(Rather Belated) NBD Ibanez SR505

[Marc S]

I probably should have posted this over a week ago.... when I actually bought the bass! lol However, I decided to play it for a while first - to see how I got on with it

I keep thinking I should play a 5 string - then I keep falling in and out of love for 5 string basses, for various reasons. Usually, my reasons for selling are that I find the necks just a bit too chunky, or I find the bass is a tad too heavy..... or a combination of both. Sometimes, I don't find the string spacing to be very comfortable. This isn't something I find with 4 strings - I can usually adapt my playing. But with 5 strings I've found on a more comfortable width neck, the strings can be a bit too close for my right hand plucking (i.e. not enough room between strings for my fattish fingers)

To cut a long story short, I bought & sold a few 5'ers for a combination of the above reasons (or excuses). Actually, on the point of the weight of a bass - it's not something that used to bother me too much. However, my increasing age and ageing joints / shoulders / back have made this factor ever more important.

So my thinking was - where can I find a lightweight 5 string bass, which is lightweight and has a neck which isn't too wide (or wide plus deep) but isn't too narrow string spacing at the bridge? Fussy old BC'er, aren't I?   So I turned to Ibanez. I've owned Ibby's in the past and always found them to be great instruments. In fact, I once owned the 4 string version of this bass, the SDGR 500 - a bass I was well pleased with.

I have to say that so far, I'm really liking this bass! It was a local purchase too. It's very light for a 5'er - I think it's around 3.5kg. The neck is a comfortable width, and it's slim front-to-back, so I can get my hand around it easily enough. Also, the string spacing seems very comfortable too. It's narrow-ish at the nut, but the neck tapers enough to make the spacing good for my right hand... plus, the bridge allows for some lateral position adjustment too  The quality of construction is really good - it feels a solid build, and the finish is really nice. No sticky left hand on a glossy neck - it's really nice satin sort of feel. I like the dark wood colour too.

The electronics are great, and the 2 active Bartolini pickups are superb. As I expected, It's more of a modern sounding bass than my current collection of basses - but that's not an entirely bad thing. It's another choice for me to make, depending on the gig I'm playing. Another added bonus is that the pickups and electrics work in passive mode, and it even works with no battery - so no worries about a battery going flat mid-gig.

Now all I have to do, is to get my spatial awareness up to speed for 5 string playing. I've been noodling at home, and took the bass to one garden room / semi-open-air trio jam. I did make a few errors, hitting the wrong string DOH - but it's been a while since I last played a 5'er for any length of time.

Edited May 10, 2021 by Marc S