NBD: most unlikely bass for me ever

[andruca]

Hi y'all!
 

Just 2 weeks ago I wouldn't have even imagined I'd ever own a bass like this. I accidentally ran into an ad for an Ibanez EHB1005MS for less than half the new price (presumably because of an issue with a tuner). I made my homework, checked for monorail bridge+tuner prices and made sure I could repair whatever issue for cheap, and pulled the trigger, with MOSTLY questions (many firsts, first headless, first multiscale, first bass with the horrible Bart BH2s, etc.), but that of the "investment", being that cheap, if I don't happen to like it I can get rid of it losing no money, or even earning some. On a side note, I've been looking for a cheap travel bass. I know this is not as cheap as I'd wanted, but it's a hell of a travel bass (as per dimensions) and much more, a perfectly competent instrument.

 

The bass happened to work OK, no tuner problem, 100% user error AFAICT. I don't know what string gauges were on that bass, but they were THICK, and the SUPOSED G string measured thicker than my regular (.065) D. Being that the scale for that string is 33", you will always max out the tuner threading before reaching pitch. WIth my usual strings it works perfectly and I have lots of threading left in the tuner. BTW, no need for weird string sets on this bass either. The same as a Schecter CV-5 I used to own, my usual Warwick Red Label Nickels are long enough, there's about 1cm of string winding left past the nut.

 

 

Surprisingly I like the bass a lot. Plays wonderfully and has lots of nice features. It has 2 problems tho', one's stupid, the other is a REAL problem.

 

The stupid thing has to do with fret markers. The front markers apparently aren't for the player, as you CAN'T SEE THEM, the low B string completely covers them from your viewpoint when playing. The side Luminlay dots are nice... IN THE DARK, AS IN NATURAL LIGHT THEY GET COMPLETELY LOST. I don't rely on markers much, but being this my 1st multiscale I'd love to have clear markers for the upper register, where frets are more tilted, at least while I adapt, as I occasionally might get lost. Nothing some stickers won't correct.

 

Now the real issue with this bass is the crappy Bart BH2s (not real Bartolinis, but a "licensed copy" some chinese manufacturer produces for Ibanez), which come wired in series and sound totally DEAD (excessively and unnaturally scooped). I don't have a problem using a soldering iron, so I rewired both as single coils (neck side coil of each PU). I don't discard going the Nordy Big Splits route in the future, but the change to single coils at least made that necessity les urgent, it's the only way I find these BH2 pickups acceptable, they're beyond crappy. It's silly that Ibanez offers this bass with such poor pickups (IDK about you, but I DON'T PAY 1200-1300€ FOR DEAD PICKUPS). But also, the next EHB/MS model up is simply paying 200-300$/€ more for just pretty wood, USELESS. You have to pay 500$/€ more to get Nordstrands (plus the useles fancy wood, guess you can't avoid that). Just don't get it, my Sire V3, at 1/3 the new price, has 10X better pickups.

 

I insist, once rewired to single coil the bass sounds a lot better. Not as good as the demos I hear with Nordstrands, but definitely a "normal" usable bass guitar. The rest of the bass is awesome, comfortable, light, steel frets, the finishing, the neck profile (sorta' D, but as skinny front to back as SRs), the roasted maple, the birdseye in the fretboard, I even find the aesthetics on this graceful, or let's say it could be worse (it could also be a single cut, for the ultimate aberration).

Here's a clip I've recorded with the EHB, a song by Argentinean supergroup Divididos. The EHB here does a great "impersonation" of the original neck pickup Jazz Bass tone, with highs cut and lows slightly boosted.

 

 

My stable looks like this now...

 

[Lozz196]

That`s an impressive stable there @andruca 

[TheGreek]

I'm seeing loads of these for sale. 

Why are so many people unloading practically new basses so quickly?

[andruca]

6 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

I'm seeing loads of these for sale. 

Why are so many people unloading practically new basses so quickly?

'round here they're nowhere to be seen used, I think I've only seen a 1505MS offered some months ago in my usual 2nd hand online outlets.

 

I just guess the pickups might be a turnoff. I got fed up within 3 days of having the bass, then rewired them for good.

Edited April 8 by andruca

[tauzero]

I've got the 1265MS, the fancy wood version. One of the previous owners had swapped the pickups for Aguilar DCBs and they're fine - I bought it from @lowregisterhead but I think it was the original owner who did the swap.

[lowregisterhead]

6 hours ago, tauzero said:

I've got the 1265MS, the fancy wood version. One of the previous owners had swapped the pickups for Aguilar DCBs and they're fine - I bought it from @lowregisterhead but I think it was the original owner who did the swap.

I bought the 1265 new that you got from me @tauzero and also fitted the Aguilar DCB D4 pickups. I just thought the stock Barts were really bland, and I found the Aggies had much more punch and detail. I tried two of the 1005s in Andertons when they first came out, and for me they were pretty flat sounding, perhaps due in part to the basswood body. They also both had some QC issues, as well as a couple of really obvious dead spots.

The 1005s have maple/walnut necks and basswood bodies, whereas the 1505 and 1265 have pangapanga/walnut necks and mahogany bodies with poplar burl or  walnut tops, which I think makes a big difference.

 

I still think it’s a cool design, but the reason I moved it on was that even though I’m involved in a few very different band and projects, the bass wasn’t really a good fit for any of them. The guys in the blues band I play in hated the look of it! 😆 The other reason was that I quite like a bass with a bit of heft to it, and I actually found the EHB being so light and compact difficult to get used to. 

 

I’m still a fan of headless basses - I took delivery of a new Status S23 a couple of weeks ago. There a short review and video here:

 

 

[asingardenof]

On 08/04/2024 at 17:14, TheGreek said:

I'm seeing loads of these for sale. 

Why are so many people unloading practically new basses so quickly?

I assume loads of people have bought them online during Covid because shops weren't open to try them, then once they've had them for a while they realise they want something else.

[tauzero]

On 08/04/2024 at 17:14, TheGreek said:

I'm seeing loads of these for sale. 

Why are so many people unloading practically new basses so quickly?

 

Is three or four years old "practically new"?

 

There's such a wide range that there could be a variety of reasons. Didn't like headless, got a 5 and didn't get on with it, got a 6 and didn't get on with it, got a 4 and wanted a 5, didn't get on with multiscale, wanted multiscale, upgraded from 10 series to 15 series, gave up bass, needed to pay a bill. Ibanez might welcome your research on the subject.

[andruca]

Voilá, I'm GUYKERed, for good. These blow the Barts out of the (indistinct) mud. These are single coils and Barts are wired in single coil here too (they are MUCH WORSE than you hear here stock, in series). Only con is the Guykers have less gain, so I've recorded both passive and active with a +6db connection the onboard has (still, flat EQ). It compensates for the colder pickups. Didn't move any gain nor relative volumes between changes, so the volume proportion is faithful.

 

 

Edited April 14 by andruca

[andruca]

Finally pulled the trigger on some Bartolini P452J squared (cuad coils, as in 2 split coil Jazz pickups stuck together). My intention was to get P45Js but there was a LONG wait on those (made to order) and BestBassGear had these in stock for a few bucks more. Glad I got these as I managed to add 2 DPDT coil tap switches, with real good results. Really liking these pickups.

 

Comparison with BH2s before coil tap added (hard wired neck-side inline pair of coils for each pickup)...

 

After coil tap switches installed, samples of some combinations...

 

[andruca]

So, this is how my EHB1005MS ended. You might find this radical. I couldn't stand the new EXPENSIVE Bartolinis either, no matter how I coil tapped them (dead sounding, exactly as the factory BH2s and every other Bartolini I've ever owned/played). Not dumping any more dough on them, they're going to the black list, to make DEADlano company, sorry to all fanboys, SPECIALLY FRUSTRATED (and out a lot of money) with both brands. Got a set of alnico Wilkinsons (WBJ5 model) for 54€ delivered home (P452Js, my 4th Bartolini set, were little under 500€ new from the US after delivery and customs). Simply put my EHB has never sounded better, difference is abysmal.

 

Now, let me describe DEAD as in no damm punch, no articulation, no responsiveness to touch, no mids/hi-mids at all, resulting in the annihilation of the zone where tone personality lives. Bartolinis have systematically made any bass I've ever played/owned with them into bland and generic sound.

 

And no, it's not bass humbuckers I have a problem with. My main basses are Musicman and I own and play P basses a lot. Guess when we talk bass humbuckers Leo got that right first time too (twice, 50 and 70 years ago). Not only that, his designs have been copied to exhaustion, with all kinds of diverging or plain cheap specs, without them sounding dead, so no excuse really for dead sounding bass humbuckers, no matter how many "pros" and "boutique" basses equip Bartolinis, that's argumentun ad verecundiam, so not an argument at all.

 

I've had them precariously installed for a couple weeks, testing different positions, and yesterday it was time to 3D print some covers for them. My brother did 99% of it really (CAD work, also owns the printer). My 1% contribution was just fitting. First tried with the Wilkinson covers on. But I wanted the pickups as further from the bridge as possible, so I ended up using the bare pickups under the new covers. Pickups are held with pieces of EVA here and there to keep them centered and pushed towards the neck inside the covers. Didn't want to go all in with a hot glue gun, so I'm able to disassemble them if I wanna make any change. They perfectly keep the ramp in place too (which the P452Js, same size according to Bartolini, didn't, thanx to "crappy tolerances, by Bartolini").

 

Most important, I have owned and own many Jazz Bass pickups, these Wilkinson WBJ5s (some 20€ more expensive than the usually seen/used ceramic ones) sound GREAT, real open, punchy, articulated, balanced across the whole spectrum, lively and responsive. I'll definitely use them again in the future, I see no need to spend more on Jazz pickups. I only have photos of the first fitting, with Wilkinsons' covers (just a few tiny rolls of double sided EVA tape stategically holding them in place and centered lengthwise). Fitting without the Wilkinson covers looks a little more ghetto (more EVA basically) but is as effective and secure. More foam at the bottom of cavities pushes pickups up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A clip of them, before 3D printed covers (just had some foam "frames" to keep stuff/dirt from getting in the cavities).

 

 

Edited November 4 by andruca