Ibanez AFR 5 WAP Affirma 5 String Bass Now £750 with free P&P/ trades - *SOLD* £870 Fakenham, Norfolk

[Obrienp]

This is the last of my big boy basses to be put up for sale. Unfortunately, arthritis in my left hand is forcing me to go short scale, otherwise I would definitely be holding on to this beautiful instrument.

 

The full spec can be found here on the Ibanez site, although they are no longer selling the walnut version, so bear in mind that the body wood is Walnut and the fretboard is ebony.https://www.ibanez.com/usa/products/model/afr/

 

To summarise it is a boutique design bass by the late Rolf Spuler. Mine is the recent reissue, rather than the 90s version. It must have one of the most ergonomically designed bodies on the market. It is super comfortable to play either standing or sitting and lightweight, so you can do really long sets with it. The neck is super comfortable to play despite its width, being a really great shallow shape. It has a US Bartolini jazz pickup and the amazing AeroSilk piezo bridge, with individual saddles. There is a two band active preamp for the jazz pickup (stacked eq)  and a single tone and volume preamp for the AeroSilk system. It has a set half neck through design, with two carbon reinforcement rods in addition to the truss rod. The machine heads are arranged to give pretty well straight string pull.

 

You can get an impressive variety of sounds out of the two pickups by blending or soloing them. The piezo puts out a pretty convincing acoustic sound and can be made to sound pretty double bass like with the right eq. Through an acoustic preamp like the Zoom AC-2, or TCE Bodyrez it gets very close to an upright. I have used the +6 db boost trick on the preamp, whereby you drop the jazz pickup down away from the strings and move its connector to the connector labelled +6db. This gives a fatter more mellow sound than the original setup that is more appropriate for slap playing. It is easy to reverse this: just raise the pickup and reconnect to the +0db connector. Together the pickups can give you quite an aggressive growl, or a really mellow woody sound. No modifications at all, apart from Schaller strap lock buttons and I have restrung it with 50-135 standard medium gauge D’Addarios, as opposed to the hybrid light top/medium bottom it comes with.

 

Condition wise I would say it is close to excellent. There are a few light scratches that I have tried to photograph. One of these is by the neck joint. At first I thought it might be a small crack but if it is, it is very minor. However I have reflected this in the price. 
 

The bass is in Ibanez’ Premium range, so comes with a fitted, plush lined case and an amazing multi-tool that I will, of course, include.

 

You are very welcome to try and buy in Fakenham, Norfolk. I will drive around 50 miles, or so to meet/deliver. I have the original box and p&p is now included in the price.

 

I paid the best part of £1,400 for this, so get yourself a boutique bass for the price of a MIM Fender. Surely a bargain at my asking price: now £750.  It is priced to sell quickly but of course, I will listen to close offers. I would consider a trade for a short scale bass 4, or 5 string from Sandberg, or Maruszczyk, with cash adjustment as appropriate. This is no longer on fleaBay: just seem to be a bunch of tyre kickers and chancers on there. Also they now automatically realist your item 7 times, which might be fine if it is a basic auction but I had a reserve that was costing me £30 a pop and they don’t ask you if you want to repost. The only way you can stop it seems to be to end the auction early. Anyway, it is still on Reverb https://reverb.com/uk/item/49873881-ibanez-afr5-wap-affirma-2018-natural-walnut. I would obviously prefer not to have to pay their fees, hence the lower price on this forum.

Edited February 1, 2022 by Obrienp

[PaulThePlug]

Weird 'n Wonderful...

[Henrythe8]

Poop. 

I love those basses and I curse Brexit. 

 

[Obrienp]

10 minutes ago, Henrythe8 said:

Poop. 

I love those basses and I curse Brexit. 

 

Ditto. I guess if you are on the Continent there is just too much hassle involved in buying from the UK now. I can’t see any way round that at the moment and I would be reluctant to ship abroad now as well.  Shame!

[Dazed]

This is a great price!

[Sambrook]

It says something about the state of the marketplace at the moment, that this hasn't been snapped up...

[Obrienp]

2 hours ago, Sambrook said:

It says something about the state of the marketplace at the moment, that this hasn't been snapped up...

You are not kidding: somebody offered me less than £400 for it on fleaBay! Of course I want to sell a nigh on immaculate £1,400 bass for less than a third of the price new…..Not!

[Dazed]

Isn’t Ebay great 😂🙄

 

Have you tried Reverb? Seen a few Affirmas for sale on there and yours is much better priced. 

 

The streamer I have up for sale is approx a fifth of its new retail price!

[Obrienp]

43 minutes ago, Dazed said:

Isn’t Ebay great 😂🙄

 

Have you tried Reverb? Seen a few Affirmas for sale on there and yours is much better priced. 

 

The streamer I have up for sale is approx a fifth of its new retail price!

I never tried Reverb but thanks for the tip. I will investigate. 
 

Wow, a fifth of retail sounds like cutting your throat! GLWTS!

[Henrythe8]

Haven't you plan a trip to the beautiful city of Lille in France, or maybe a romantic getaway with SWMBO in Bruges in Belgium. 

You know. Just to arrange a meet-up. 🙂 

[Obrienp]

2 hours ago, Henrythe8 said:

Haven't you plan a trip to the beautiful city of Lille in France, or maybe a romantic getaway with SWMBO in Bruges in Belgium. 

You know. Just to arrange a meet-up. 🙂 

Hmm. Nice idea but at the moment we are saving our cash for a much postponed long trip home down under. Relatives to see and all that. 
 

However, I’ll give you a shout, if a trip to Northern France/Belgium were to happen.

[Richard R]

Sadly I'm not a good enough player to warrant buying this, though I am seriously drooling. 

It is gorgeous!

[Obrienp]

13 hours ago, Richard R said:

Sadly I'm not a good enough player to warrant buying this, though I am seriously drooling. 

It is gorgeous!

Thanks, it is beautiful but possibly a bit marmite: some bassists are horrified if an instrument does not look like a mid-60s Fender Precision. I like it because it looks different and actually the shape is a combination of form and function. It is incredibly comfortable to play both standing and sitting. That lower horn may look radical but it exactly fits the contour of your thigh when sitting. Plus it is light for a full scale 5 string. It did raise a few eyebrows when I took it to a local blues jam😀.
 

By the way. I am no great shakes as a bassist and have had imposter syndrome ever since buying this but my partner contributed to the cost as a Christmas present a few years ago. Fortunately, she is not upset that I now need to sell it because of the arthritis in my hand. I have never got anywhere near using its potential as an instrument but then I don’t feel too bad about it: this sort of money would be bargain basement for a classical musician. You might be able to get a decent bow for a cello for what this bass cost new.