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Ibanez Portamento 5 - thoughts?


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When i bought my portamento 4, I went to a guitar shop with a largish bass section, and they allowed me to try every fretless bass in the place, including some that had a 4 at the beginning of the price tag followed by three other digits before the decimal point. I ended up with the Ibanez. 

 

When it came to buying a 5 string fretless  a few years later (that years set list demanded a five string), I did the same thing again, tried loads of others before eventually plumping for the Portamento again.

I think they are hugely underrated, and Ibanez only made two mistakes with them. The first was not offering any different colour options, and the second was discontinuing them. 

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I second the above comment. A few years ago, I visited Bass Direct with my credit card in hand, and murder in mind. Played half a dozen wonderful fretlesses, (including Zon, Roscoe, and NS) but none compared to the Portamento waiting at home. 

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2 hours ago, sprocketflup said:

When i bought my portamento 4, I went to a guitar shop with a largish bass section, and they allowed me to try every fretless bass in the place, including some that had a 4 at the beginning of the price tag followed by three other digits before the decimal point. I ended up with the Ibanez. 

 

When it came to buying a 5 string fretless  a few years later (that years set list demanded a five string), I did the same thing again, tried loads of others before eventually plumping for the Portamento again.

I think they are hugely underrated, and Ibanez only made two mistakes with them. The first was not offering any different colour options, and the second was discontinuing them. 

The third was only offering a 6 in the US (afaik)

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13 hours ago, sprocketflup said:

When i bought my portamento 4, I went to a guitar shop with a largish bass section, and they allowed me to try every fretless bass in the place, including some that had a 4 at the beginning of the price tag followed by three other digits before the decimal point. I ended up with the Ibanez. When it came to buying a 5 string fretless  a few years later (that years set list demanded a five string), I did the same thing again, tried loads of others before eventually plumping for the Portamento again.
I think they are hugely underrated, and Ibanez only made two mistakes with them. The first was not offering any different colour options, and the second was discontinuing them. 

Wow - I hadn't spotted they'd been discontinued. Together with all the positive comments above, none of which I disagree with even though I've not played mine nearly as much as I had planned to yet, tells me I should absolutely look to hold onto mine!

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I no longer have mine, because turns out I am no good with fretless, but it was a fantastic bass, really nicely made and solid with a great versatile sound.

I agree about the comments of the colours, it is a good colour and nicely finished but options are always good.

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