Ibanez Owners Club

[SumOne]

36 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

You can use any strings, you just pass them through the hole and clamp them.

 

Do you mean hang like this?

 

 

 

 

Nice, I thought it might need double-ball end strings. And yeah - that's similar to the wall hanger I have so it's handy that works. 

 

No sooner have I got a nice vintage type Bass (passive Fender Jazz V with  quite a punky/road worn look) and I'm eying up the opposite end of the spectrum with modern, bright coloured, active, headless, multiscale Basses! 

 

I'm a bit gutted this year's version doesn't have the T1 pickups (it's the odd one out - they are on the EHB6 and all of the BTB multiscales) and the only colour option is brown.  

Edited January 18, 2022 by SumOne

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 09/04/2021 at 09:35, Baloney Balderdash said:

Don't think I ever posted a picture of my main Ibanez Mikro Bass here after I transplanted the outstanding neck from my old 2010 production GSRM20 Mikro Bass to the mahogany body of my newer 2017 production GSRM20B in Weathered Black finish, so here it is (also swapped the side mounted barrel type jack output socket to a front mounted regular one, as I got the 1 P pickup I have installed wired directly to the output jack socket, and as such the knobs are only there for strictly cosmetic reasons. Also swapped the Model P pickup on this picture out for an EMG Geezer Butler P pickup since the photo was shot) :

 

 

New shot, new visual mods, and the DiMarzio Model P P pickup swapped for an EMG Geezer Butler P P pickup :

 

Strung with gauge .080 - .060 - .045 - .034 regular D'Addario roundwound nickle plated steel core XL strings, and tuned in G1 standard tuning, 3 half steps above regular 4 string bass E1 standard tuning.

 

This tuning together with the exceptionally short scale length really making it function more like a downtuned 4 string baritone guitar than a bass, though still capable of filling out the sonic space of a bass instrument in the psychedelic stoner/doom rock bass and drums duo I use it for, also running it through an always on 1 octave up effect, to fill out even more sonic space, and giving an effect somewhat similar to that of an 8 string bass with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings.

 

Love this bass to bits, and even though I usually don't name my instruments I did this one, "Dud Bottomfeeder", it is.

Edited January 18, 2022 by Baloney Balderdash

[Obrienp]

1 hour ago, SumOne said:

 

Have you found any unexpected negatives with headless? I'm guessing limited string choice is the big thing, and not being able to hang on the wall, anything else? 

The string issue has already been answered, ditto hanging it on the wall. I have the 4 string version, so this might not apply to the multi scale but I find myself looking at the neck more often. I think it might be to do with the length of the neck and headstock in my peripheral vision. If I don’t keep checking, occasionally I end up fretting one or two frets higher than I meant to. I am probably not helping myself by playing a regular short scale bass with one band and the headless with another.

 

The other thing you have to watch out for is the string clamps working loose but this might be because I am careful not to over tighten them in the first place. I have visions of stripping the thread by over tightening: you can put a lot of torque on them with an Allen key.

[Woodinblack]

51 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

I am probably not helping myself by playing a regular short scale bass with one band and the headless with another.

 

I read that as 'with one hand and the headless in another' - I was impressed!

 

51 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

The other thing you have to watch out for is the string clamps working loose but this might be because I am careful not to over tighten them in the first place. I have visions of stripping the thread by over tightening: you can put a lot of torque on them with an Allen key.

 

Never had that.

[Obrienp]

Well, having just sold my AFR Affirma 5 string (very sad) because of having to go short scale, I couldn’t resist the GAS and succumbed to a Talman TMB35. I am staggered by the value for money of this bass. You get a lot for your £219. All the frets are seated well, no sharp ends. The finish is well applied. The hardware is reasonable quality for a guitar in this price bracket. Really the only things I am not that keen on are the “mint” green, which is a bit insipid, the control knobs and the bulk of the neck. After all I have gone short scale because I was finding long scale basses too much for my arthritic left hand. I’ll see how I get on with it but I can always get the spoke shave out and take it down a bit. At this price, it’s not really an issue.

 

I now have two green Ibanez short scales. The other being the EHB1000s. I did think about getting the EHB1005s but then I would have the expense of changing the Bartolini pickups for Aguilar, or Nordstrand. Whereas the pickups in the Talman seem OK on first use. There is no way I am going to spend North of £200 on replacement pickups for it anyway.
 

 

[fretmeister]

3 hours ago, Obrienp said:

Well, having just sold my AFR Affirma 5 string (very sad) because of having to go short scale, I couldn’t resist the GAS and succumbed to a Talman TMB35. I am staggered by the value for money of this bass. You get a lot for your £219. All the frets are seated well, no sharp ends. The finish is well applied. The hardware is reasonable quality for a guitar in this price bracket. Really the only things I am not that keen on are the “mint” green, which is a bit insipid, the control knobs and the bulk of the neck. After all I have gone short scale because I was finding long scale basses too much for my arthritic left hand. I’ll see how I get on with it but I can always get the spoke shave out and take it down a bit. At this price, it’s not really an issue.

 

I now have two green Ibanez short scales. The other being the EHB1000s. I did think about getting the EHB1005s but then I would have the expense of changing the Bartolini pickups for Aguilar, or Nordstrand. Whereas the pickups in the Talman seem OK on first use. There is no way I am going to spend North of £200 on replacement pickups for it anyway.
 

 

the 5 string 1005SMS is a multi scale only, so it needs the 6 string pickups… cost me £300!

 

[Obrienp]

32 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

the 5 string 1005SMS is a multi scale only, so it needs the 6 string pickups… cost me £300!

 

Yes, I saw that but £300: streuth! The BC sized Aguilars were over £200 for the 1000. I now wish I had gone for the Big Splits rather than the Dual Coil but I am going to have to live with them and they certainly sound a lot better than the OEM Bartolinis. It’s just I am having a lot of love for the Jazz bass sound at the moment. I was listening to the remastered versions of Led Zep’s first couple of albums and JPJ’s tone is amazing.

[NancyJohnson]

I'm not big on the club thing, but I've owned three Ibanez Riadster basses; back in the 80' an original Roadster (happy memories), then another one (awful) and I picked up one as a project (neck, body, bridge, machines) last year.

 

It's had a stripback and respray, new guts.  It's wired into the switch and then the volume, so three of the knobs are just there to fill the holes.  Sounds fine to my ears.  

 

[Woodinblack]

6 hours ago, Obrienp said:

Whereas the pickups in the Talman seem OK on first use. 

 

The bridge pickup of the TMB35 is actually pretty noisy and not great, but it balances nicely with the other pickup. I gigged it and got good comments.

[Obrienp]

13 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

The bridge pickup of the TMB35 is actually pretty noisy and not great, but it balances nicely with the other pickup. I gigged it and got good comments.

I haven’t noticed that yet but I have only played it at studio volume. Are we talking the sort of noise that shielding will cure? That was on my to-do list, as I have some copper tape left from my last project. 
 

BTW have you replaced the bridge and if so, with what? I spotted an unused Fender high mass unit going cheap on eBay and bought it on impulse but now it has arrived I see it has a 4 screw mount. They look as though they might line up with 4 of the originals but I will only know if it aligns properly when I try it. I might need to look for something else.

 

How have the machine heads held up? They look pretty good.

[Woodinblack]

15 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

I haven’t noticed that yet but I have only played it at studio volume. Are we talking the sort of noise that shielding will cure?

 

Maybe. There isn't any shielding and the electronics are very poor - my tone control stopped working so I went to look and the wire had fallen off.  But I never noticed any shielding other than the cover is metal.

 

15 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

BTW have you replaced the bridge and if so, with what? 

 

How have the machine heads held up? They look pretty good.

I haven't replaced any of the hardware, it all seems to do the job fine. If it had lighter machineheads it would probably be good, but there isn't anything functionally wrong with them

[Obrienp]

4 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Maybe. There isn't any shielding and the electronics are very poor - my tone control stopped working so I went to look and the wire had fallen off.  But I never noticed any shielding other than the cover is metal.

 

I haven't replaced any of the hardware, it all seems to do the job fine. If it had lighter machineheads it would probably be good, but there isn't anything functionally wrong with them

Thanks for the info. I have an Alpha blend pot I was going to fit instead of having 2 individual volume controls. It sounds like it might be worth replacing all the electronics at the same time. It probably will have zero impact on the sound but it gives you peace of mind for gigging.

 

I agree the OEM bridge and tuners look surprisingly good for the price point. The Fender item is so heavy it might be worth fitting just to combat the neck dive but the trade off would be even more weight on the shoulder. It is already quite heavy for a short scale.

 

Fortunately the OEM strings seem pretty good because there seem to be very few choices around for SS 5 strings and even fewer in stock in the UK.

[Woodinblack]

55 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

 It sounds like it might be worth replacing all the electronics at the same time. It probably will have zero impact on the sound but it gives you peace of mind for gigging.

 

Normally I would put most of the replacing electronics as a bit snake oilish from a sound point of view, but in this case, maybe not, certainly not from a piece of mind. I replaced the pot with an alpha pot, bit of a contrast. This was the wiring straight out of the bass when I took it out to see why the tone had stopped working

 

 

 

And the alpha pot by comparison

 

 

Certainly can see where they didn't spend the money!

 

55 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

I agree the OEM bridge and tuners look surprisingly good for the price point. The Fender item is so heavy it might be worth fitting just to combat the neck dive but the trade off would be even more weight on the shoulder. It is already quite heavy for a short scale.

 

True thats a point. For me a bridge works or it doesn't. I can appreciate the quality of a well made bridge but it is pretty rare I have heard a difference between one bridge and another unless the first was broken. And never on a bass.

 

55 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

Fortunately the OEM strings seem pretty good because there seem to be very few choices around for SS 5 strings and even fewer in stock in the UK.

 

There is always Newtone

 

[Obrienp]

8 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Normally I would put most of the replacing electronics as a bit snake oilish from a sound point of view, but in this case, maybe not, certainly not from a piece of mind. I replaced the pot with an alpha pot, bit of a contrast. This was the wiring straight out of the bass when I took it out to see why the tone had stopped working

 

 

 

And the alpha pot by comparison

 

 

Certainly can see where they didn't spend the money!

 

There is always Newtone

 

Yep, those pots are pretty bad but the soldering is about my level of incompetence , at least on the back of pots. However, some Alpha pots are on order and I will try to do better this time, despite the non-lead solder we have to use these days. I am going to go for a parallel/series switch on a push/pull pot as well as the blend control. Took me most of the afternoon to work out the wiring schematic and it is going to be a bit fiddly to do. At least the control cavity looks quite big in your pics and it seems to have shielding paint but whether they carried that over into the pickup cavities and put connected shielding on the back of the pickguard, remains to be seen.

 

I might give Newtone a shout. I use their Michael Messer strings on my National NRP reso and I have used their Acoustic Masters in the past as well. You just have to be careful how, when and where you cut any surplus length off when changing strings. 

[Woodinblack]

There is space by the P pickup, the area under the metal control is very narrow, so no room for anything else there.

 

Why would the series / parallel be tricky? There is quite a lot of room there if you are going to put it on the top pots. I must admit I would be a bit wary of extra noise that you will get with series from the jazz pickup, but maybe with your shielding it might help a bit.

[Obrienp]

22 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Why would the series / parallel be tricky? There is quite a lot of room there if you are going to put it on the top pots. I must admit I would be a bit wary of extra noise that you will get with series from the jazz pickup, but maybe with your shielding it might help a bit.

Only because I’m not very good at wiring the shunts between the terminals on the switches. Probably more of a faff on the blend pot to be honest. The push/pull and the blend will be the top two pots on the scratchplate, so it sounds as though space won’t be a problem in the cavity. The series wiring does add some hum but as you say but the shielding helps tame it a bit. It’s worth it for the massive tone that it produces: it turns the pickups into a huge humbucker with lots of bass and low mids.

[Woodinblack]

I think I got the idea wrong - did you mean parallel series on the two pickups, in which case the blend wouldn't work right, or did you just mean on the p?

 

I know the series / parallel well enough, I have it on a few basses.

[Obrienp]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

I think I got the idea wrong - did you mean parallel series on the two pickups, in which case the blend wouldn't work right, or did you just mean on the p?

 

I know the series / parallel well enough, I have it on a few basses.

I meant switching the 2 pickups between parallel and series. I tried parallel/series switching between the two parts of a split P (and a 4 wire 51) and I didn’t think it added much but maybe I am not very attentive to nuisances in tone. Yes, you are are right, when I switch them to series the blend won’t function. It will effectively be one big pickup with volume and tone controls. 
 

Actually thinking about that, I am now wondering what value pots and capacitor I should be using. I have ordered 250s but maybe I should go for 500s and wire resistors in parallel to the pickups’ hot leads for when they are needing to see 250. I guess 250s are going to clip off some of the top end, so maybe that is not such a bad thing for a bass, as long as it doesn’t make it sound muddy. I always think Ibanez basses sound a tadge bright anyway.

[Woodinblack]

40 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

I meant switching the 2 pickups between parallel and series. I tried parallel/series switching between the two parts of a split P (and a 4 wire 51) and I didn’t think it added much but maybe I am not very attentive to nuisances in tone.

 

No, I never noticed a difference in that, which is why I never bothered with that after doing it once (or wondered why they put the S1 switch on the P bass - works nicely on the jazz)

 

40 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

Yes, you are are right, when I switch them to series the blend won’t function. It will effectively be one big pickup with volume and tone controls

 

Depends on how you wire them - if you leave the blend inputs in place before the switch it will blend between series and the back pickup or act as an additional volume. But if you switch the blend out as well it would be fine. Just more wiring there.

 

Certainly worth shielding in that case with the back pickup being a bit of a noise magnet. note, it doesn't turn it to one big humbucker, it turns it into two individual stacked pickups, a humbucker actually reduces hum (obviously) due to the wiring and magnet polarity, two series pickups (unless they are wired that way) don't cancel the hum, they add it.

 

Still a good thing to do, just be careful of quite a noisy original setup (however, maybe it is just mine that is noisy?)

 

 

40 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

Actually thinking about that, I am now wondering what value pots and capacitor I should be using. I have ordered 250s but maybe I should go for 500s and wire resistors in parallel to the pickups’ hot leads for when they are needing to see 250. I guess 250s are going to clip off some of the top end, so maybe that is not such a bad thing for a bass, as long as it doesn’t make it sound muddy. I always think Ibanez basses sound a tadge bright anyway.

 

Not sure what you mean - 250s will clip off the top end, that is their purpose in a bass. 500s would clip more off. I am not sure what the resistor thing would give you, except if you wired two resistors to the hot output of both pickups, you are shorting out part of the top pickup (which maybe would be ok as I believe the P is louder than the J), but the 500 would make it mudier.

 

But as you said you ordered '250s' ie, multiple. Try the 250, if it is too bright put another 250 in parallel with it (which is then 500).

[Obrienp]

37 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Depends on how you wire them - if you leave the blend inputs in place before the switch it will blend between series and the back pickup or act as an additional volume. But if you switch the blend out as well it would be fine. Just more wiring there.

 

Still a good thing to do, just be careful of quite a noisy original setup (however, maybe it is just mine that is noisy.

I might look again at my schematic design but I was going to do the blend first and then go to the push/pull but the switch will shut off one pickup’s hot lead to the blend when in series; it sends it to the ground of the next pickup in series.

 

I will definitely have to shield to keep the noise down when in series.

37 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Not sure what you mean - 250s will clip off the top end, that is their purpose in a bass. 500s would clip more off. I am not sure what the resistor thing would give you, except if you wired two resistors to the hot output of both pickups, you are shorting out part of the top pickup (which maybe would be ok as I believe the P is louder than the J), but the 500 would make it mudier.

 

But as you said you ordered '250s' ie, multiple. Try the 250, if it is too bright put another 250 in parallel with it (which is then 500).

I might be wrong but I think the 250K cuts more top than the 500K, which is why 500K is recommended for humbuckers. Anyway, it looks as though I am going to find out for certain as I ordered 250Ks. Certainly my experience with a project bass, that has a mudbucker and a ‘51 P in it, is that the single coil P going into the 500K pots and .22 cap solo was much too bright (and loud) but 250Ks and .47 cap made the mudbucker (actually it is a DiMarzio 145) too muddy. I got round this by wiring a 500k resistor in parallel with the P’s hot lead: it makes the 500K pot look like a 250 to the ‘51 pickup, so it takes some of the top end and signal off. I can’t get my head round what happens when the two pickups are switched to series. They do sound massive but as you say quite noisy, despite tons of copper tape shielding.
 

By the way, I am no electronics expert, I just got all this off the web and I am probably not using the correct technical language, so I am probably talking a load of bllx. The Stewmac and Fralin websites are really helpful for this sort of stuff. I now wish I had paid more attention during O Level Physics!

[Woodinblack]

54 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

I might look again at my schematic design but I was going to do the blend first and then go to the push/pull but the switch will shut off one pickup’s hot lead to the blend when in series; it sends it to the ground of the next pickup in series.

 

ok, that works. If the bottom pickups hot gets switched from the blend to the top pickups 'ground', the ground is removed from the top pickup and the top pickup hot goes to the output of the blend.

 

54 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

I will definitely have to shield to keep the noise down when in series.

I might be wrong but I think the 250K cuts more top than the 500K, which is why 500K is recommended for humbuckers.

 

Yes, you are wrong. The higher the capacitance the lower the resistance at a given frequency

 

Xc = 1 / 2πfc

 

where Xc is the equivilent impedance, f is the frequency in hertz, and C is the capacitance in farads.

 

so for a 250nF capacitor, at 5khz

 

@5kHz - 1 / 2π 5000 * 0.00000025 = 127Ω

@2kHz - 1 / 2π 2000 * 0.00000025 = 318Ω

 

for a 500nF capacitor

 

@5kHz - 1 / 2π 5000 * 0.00000050 = 63Ω

@2kHz - 1 / 2π 2000 * 0.00000050 = 159Ω

 

So dumbing it down a bit you can say equivilent impedance is like resistance, and in this context it is used shorting to ground, so for any given frequency, the lower the resistance the more you are shorting to ground.

And because these values are very low compared to your pickups / vpolume / pan / amp input impedance etc, you are going to hear very little when you turn your tone down.

 

 I think you are an order of magnitude out in your values - I would personally be using a 22nF, not a 220nF etc,  although I think the TMB35 has 47nf. The Fender American Vintage 62 uses a 100nF which is quite high.

 

Handy calculator here if you dont want to do the above - https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/tools/capacitor-impedance-calculator/

 

 

54 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

 I can’t get my head round what happens when the two pickups are switched to series. They do sound massive but as you say quite noisy, despite tons of copper tape shielding.

 

You take two signals and litterally add them together, unlike parallel where you take 2 signals and average them.

 

54 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

By the way, I am no electronics expert, I just got all this off the web and I am probably not using the correct technical language, so I am probably talking a load of bllx. The Stewmac and Fralin websites are really helpful for this sort of stuff. I now wish I had paid more attention during O Level Physics!

 

I found O level physics was particulalry useless at this sort of stuff, it was all springs and inclines. I can't remember if we touched anythign like that until I did 1st year electronic principles at college.

 

[Obrienp]

I should probably let this go but I was talking about 250k and 500k potentiometers, rather than caps. The cap I would be using would be 47nf with a 250K pot.

[Woodinblack]

23 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

I should probably let this go but I was talking about 250k and 500k potentiometers, rather than caps. The cap I would be using would be 47nf with a 250K pot.

 

Ah ok, sorry - I was being dumb!

 

Well, yes its a compromise, sometimes you will have two coils, sometimes you have one. So I guess its whatever sounds better!

[Obrienp]

3 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Ah ok, sorry - I was being dumb!

No. I didn’t explain it very well.

 

Fingers crossed that it is going to work OK!

[Mikey D]

On 05/02/2022 at 13:46, Obrienp said:

Well, having just sold my AFR Affirma 5 string (very sad) because of having to go short scale, I couldn’t resist the GAS and succumbed to a Talman TMB35. I am staggered by the value for money of this bass. You get a lot for your £219. All the frets are seated well, no sharp ends. The finish is well applied. The hardware is reasonable quality for a guitar in this price bracket. Really the only things I am not that keen on are the “mint” green, which is a bit insipid, the control knobs and the bulk of the neck. After all I have gone short scale because I was finding long scale basses too much for my arthritic left hand. I’ll see how I get on with it but I can always get the spoke shave out and take it down a bit. At this price, it’s not really an issue.

 

I now have two green Ibanez short scales. The other being the EHB1000s. I did think about getting the EHB1005s but then I would have the expense of changing the Bartolini pickups for Aguilar, or Nordstrand. Whereas the pickups in the Talman seem OK on first use. There is no way I am going to spend North of £200 on replacement pickups for it anyway.
 

 

Best thing I did was drop some Aguilars in the TMB35. The luthier that did the work even called his bassist friend around to hear it as he was shocked how good they sounded.