Ibanez EHB1000S Arrived

[Obrienp]

I finally succumbed to the GAS and bought the 4 string version of the EHB short scale. I know there is a thread on the 5 string but I thought this warranted it’s own.

 

First impressions are very favourable. It seems pretty well made. Not quite in the same league as the Premium and Prestige ranges but easily as good as say, a Mex Fender. There is one flaw in the finish on the top of the residual headstock and that might be the result of the head rubbing on the packaging in transit (see photo later). Otherwise the finish is excellent. 
 

It is super light, almost like picking up an acoustic. It makes my Gretsch Junior Jet feel decidedly overweight. The back of the body is heavily sculpted from the centre line on the upper bout. This makes it very comfortable to sit with and balance on a strap is good too. I think it is going to be great for extended sessions.

 

I can understand why some people criticise the Bartolini pickups. The Ibanez website says they are dual coil: humbuckers to the rest of us I guess and that is always going to put them in a certain tonal range. I can’t find that model on the Bartolini website, so they must be Ibanez specific. On top of the humbucker pickups, the body is chambered, so it is pretty close to a semi-acoustic. All of that is bound to give the tone a sort of 60s bias, i would have thought. It happens to suit me fine but when you switch from passive to active, the 3-band eq gives you a lot of tone shaping options, especially as the mid control has a frequency band adjustment. As an aside, the pickups are very long. It made me wonder if they use the same set in the 5 string, perhaps there is a six coming, they are long enough.

 

The neck is a thing of beauty to behold. Lovely burled grain effect. The only problem there is that you can’t see the dot markers on the front or the side in normal light. They just seem to blend into the darker (but not as dark as rosewood) pigment of the fretboard. Apparently the side dots are luminous but I haven’t noticed that working. Profile wise, it is slightly wider and flatter than  an Ibanez SR, or Jazz Bass. Compared to the Gretsch Junior Jet it is a couple of millimetres wider all the way up. The carve on the back seems to start as a C and flattens quickly to a D as you go up the neck. The overall impression is that it is chunkier than I expected but nothing unmanageable and comfortable for extended playing sessions even with my stubby fingers. That is pretty subjective of course. 
 

The rest of it is nicely appointed, except for the plastic control knobs, which look like the top of a toothpaste tube. I am not sure what made Ibanez put those on it. It really lets it down because the rest of the hardware is pretty good quality. The individual bridge units and tuners are good quality and offer string spacing adjustment. It comes with Schaller strap locks (not just the buttons), a detachable finger ramp and locking jack socket (a bit stiff to operate but it works). The gig bag is pretty good (I guess 10mm padding),with a fair number of pockets and a neck retaining strap on the inside. 
 

It is definitely a keeper as far as I am concerned but I will be replacing those horrible plastic knobs with some metal ones.

 

 

[PaulThePlug]

Very Nice... Strange that those knobs are also on the Premium and Prestige SR models...

[Obrienp]

On 23/07/2021 at 18:47, PaulThePlug said:

Very Nice... Strange that those knobs are also on the Premium and Prestige SR models...

The Affirma must be the exception. It is in the Premium range and has metal knobs.

[Woodinblack]

 

I never really minded the knobs until someone mentioned them, then it started to bug me. I got these in the end:

 

On 23/07/2021 at 18:13, Obrienp said:

locking jack socket (a bit stiff to operate but it works).

 

That one bugged me a lot, and I didn't like the idea so I took the spring out, so not it is a not locking jack socket!

 

Edited July 24, 2021 by Woodinblack

[Obrienp]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

I never really minded the knobs until someone mentioned them, then it started to bug me. I got these in the end:

 

 

That one bugged me a lot, and I didn't like the idea so I took the spring out, so not it is a not locking jack socket!

 

They look good. Where did you get those, if you don’t mind me asking?

 

Edited July 24, 2021 by Obrienp

[Obrienp]

They look good. Where did you get those?

[Woodinblack]

7 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

They look good. Where did you get those?

 

John East 

https://www.east-uk.com/product-category/piezo-preamp-accessories/?v=79cba1185463

[fretmeister]

Lovely.

I really want the 5 string version.

[Obrienp]

Hi Folks. I thought I would do a little update after owning this bass for a couple of weeks and using it at a band rehearsal.

 

Plus points:

1. It really is comfortable to play for extended periods either sitting, or standing;

2. Balance is great on a strap; no dive and it stays where you put it;

3. The neck is very comfortable despite being a bit wider than you might expect for Ibanez, i.e. compared to an SR;

4. The tuning seems more stable than my conventional headed basses;

5. It does look good and I am even getting used to the colour 😊;

6. £16 outlay on decent metal tele style knobs has improved the looks and feel;

7. You can use standard length strings and cut them, rather than expensive short scale;

8. The locking jack socket is great and getting less difficult to use as time passes.

 

Not so good:

1. I am beginning to understand why people are not happy with the Bartolini pickups. They sound great in the studio through my all valve head and Barefaced cabs: if, like me, you like a quite vintage clean sound. During rehearsal on a stage in a hall, they just disappeared into a barely audible rumble. When I increased the mids and treble to make them cut through a bit, they just sounded harsh, so much so that one of the guitarists asked me to do something about it. This could be because I was using my Ashdown Little Stubby (30 watts) on 11 on master volume but with the gain quite low to try to get a clean sound. Obviously the amp just doesn’t have the headroom but I am sure the sound source has something to do with it. I am suspending judgement until I try it through my 500 watt (admittedly class D) head, which should give me a lot of headroom and finer tuning of the mids (low and high). At the moment I feel uncomfortable about having to lay out an extra £200 on upgrading pickups and if I do, Aguilar, or Nordstrand? Get it wrong and it could turn into a money pit;

2. Standard string guage on this and many Ibanez basses. Why the light medium hybrid? I play across the strings rather than up them and it sounds like I have switched basses when I hit the G. OK easy enough to try 50-105 mediums but then I am going to have to enlarge the slots and that will prevent me going back to the standard fit, if it doesn’t work,  without changing the nut. I am probably going to do it though, because I want to try some flex steels to make it brighter/clearer and hopefully avoid a pickup upgrade (see 1 above);

3. Why do Ibanez put those nasty plastic nuts on expensive basses? The black looks good but surely it wouldn’t break the budget to go for graphite, or even Graphtec? All three of my Ibanez basses have this irritation;

4. The tuning system seems to hold tune well but the knurled adjusters are a bit stiff (I guess they have to be), so it is quite difficult to do fine adjustments. Perhaps this will loosen up with use;

5. The treble control knob doubles as the passive tone control. This means that when you switch between passive and active, it is bound to be in the wrong position for that setting. It makes switching a two step process. Probably not a huge problem and common to most active preamp setups but there you go: an inconvenience.

 

With the exception of the pickup issue, the above are common to most Ibanez offerings and a lot of other makes too, so this is a bit of a general whinge. Overall, I am happy with the purchase and I am certainly going to hold on to it. You get a lot of features for your money and the overall format is sound.

 

I hope this helps anybody considering it.

 

[Woodinblack]

17 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

8. The locking jack socket is great and getting less difficult to use as time passes.

 

I would disagree with this one. I don't like locking jack sockets, so I removed the spring on mine. So I suppose you are right, it got much easier to use!

 

 

17 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

4. The tuning system seems to hold tune well but the knurled adjusters are a bit stiff (I guess they have to be), so it is quite difficult to do fine adjustments. Perhaps this will loosen up with use;

 

Mine aren't that stiff, or hard to do fine adjustments. They are stiffer than normal machineheads thought, and I think that helps with the stability. They really are rock solid tuning.

 

17 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

5. The treble control knob doubles as the passive tone control. This means that when you switch between passive and active, it is bound to be in the wrong position for that setting. It makes switching a two step process. Probably not a huge problem and common to most active preamp setups but there you go: an inconvenience

 

 

I would say that is pretty convenient. Most active basses don't have a passive tone control, so you are getting on thrown in free. I don't ever switch to passive so I have no idea what the impact is like but it still seems like a bonus there.

[Obrienp]

Yep, I’m not trying to be too objective about this. It’s all personal opinion and taste based on my particular bass. Others may vary in certain characteristics, like the stiffness of the tuners.

 

I take the point regarding having a passive tone control. Compared to some switchable active basses, this is definitely a plus. I have only ever had stock active basses from Ibanez. Of those, 2 are active only and one (an SR) was switchable active /passive and I am pretty sure it had a passive tone control (and 5 controls without the sweepable mids). Looking at the specification of after market active preamps, several Aguilars have this feature, either with, or without a passive tone control. I can’t see one with a separate passive tone control and I guess another control on the EHB would be over the top.

 

A question for anybody who has changed the pickups on an EHB, whether 4 or 5 string: it seems the pickup lead connections are soldered onto a circuit board attached to the blend control. How did unsoldering the original pickup leads and soldering the new ones go compared to doing the same on conventional potentiometers? I feel nervous about frying the board but at least you don’t have to solder the earths on the back of the pot. Also the cavity looks very full with all the boards and cables. My inclination would be to undo the retaining nut on the blend pot and pull it clear of the cavity to do the work. Obviously I would have to cut the cable tie and pull the preamp board and cables clear as well but is there sufficient length of wire between the pots to enable one to be pulled clear on its own, without touching the others? It becomes a really major job if you have to pull all the pots clear and possibly disconnect the jack socket to do this. I am hoping to be able to avoid the pickup change but the difficulty of the swap would also influence my decision to do the mod.

[Woodinblack]

57 minutes ago, Obrienp said:

A question for anybody who has changed the pickups on an EHB, whether 4 or 5 string: it seems the pickup lead connections are soldered onto a circuit board attached to the blend control.

 

Really? That is very unusual for ibanez, they are normally plugged into a circuit board with molex plugs. I wonder why they have done these differently?

I haven't had a cause to open it up yet.

 

[Obrienp]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Really? That is very unusual for ibanez, they are normally plugged into a circuit board with molex plugs. I wonder why they have done these differently?

I haven't had a cause to open it up yet.

 

That is what it looks like but I haven’t cut the tie wrap and started pulling the wires around, so I may have been tracing the wrong set of cables. Definitely a pair of cables with black and white leads are soldered to that board. There are molex plugs all over the place after that. I am guessing replacement pickups don’t come from Aguilar, etc with molex plugs on them, so soldering is going to be needed anyway.

[Woodinblack]

2 hours ago, Obrienp said:

That is what it looks like but I haven’t cut the tie wrap and started pulling the wires around, so I may have been tracing the wrong set of cables. Definitely a pair of cables with black and white leads are soldered to that board. There are molex plugs all over the place after that. I am guessing replacement pickups don’t come from Aguilar, etc with molex plugs on them, so soldering is going to be needed anyway.

 

Well, you can crimp some connectors on to put them in the old plug if you want to be neat, but if as you say they are soldered, I assume they would be soldered to the balance pot, so shouldn't be an issue. 

 

ok, so I was curious and looked. The Ibanez EHBs (all of them) use the 3EMP3LD preamp module (and a few other related parts). The pickups go to two plugs on the back of the balance board (3EMV5S), one 2 pin plug for each pickup. The balance board connects to the volume board and it in turn goes to the preamp. There is no soldering to be done on any of those boards. If you don't want to make a plug you can cut the old pickups off and connect the new pickup outputs to the old plugs and plug them back in, but obviously that can be done out of the bass, so it would be pretty risk free.

[Obrienp]

Thanks for the info on that. I was obviously looking at the wrong two leads. As I said, I haven’t unbundled the wiring so I could get a better look at what is going on. I can only see one plug connector onto that board but obviously there must be another, which is currently obscured by the wiring. I imagine I could find some of those plugs online, if I wanted to do a neat job, or as you say reuse the old ones. Something to think about anyway but at the moment I am hoping to avoid having to change the pickups. 🤞

[Marvin_]

13 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Well, you can crimp some connectors on to put them in the old plug if you want to be neat, but if as you say they are soldered, I assume they would be soldered to the balance pot, so shouldn't be an issue. 

 

ok, so I was curious and looked. The Ibanez EHBs (all of them) use the 3EMP3LD preamp module (and a few other related parts). The pickups go to two plugs on the back of the balance board (3EMV5S), one 2 pin plug for each pickup. The balance board connects to the volume board and it in turn goes to the preamp. There is no soldering to be done on any of those boards. If you don't want to make a plug you can cut the old pickups off and connect the new pickup outputs to the old plugs and plug them back in, but obviously that can be done out of the bass, so it would be pretty risk free.

 

11 hours ago, Obrienp said:

Thanks for the info on that. I was obviously looking at the wrong two leads. As I said, I haven’t unbundled the wiring so I could get a better look at what is going on. I can only see one plug connector onto that board but obviously there must be another, which is currently obscured by the wiring. I imagine I could find some of those plugs online, if I wanted to do a neat job, or as you say reuse the old ones. Something to think about anyway but at the moment I am hoping to avoid having to change the pickups. 🤞

 

I don't think that applies to all EHBs - the 1005SMS has soldered pickups. They're soldered to the blend pot as can be seen in the second picture. These pictures are after the change to Aguilars, but you get the idea. As far as the Aguilars are concerned, the grey and black wires combine into the upper (closer to the camera) positions, and the white wires into the lower. The pot/board is marked for bridge and neck.

 

[Woodinblack]

Interesting. When you buy that assembly from Ibanez it has two sockets in those positions, maybe they ran out in production, or changed it.

 

Well, that kind of makes it easier to change the pickups on there then if you just have to solder to the balance board. I see they use the same cheap pots they always use!

 

 

[Woodinblack]

7 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Interesting. When you buy that assembly from Ibanez it has two sockets in those positions, maybe they ran out in production, or changed it.

 

No, I am wrong, the current 3EMV5-S part appears to have solder connections, so maybe it was just the first few that had plugs?

 

Yep, just checked mine, soldered there too.

 

Edited August 6, 2021 by Woodinblack

[Obrienp]

Thanks for the info on that. I feel more comfortable soldering than trying to source the correct plugs. 🤞 that it doesn’t come to changing them but if I do, I now know what to do.

 

I have ordered some D’Addario Pro Steels, which I hope will make it sound clearer.

[TheGreek]

I don't get these - each or the horns look like they were designed by 4 different committees

[Obrienp]

8 hours ago, TheGreek said:

I don't get these - each or the horns look like they were designed by 4 different committees

Maybe but it balances well on a strap, so they got something right.

[neepheid]

On 05/08/2021 at 14:42, Obrienp said:

5. The treble control knob doubles as the passive tone control. This means that when you switch between passive and active, it is bound to be in the wrong position for that setting. It makes switching a two step process. Probably not a huge problem and common to most active preamp setups but there you go: an inconvenience.

 

I can't imagine there's a simple way around this which works 100% of the time for 100% of people if the same pot is used for both purposes. In active mode, the sweep of the pot is -5, 0, +5 and in passive mode it's 0-10, active 0 becomes 5 and when you switch back, passive 10 becomes active +5. Has been the way ever since active basses with passive option became a thing. The Gibson Victory Artist had exactly the same thing and it even nailed its colours to the mast with special speed knobs with 5-0-5 numbering were used, making it clear that this was an active bass first and the passive mode was a freebie/nice to have/afterthought. Other early active/passive basses solved/sidestepped this issue by having no passive tone control at all (such as a Guild B-402) making it very much a get out of jail free card in the event of battery failure, or having passive, cut only EQ (such as the G&L L-2000).

 

A separate and distinct passive tone pot is the only true way around this, but extra pot/knob = extra expense and brings aesthetic and usability issues of its own.

 

None of these please everyone, in the end you just have to work with what you've got.

Edited August 8, 2021 by neepheid

[Munurmunuh]

12 minutes ago, neepheid said:

can't imagine there's a simple way around this which works 100% of the time for 100% of people if the same pot is used for both purposes. In active mode, the sweep of the pot is -5, 0, +5 and in passive mode it's 0-10, active 0 becomes 5 and when you switch back, passive 10 becomes active +5.

 

On my TRBX, going from the one really good sound to the other required: flicking from passive to active, turning the blend from all neck to slightly favouring bridge, and turning the dual purpose knob from Tone 10 to Treble -4. In reality, not something possible mid performance.

 

The alternative though would have been three EQ knobs and a blend knob for the active and then another blend knob and a tone knob for the passive. Seven knobs and one switch.... 😕 Perhaps mid EQ and bass EQ could be one stacked pair, and treble EQ and tone another? 

 

 

[Woodinblack]

12 hours ago, Obrienp said:

Maybe but it balances well on a strap, so they got something right.

 

It does, and I think it looks really good.

[Obrienp]

I was going to say that there are some echoes of the Affirma in the EHB horns, although the main body is much more SR. I am not so sure now I look at the Affirma again.