Price Drop £350! - Ibanez BTB455QM 5 string + Glockenklang 3 band pre-amp + case + work done! - *SOLD* £400 BRIGHTON

[Fraserwill]

NOW SOLD.

Here for sale is my beautiful Ibanez BTB455QM. This has been a great bass over the years I much prefer the shape, string spacing and sound over the SR5 I had before.

Mahogany body with orange flame maple quilted top, 35" scale rosewood fretboard, lovely neck and not really that many marks on it for its age. Apart from the one shown on the lower horn you have to hold it in a certain light to see any marks. There are a couple of dings on the fret board too but they are under the strings so they don't notice.

Currently strung with the Sandbergs I took off my new TM5 as I prefer pro steels. So they are new but I find the low B a little dead.

Sold with a Will and Tom case which is very protective. There are not many cases this bass will fit due to the extended upper horn but this one is great and has quite a big pocket for cables and even pedals will fit in there.

So I also spent some time working on it as I'm a tinkerer. Here's a complete list.

1. Swapped out pre-amp for Glockenklang 3 band EQ (£125 from bass direct). Wired in 18v mode for more headroom. Electronics were going off and pots crackling etc. Not easy to get the right values as spares and they crackled too. So decided to plump for a new pre. Now its perfect! The pre also has the volume as a pull to go to passive mode and makes the treble a tome control instead. Something I also have on my new sandberg which is cool.
2. Completely sanded and tung oiled the neck. This was a bold move! However, when I got it it had some dings and it always annoyed me. Researching finishes I went for tung because its like an oil that sets rather than a varnish. When it wears you just add some more with a rag, let it dry and polish. So now its lovely and smooth. Not factory finish as such but really nice and of course easily maintainable.
3. Fret work. I bought a fret levelling tool and file and went all over the fret board to get rid of all the buzzes. Its pretty low now as you can see in the pics, some may want to raise it especially for styles like slap.
4. Oiled the fretboard with teak oil to get it nice and dark and glossy.
5. The black plastic parts including pickups were looking tired so I matted them all down with a sanding block. The truss rod cover was the only plastic that was the black and white sandwhich kind which I though looked cheap so I matted it and painted the edges which looks much nicer.
6. Couple of the knobs were replaced.
7. Even bought a set of white washers for the tuners because one of them had broker and fallen out.

Oh yeah, one of the pots used to be the stacked mid so I have the lower half of that knob too which I'll supply.

So give me a shout and ask questions.

I'm in Brighton so can meet within reasonable distance but will also post if need be. I'll get a price soon and update.

 

PS, I've even provided a pic of me playing it at a beer festival so you can see how cool I looked!

Edited November 29, 2022 by Fraserwill
Now Sold

[Twunkbass]

Lovely bass, my btb is great, but did you find the sound improved much with the new pre? I feel like the preamp is the weak spot of these guys 

[Fraserwill]

Well it's subjective of course. The new pre is very clean, quiet and precise (should be as it was £125!). The frequencies are better in my opinion I always found the bass a bit boomy and rolled it off a lot of the time. Passive mode is nice you can get other sounds almost p-bass etc. It plays really nicely too. 

 

[Tomred90]

Is this still available? I had one from new back in about 2007 and have long regretted selling it. 

[Fraserwill]

Yes it is mate. I thought about checking back here just yesterday. Was going to bump.

[BRIM777]

TRADE FOR GUITAR POSSIBLY?

[Fraserwill]

Sorry dude I have a guitar but I'm mainly a bassist so couldn't use another. Cheers.