in fitting what is a faulty preamp

Seriously considering going passive with volume,blend, tone, tone setup

And after speaking to the supplier of the preamp and sending them a photo of the wiring they think that the tech has wired it up wrong, I have forwarded a diagram to the tech, tech has had a look at it and has said that this is fixed now so fingers crossed

Edited April 15, 2021 by shoulderpet

[shoulderpet]

On 15/04/2021 at 17:34, shoulderpet said:

And after speaking to the supplier of the preamp and sending them a photo of the wiring they think that the tech has wired it up wrong, I have forwarded a diagram to the tech, tech has had a look at it and has said that this is fixed now so fingers crossed

Ok so got it back and it seems the person I spoke to was not the person that worked on it and the mid frequency sweep is not working, the mid boost/cut also seems woefully underpowered, they have had a look and they reckon the preamp is faulty.

I have decided that after not liking the stock preamp and having issues with the Artec that I will go passive for now with vol, vol, tone, series/parallel , the P pickup I have in there at the moment is very heavily overwound (22k) so I am going to go for a series/parallel that converts the P pickup to parallel mode as I think putting a super hot pickup is series with the J pickup is just going to end up with unusable mud

[shoulderpet]

Ok so after having a number of issues with the Artec preamp and there being a brightness to the stock preamp that I have been unable to dial out I have decidstock.i have decided to go completely passive. I now have the Duncan SPB-2 p pickup with the stock j pickup 2 volumes,1 tone and a switch that switches the p pickup from series to parallel, I didn't go with both pickups in series as the SPB-2 is a very hot pickup so both in series would likely be very muddy sounding. I have to say after disliking the stock preamp this is a 100% improvement, the excessive brightness is gone, the pickups sound full and balanced, the p pickup on its own sounds super fat and due to the heavy wind of the p pickup it doesn't sound thin in parallel mode like most p pickups anh both pickups in parallel mode and both on it sounds quite jazz bass-esq

[fretmeister]

Mine now has EMG X Series in it, with a stacked Bass and Treble and the ABCX active balance control.

 

 

Much nicer than the stock pickups, and of course pretty much zero noise even with really high gain.

Very happy!

[shoulderpet]

On 12/05/2021 at 09:37, fretmeister said:

Mine now has EMG X Series in it, with a stacked Bass and Treble and the ABCX active balance control.

 

 

Much nicer than the stock pickups, and of course pretty much zero noise even with really high gain.

Very happy!

Looks great, the stock electrics on the Mezzo are definitely it's weak point, the stock preamp on the Mezzo is atrocious

[fretmeister]

It’s becoming my favourite bass!

[shoulderpet]

20 hours ago, fretmeister said:

It’s becoming my favourite bass!

Yeah, same here, I was initially worried that I was stuck with a lousy sounding bass as the stock electronics sounded like crap and even with the treble completely rolled off they were too bright and  when I had a passive/active switch it still had an excessive upper mid and treble to it that seemingly could not be dialed out but I have gone full passive with a switch that switches the P pickup between series and parallel and it sounds great , the extra resistance from having the tone pot in the circuit has got rid of that upper mid and treble gank 

[shoulderpet]

On 12/05/2021 at 09:37, fretmeister said:

Mine now has EMG X Series in it, with a stacked Bass and Treble and the ABCX active balance control.

 

 

Much nicer than the stock pickups, and of course pretty much zero noise even with really high gain.

Very happy!

Just wondering regarding the J pickup , did you order a bridge or a neck as I have read that the bridge pickups on the Mezzo basses are a different size to standard bridge J pickups , also did you have to do any routing/modding to get it to fit?

[fretmeister]

I ordered the PJ set.

It did need a little routing - it was just a bit too tight to get it in.

[shoulderpet]

Ahh ok, I was afraid you were going to say that, was thinking of swapping out the bridge pickup for a Duncan SJB-2

Anyhow swapped out my pickguard, crappy mobile phone pic doesnt do it justice but it looks awesome

 

Edited May 18, 2021 by shoulderpet

[BassBunny]

Just had a 5 string delivered and snagged it for £255 from GAK. It has a couple of finish flaws that I am struggling to really see.

I wanted to try a medium scale bass as with advancing age and a bit of arthritis creeping in the finger joints I'm struggling a bit down the money end.

I'm absolutely astonished at how good it is. I didn't want to spaff a fortune on what is just an experiment at this stage but I am truly impressed. Out of the box intonation was spot on. A small tweak of the truss rod and that was it. I was hoping to try it at a rehearsal during the week, but it was cancelled so a baptism of fire on Saturday. Saturdays gig was being videod, so the plan was to just have a fiddle while the rest of the band set up and then use something familiar for the gig. 

Well that plan didn't work. Plugged it in, all flat, amp flat, move the blend slightly towards the P pickup and it sounded awesome. My rather expensive ACG didn't get a look in. So easy to play, the "b" string was tight and rounded and the medium scale route is definitely the way to go.

After the gig the sound engineer commented on my playing but I think he really meant the sound. Unless this bass really does make you play better. 🙂

Fire sale coming up I reckon.

[neil___lien]

Here is mine! 

Bad fretsprout on both sides of the neck, but otherwise perfect. Selling my U5 now that this one is here!! 

[redbandit599]

Mine has had a modest makeover. I'd ideally like black hardware too, and to sort the preamp but that little project can wait a bit.

[BassBunny]

On 22/05/2020 at 00:11, fretmeister said:

A slight annoyance... the medium scale D’addario B string. Can’t seem to find them for sale anywhere. Not on the d’addario website either.

 

The specs say it’s a set of nickel 170M being the medium 4 string set with an extra 0.130. It’s definitely a medium scale B as the speaking length gets just over the nut. So cannot be a long scale.

 

Ive emailed D’addario and Ibanez and I’ll update if I get a reply. They sound great on the bass.

 

Warwick do a low B medium steel and so do Dunlop, but I’d prefer to stick with the D’addarios nickels.

 

Dunlop also do what I think is the only 5 string set of medium scale flats.

 

Had a lengthy exchange with George fro D'Addario customer support regarding the strings and he is stumped. He reckons they don't make a medium scale "b" string in the 165vor 170 range.

One thing I did notice is the ball end on the Mezzo "b" string is the same colour as the "e" string. I had a look at my standard scale basses that house D'Addarios and the "b" string is purple. This has confused George even more as he cannot identify what strings they are.

Can anyone suggest a suitable gig bag to house the little treasure. My Mono Bass Sleeve that is my go to has a fixed neck support and the Mezzo ends up with the headstock on it. I guess I could cram some suitable foam in the bottom to correct it but I'd rather have something it would fit properly.

[fretmeister]

2 hours ago, BassBunny said:

Had a lengthy exchange with George fro D'Addario customer support regarding the strings and he is stumped. He reckons they don't make a medium scale "b" string in the 165vor 170 range.

One thing I did notice is the ball end on the Mezzo "b" string is the same colour as the "e" string. I had a look at my standard scale basses that house D'Addarios and the "b" string is purple. This has confused George even more as he cannot identify what strings they are.

Can anyone suggest a suitable gig bag to house the little treasure. My Mono Bass Sleeve that is my go to has a fixed neck support and the Mezzo ends up with the headstock on it. I guess I could cram some suitable foam in the bottom to correct it but I'd rather have something it would fit properly.

 

 

D'addario US informed me they make those strings only for being fitted to new Ibanez and not for the general public. 

I've moved on to Dunlop flats on my 5 string and I'm very happy with them.

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 22/05/2020 at 09:48, Woodinblack said:

I had a 5 string 30" bass for a while and found it almost impossible to find 5 string 30" scale strings B-G. Thats when I started using newtones, and they were good. Obviously no use if you want to use d'adarios thought.

At a brief look it seems they don't do them, maybe the 130 is not a d'adario and is something else?

I am normally a D'Addario man, I tried several other strings but always settle back with regular nickle plated rounwaound XL strings.

 

Well, that is until recently when I decided to take the chance on Newtone strings, and I am extremely satisfied.

 

They actually sound and feel a lot like D'Addario strings, so it won't be a big change for someone used to D'Addarios, same basic character, just better, like feeling ever so slightly smoother on your fingers, without though being unnaturally smooth or slippery, like for instance Elixir strings, they seem to have just about the same tension in relation to gauge and scale, and then they sound somewhat just slightly more articulate and present, it's subtle though, definitely not enough for them to have a drastically different character from D'Addarios, just somewhat slightly better, and at a more than reasonable price for custom strings, not much price difference from D'Addarios really, but to your exact preferences and measurements that fits perfectly to your specific instrument and application. 

 

I at least can warmly recommend ordering from Newtone, and would think it is absolutely worth a shot, my bet is is that if you like D'Addario strings you by far most likely going to love Newtone strings. 

 

Note that Diamond series hex core strings will be the closest match to regular XL D'Addario strings.

 

Edited August 8, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[BassBunny]

On 08/08/2022 at 16:46, fretmeister said:

 

 

D'addario US informed me they make those strings only for being fitted to new Ibanez and not for the general public. 

I've moved on to Dunlop flats on my 5 string and I'm very happy with them.

It seems barmy. Apparently it's only the "b" string that is a special, give away being the brass ball end rather than the standard purple. The other four strings are a standard set. Whenever they do a special order or OEM strings they don't use coloured ball ends.

On a similar theme, I have a Mono Bass sleeve. Not exactly a cheap piece of kit but it is a cracking gig bag and does the job. A medium scale bass doesn't fit properly as the neck support is fixed. Whilst stuffing an extra couple of inches of foam in the bass to compensate for the shorter length I discovered the existing neoprene rubber protection in the base is fixed in with Velcro. In theory you could just swap the base neoprene for a different thickness and cater for standard/medium/short scale basses. Naively I thought maybe Mono had thought of this and offered different thickness pads to cater for the wide range of scale lengths. A quick email and off course they don't. Their solution tray a different bag, more money but even then they suggest a guitar bag from somewhere with a good return policy as they can't confirm it will fit. Another opportunity missed.

[shoulderpet]

On 08/08/2022 at 18:20, Baloney Balderdash said:

I am normally a D'Addario man, I tried several other strings but always settle back with regular nickle plated rounwaound XL strings.

 

Well, that is until recently when I decided to take the chance on Newtone strings, and I am extremely satisfied.

 

They actually sound and feel a lot like D'Addario strings, so it won't be a big change for someone used to D'Addarios, same basic character, just better, like feeling ever so slightly smoother on your fingers, without though being unnaturally smooth or slippery, like for instance Elixir strings, they seem to have just about the same tension in relation to gauge and scale, and then they sound somewhat just slightly more articulate and present, it's subtle though, definitely not enough for them to have a drastically different character from D'Addarios, just somewhat slightly better, and at a more than reasonable price for custom strings, not much price difference from D'Addarios really, but to your exact preferences and measurements that fits perfectly to your specific instrument and application. 

 

I at least can warmly recommend ordering from Newtone, and would think it is absolutely worth a shot, my bet is is that if you like D'Addario strings you by far most likely going to love Newtone strings. 

 

Note that Diamond series hex core strings will be the closest match to regular XL D'Addario strings.

 

Newtone are great strings, much nicer than any of the big players strings that I have used, only downside with them is they dont publish tension specs which is not a big deal to some people but if I have my setup dialed I tend to try and match the tension with whatever strings I use when I change strings so that I dont have to do the whole eighth of a turn on the truss rod, wait, turn some more, repeat etc, especially as my main bass has the truss rod at the heel end so I have to take the whole neck off to adjust it.

 

 

[lemmywinks]

On 08/08/2022 at 13:51, BassBunny said:

Can anyone suggest a suitable gig bag to house the little treasure. My Mono Bass Sleeve that is my go to has a fixed neck support and the Mezzo ends up with the headstock on it. I guess I could cram some suitable foam in the bottom to correct it but I'd rather have something it would fit properly.

 

Gator Transit, ProGo X and ProGo Deluxe all have movable neck blocks.

Edited August 11, 2022 by lemmywinks

[Obrienp]

I have enjoyed playing my 4 string Mezzo so much that I have been wondering whether the 5 string might be a 5 that I can play comfortably. The problem being short fingers and arthritis in my left thumb, which forced me to give up previous full scale and short scale (Talman) 5 strings. The stretch just caused too much pain, whereas I find that medium and short scale 4 strings are manageable (compared to full scale 4s and 5s).
 

I apologise if this has been covered earlier in the thread but I was having a look at the specs for the 5 string Mezzo on the Ibanez website. I was surprised to see that the neck width goes from 45mm at the nut (pretty standard for a 5)  to 73mm at the heel and that the string spacing at the bridge is 18mm. I thought this looked a bit wide and compared it to the full scale SR305, which is 68mm at the heel and has 16.5mm string spacing at the bridge. By contrast the 4 string Mezzo is 1mm narrower at the heel than the SR300. Why would Ibanez make the medium scale 5 string neck wider than the full scale?  It just doesn’t make sense to me and makes me wonder if the extra width would negate the benefit of the shorter scale (compared to a full scale). I know it’s only 5mm (around 1/3”) but it does make a difference in playability for me.

 

While on the subject of “why would Ibanez do that?”: there is less than a £20 difference in price between the 5 string Mezzo and the SR305EB. The SR305 has different pickups, a 3 band preamp, 3 way coil tap switch and a better bridge. Economies of scale (pun intended)?

Edited February 12 by Obrienp