Marvin_

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.

Since I installed the Aguilars I've much preferred them to the standard Bartolini pickups, but found the bridge to be less interesting (less volume, much less bass end, usually sounded pretty good with a pick though), always gravitating to the neck pickup. Turns out I had done a crap job of balancing the two heights, and after raising the bridge pickup and lowering the neck a smidge, both sound ace now, and give that broad range of tones you'd hope from a two pickup setup. Favourite location is biased about 20% towards one end or the other depending on what I'm playing. I did this setup a couple of weeks ago, and the difference was sufficient to force me to tweak the Two Notes Le Bass and DAW cab sim. Finally sorted one of the things many don't like, the control knobs. Thomann have a set of black metal knobs with gold markers that are exactly the right size for the stacked knobs (4 and 6mm if I remember correctly - 6 and 8mm now I've checked. rather than the larger ones).

Oh the balance is one of the best bits - no neck dive as there's no heavy headstock off the end. Even if it weren't a headless bass, the long upper horn places the upper strap button a long way up the neck (about the 10th-11th fret). I've thought a lot about the lower strap button, whether the fact it's moved upwards would alleviate or exacerbate neck dive (although there isn't any - it'll sit naturally at whichever angle you want), and haven't reached a conclusion on that, except that it doesn't matter on this bass. I guess that it might alleviate neck climb?

I bought them from EES Music in Ipswich, but I think I had the last set in stock though. I did see they're also available at Bass Direct.

I guess even at ~£1200 for the bass and pickup upgrade it's still a damn sight less expensive than a custom job, and the rest of the bass is pretty damn compelling. That's why I decided to go with the pickup upgrade. Whilst expensive, what else actually competes with this model of EHB? Honestly, I watched the LowEndLobster videos comparing the Aguilar to the Nordstrand big splits (IIRC that's what are in the EHB15 series) and just preferred the Aguilars. As stupid as it sounds I just preferred the fact they sounded more like the bass sounds I hear in the music I like to listen to. I guess he feels the same as he sold his EHB15xx and kept the Aguilar swapped EBH10xx. It also helps that the DCBs are off the shelf (technically a 6 string pickup, but they're blades so it doesn't seem to matter - I did look at the Big Blade Nordstrands, but was worried that the blades are split into sections and therefore it might not work as well) whilst the correct Big Split Nordstrands would be a custom order from Nordstrand (putting a 5 string pickup in the P4 sized 6 string body and adjusting the pole pieces to match the installation angle if necessary). I think it's still reasonable value, but I just can't fathom Ibanez's reasoning to go with the Bartolinis. At first I thought they sounded good, but I guess that with these, familiarity breeds contempt. I should also note that the ProSteel strings are a great improvement on the Elixirs in terms of feel, I find them easier to play, although I'm not sure why, possibly they're slightly tauter, but they're just better all round. I went with the hybrid/custom set of .45 - .135, and despite not being tapered at the ball end, the .135 fits very well at the bridge/tuner whereas the Elixir was marginal. It's also worth saying the low B string is considerably more useful now - although that's not so much to do with the string or tension, but the Aguilar actually conveys a clear defined note, not some general noise, which made me shy away from it somewhat.

Thought I'd give an update on the short EHB. I have become less and less enamoured by the Bartolinis, a position which was confirmed when I picked up my old Hagstrom for the first time since getting the EHB and being blown away by how much better it sounded. It had more punch, and that kind of 'woody' sound that I associate with bass, where you get an inkling that the sound is coming from a metal string vibrating, not just a noise. That also highlighted some other shortcomings, so I switched to a set of D'Addario (my general string preference) Pro Steels to get some brightness, and then played around more with the EQ. I also raised the action a touch and lowered the pickups to try and get some clarity. I generally found a cut to the mids helped the sound, but this time I found that boosting the bass and treble and leaving the mids centred got a better sound, but still just muddy and woolly. Playing with a pick gets the kind of tone I wanted from fingers - with a pick it sounded decent (although not as good as the Hagstrom still). So, fast forward to today when a set of Aguilar DCB-D4 pickups arrived. They're technically 6 string pickups, but blades, so work well with the 5 string. LowEndLobster on YouTube did the swap with the long scale EHB1005 and there are some good comparisons on his channel. It's night and day. It genuinely makes me wonder why they chose the Bartolinis for the bass as they're clearly divisive at best. By selecting such a dull/muddy sounding pickup, it limits your market, and your tonal options so much more than the opposite surely? Anyway, expensive as they are, it's required I feel now I've tried them. The Nordstrands in the higher end EHBs also seem to be well liked, and to my ears sound good too (prefer the Aguilars a little - LowEndLobster did a back to back to back of the three in EHBs).

Well I fitted the Elixirs last night, adjusted the string spacing (went to 18.5mm across all strings), truss rod and intonation to suit. Not had the chance to play yet (it was very late when I finished the setup). On face value I could tell little difference acoustically so first impressions will have to wait until I can turn up the volume. What I can say is that fitting new strings is straightforward, Ibanez has a brief Youtube video which explains it very well. I suspect that a B string over a .130 really might want to be tapered as the slot the ball end passes through is really not that wide and the early out windings could get caught (it's bloody close with the Elixir .135 - possibly just touching). Equally I'm not sure how much larger a string than a .135 could reaslistically fit in the headstock end. All adjustments were easy to make though, and the overall impression was of a well thought out set of adjustments and quality hardware. Only other things to watch for when changing strings is to retighten the headstock grub screws after tuning (my 1st string slipped when I was stretching the string once at tuned tension), and to properly 'break' the strings over the saddles as the breakover angle is quite high and even at tuned tension the strings didn't initially want to straighten out.

I think the string tension's fine, but the pickups are more of an acquired taste. They're at the warmer/muddier end of the spectrum it seems (adjust to preference). To me they seemed clearer than pickups I was used to, but then again my first proper bass was an Epiphone Allen Woody with flat wounds (and I've only owned humbucker-equipped basses until now), so read into that what you will. The GAK demo seemed to focus on styles of play that were probably not to these pickup's advantage (although I felt the demo was somewhat undeserving of the tirade of abuse in the comments section!). I think with a little bass and mid removed on the active EQ they're a little bit clearer to my (untrained) ear, but they're never going to be ultra-crisp. One advantage of the shorter scale is that basically any standard scale/34" string should fit fine. I've found the stock D'Addario strings to be like every standard-supplied set: a bit rough feeling for some reason, so I've just ordered a set of Elixir 45-135 strings. I did a spreadsheet normalising string tension for the actual scale lengths used on the EHB (using a GHS 'Unit Weight' formula) across most brands who declare string tension (D'Addario, Elixir, GHS, RotoSound and Thomastik). It was surprising how different the tensions would be across ostensibly similar strings, even from the same manufacturer. For example, the Elixir .135 B string in nickel has 14.7kg of tension vs 13.5kg in stainless. GHS Progressives in a .126 would only be 9.97kg of tension, vs 13.5kg for a .126 Bass Boomer.

I was just taking the measurements of the one in front of me. The saddles are seemingly centred and I measured the spacing (centre to centre) at 17mm on the B to E. Checking the others now and they vary a little between 17 and just under 18mm. As said in the OP it's 3.3kg, or ~7.3lb. Thanks Skylar - exactly what I thought. I do wonder whether Ibanez would have bothered with this range if Strandberg didn't exist though...

I think the width is mitigated to some extent by the shorter than typical scale, at 32" the stretch required is less than the same neck width at 34 or 35". That probably explains why I find them perfectly acceptable, I don't really play anything much more modern than about 1980...

At the 12th fret the neck is 64mm so it is pretty wide. Thickness is only 22mm though at the 12th fret (from the back of the neck to the surface of the fretboard). Default string spacing is 17mm centre to centre, and there's about 2mm each way I'd suggest (although as that's per saddle I guess the actual end spacing won't be as much as +2mm). I'll probably adjust mine out a touch wider.

It's by no means an ideal setup - the room is chock full of sources of EMI as well (2x PCs, networking gear, lights, speakers, speaker/headphone amp, all of which were on...). It's just as well I don't intend to make a career of this! I do have a decent microphone so could always try recording with that at some point. I'll try to get some more varied stuff recorded today (with bonus hum). Any requests, including things like pickup, EQ etc?

That'll be why it sounded a bit strange on the recording - it sounded fine when played (well, either that or I just didn't notice anything when playing). That's too high a frequency to be a muting issue so I'm guessing it's EMI from something, possibly the Ashdown itself (no idea how well thought of their DI out is, I know on many guitar amps it's not great).

Checked today before I adjusted the intonation (all the strings were sharp when fretted compared to the harmonic, more so on the bass strings than the treble), all were tight. I think the gap's a trick of the light as the body is rounded/bevelled at the joint so it looks like a little valley around the neck. It's probably not the absolute tightest neck socket, but with five screws it's not going anywhere! Intonation adjustment was a doddle, done exactly the same way as any individual saddle adjustment, with a sprung screw. I agree that Ibanez deserve kudos for doing something normally the preserve of the boutique, at, if not exactly cheap, then reasonably accessible pricing. The spec's great for the cash too, I didn't even mention the stainless frets... I think I read your thoughts on the 1505 before buying, seems a pity they've not fixed something as simple as a couple of pieces of paper in the box for the second gen. At least the socket is better! It's definitely not a light spring, but it's easy enough with one hand now, so that's a nice improvement. The family and neighbours were in so I couldn't go too wild. I did intend to record the DI output of the Ashdown, but the additional pressure made me forget how to play bass in any way competently, so I've got a fairly crap rendition of Fleetwood Mac's Man of the World and that's about it. It then occurred to me that it's a pretty bad demo choice as it's played almost entirely on the A-string, so doesn't really give any wide impression of the sound. Must do better. I'll have another go tomorrow during the day when people are out. For what it's worth I've attached the MotW recording (well a bit of it). The only effect was an MXR bass compressor, going into the Ashdown with 9 o'clock tube drive and a flat EQ besides the bass brought down to 10-11 o'clock (wooden floors...). Output was DI straight into a Focusrite solo and Reaper, with no post processing or clean up. Listening back, I'm not sure it does the original justice... Outside of attempting recording, I struggled to get a good driven tone that wasn't flatulant sounding on the D and G strings using the Ashdown's drive turned up past about 9-10 o'clock. The fuzz tone from my Russian Big Muff Pi was much better (particularly on the bridge pickup) but I couldn't think of any songs I knew where it would have been suitable. Cleaner tones still sound good to me from these pickups. I've been avoiding the bass's EQ settings to not overcomplicate things, and it sounds best to me with the passive tone at about 80% up, and not going completely to one pickup or the other, blending the two together gives a much nicer sound to me. I have no qualms about the B string tension though. With a bit more play time (with the help of the Digitech DT for maximum use) it really feels similar to the Hagstrom's E string (which is a 0.100" string), which bodes well for a drop to A (yet to do that though). When I ordered it was mid February, then fairly quickly that got put back to early March (one of the Andertons guys emailed me to let me know), then the website put it back a couple of weeks further. Mine did turn up in early March though so I suspect the current estimates are fairly accurate, it's probably just coming through in dribs and drabs for the first few. Man_of_the_World_Demo.wav

Thanks Daz. I should have mentioned, it was £949 from Andertons (everywhere else was at least £80 more expensive when I pre-ordered), and the scale is indeed 32" exactly (just measured, although as said, the intonation needs some adjustment) on the B string and 29.75" on the G string. My main issue commenting on sound is my references are odd in bass terms. I've got (well, just sold the Epiphone) two other basses, an Epiphone Allen Woody with flats and a Hagstrom Swede. Both are dual humbuckers (the Hagstrom's are splittable though), and I've never owned a J or P bass... It's a bit late for the full bass rig, so I just fired up Rocksmith for some back-to-back with the Hagstrom. I used my Whammy DT to use the B as an E string (screwing up the muscle memory I was relearning...) to maximise its use. I'd say the Ibanez's B string feels a lot like the E string of the Hagstrom (perhaps slightly less taut). If you really dig in, it's pretty easy to knock the string into the top of the frets/pickup (depending on position) for that percussive thump/string sound that I remember so well from listening to Korn all those years ago. Played in a more relaxed/normal style and you'll very rarely do that, particularly if primarily on the bridge pickup (the neck pickup really amplified that sound as you'd expect, but it was never harsh). I did note that the B string is actually set quite low in terms of action, it felt lower than the E, but checking now they're the same at 2.25mm/0.070" (which is low, the Hagstrom's E is set to 2.50mm/0.080"). Raising the action slightly would likely give the clearance needed for more heavy handed play. FWIW I thought the string noise sounded cool when overdriven, and when clean I managed to avoid it so I guess it's a preference/attack/feel thing... I'm probably less convinced that it'll respond well to lower tuning (experimentation needed) but at B it's good, especially if you're already used to shorter scales anyway. The E string is definitely tauter than the Hagstrom's and I've played a fair bit of drop D stuff already (then promptly forgetting that the difference between the D and B is three frets, not five and thinking it sounds weird when I transition to the B) which it handles better than the Hagstrom (which was playable in my view anyway, but the extra tension certainly doesn't hurt). As for the pickups, only got some brief notes, but the Ibanez is definitely clearer and less muddy than the Hagstrom when playing with an overdriven sound, and it's either pickup is more than usable when doing so, the neck just adding a touch more low end and a slightly darker sound, plus a boost in the aforementioned string noise, should you want it. When clean I could tell little difference between the two, but the caveat is that it's late and I was using Rocksmith, so with an actual amp the results may be more obvious. I did wonder whether this one may feature in a certain video series - I've been checking...

Just throught I'd share some first impressions now I've had a few days to play around. This is one of the second series of Ibanez headless EHB basses, released in 2021 (the first series came out in 2020). I've been playing short scale basses, but since my experience with multi-scale guitars was positive I thought that multi-scale would suit a short scale bass quite well as the main 'problem' with shorter scale lengths can be the lack of tautness in the E-string. My main concerns when ordering were that there were some issues with the first series of EHB (reasonable number of reports of neck cracks, misaligned bridges, poor jack socket), but no-one short of custom ordering did an instrument like this, and nothing like this kind of price. Stuck my pre-order in at Andertons in January with delivery expected in early-mid March. Well, it turned up on the 2nd of March, so top marks there. Slightly disappointed to find that someone (presumably at Andertons) had rifled through the gigbag and opened the accessory bag, presumably to get to the 9V battery, which I found with the wrapper semi-removed plugged into the back of the bass. Guess it was the first one in and someone wanted a play. Doesn't bother me too much as long as they were careful, and as there wasn't a mark on it I guess they were... First, some pictures: Metallic green/blue paint, burl maple fretboard. A nice combo in my eyes Bolt on neck, but upper fret access is very good. The back of the body is bevelled, so the upper half is thinner than the lower The neck profile is incredibly flat and wide in true Ibanez fashion. It's comfortable to play, although the width was a bit of a shock at first Playing Feel The first thing that hits you is that adding a string makes for a very wide looking/feeling neck at the treble end of the fretboard (the nut's only 45mm). It also knocks your calibration out of whack, and I found that I'd be playing the wrong string from time to time. I've played a 7 string guitar so was expecting both of these and it'll come with time. The action is low, aiding playability, and is not buzzy. I'd say the setup is pretty well judged out of the box, but the intonation will need some adjustment. The string tension is lower on the B-string than I'd expected, but not excessively so. The multi-scale will take a little getting used to, but with a neutral (that's basically the 'normal' fret, perpendicular to the string) 7th fret, the pattern makes a lot of ergonomic sense on a bass-length scale. As I move my fretting hand up the neck, my fingers follow the arc/fan of the frets very well. Just need to get the muscle memory re-learnt so that I'm placing my fingers in the optimum place - I was getting a few 'just-past' the target fret moments at first. My main concern was about successfully muting the newly acquired 5th string. I usually right-hand mute strings by hooking my ring and little fingers through/around the strings, whilst anchoring with my thumb. This works nicely on a four string bass as even when playing the G-string, the second playing finger will mute the D-string. What I've found to work really well on this bass is anchoring my thumb on the edge of the neck: When playing the 3rd to 5th strings it's business as usual, but when playing the 1st or 2nd strings, the thumb starts to naturally rotate into position and touch the B string. It's pretty natural and works well. When using a strap, you'll find the rear strap button is rather higher than a 'normal' bass (much like a Strandberg), so you'll find that you'll want to shorten the strap by a good 10cm or so (I couldn't figure why it felt weird at first). Balance is excellent as you'd expect with no head - it just sits where you want it with no pull one way or another. It's also very light (just 3.3kg), not just for a 5 string, or a bass, but it's light even for a guitar. That lack of weight is much appreciated during longer playing sessions. Build Quality The build is generally very nice, the neck in particular being a high point. Fret ends are nicely finished and smooth, the edge of the fretboard is well rounded, making it very comfortable. As is often the case, it's just the upper corners of the nut that could use a bit more time with the sander as the corners are sharp, and without a headstock it's easy to run a little too far and catch on the nut. The hardware feels excellent quality and is easy to adjust (and there are a lot of adjustments available too). The individual bridges are good and straight as you'd expect. Before buying headless I'd heard many complain that the tuners are difficult to adjust with fingers. Not so here - the knobs are a decent size and are very smooth and easy to adjust. A minus point has to be that the manual is a generic Ibanez document that is almost entirely irrelevant in every respect to the EHB. They'd have been better off providing nothing as the only 'normal' thing shared is the truss rod. It's particularly weird that they've not included any specific manuals as they've produced some which are on their website, both for the hardware and the EQ/electronics. As mentioned before the paintwork is generally very good, but the area around the bridge/tuners is not up to a great standard. Only really visible if you're looking for it though Electronics The pickups are a pair of passive Bartolini BH2s, through an Ibanez 9V powered EQ. Again, some documentation in the box would have been nice, but a quick download later and all was revealed. Volume Pickup balance (clockwise for neck, anti-clockwise for bridge. This has a central detent for both pickups on equally) 3 - 7 control the EQ Lower knob is bass EQ, cutting or boosting the bass (this has a central detent for a flat EQ) Upper knob is treble EQ, cutting or boosting the treble (this has a central detent for a flat EQ). It also becomes the passive tone control if the active EQ is switched off Lower knob controls the mid frequency that control 6 affects Upper knob is the mid EQ, cutting or boosting around the frequency selected by control 5 (this has a central detent for a flat EQ) EQ switch. Switched forward this disables the active EQ and control 4 becomes a passive tone knob The controls are nicely weighted and are smooth, although the plastic knobs do feel a touch cheap. Being a beginner to 3-way EQ actually on the bass itself I've not played around too much yet, sticking to passive control. The pickup blend is a nice feature, although I'd have preferred two volume knobs and a switch as it allows for mid-song changes more easily. The jack socket is a captive type preventing accidental disconnects. It's fairly stiff to release, but easy enough to do with one hand I don't feel qualified to comment on the sound, but through my Ashdown ABM III it sounds bloody good, punchy and clear, even driven by my fingers. Output volume is not boosted like an active pickup which means less equipment adjustment if switching basses (it's very similar in output to my Hagstrom Swede). Overall As the owner of a Strandberg Boden (guitar) I do find there's a lot of similarity (even superficially), it really feels that Ibanez are trying to create an instrument that is very reminiscent of the Strandberg, but substantially less expensive. It's a well made, ergonomic instrument that undoubtably has a few niggles/areas for improvement, but the overall impression is of a well designed bass with a good variety of tones for playing most genres of music.

I think Judas Priest technically fit too, the entire line up changed before the first album was released. Although there was a brief hiatus, and it was essentially a different band that adopted the name (only one common member, who then left).

Looks great in the pink metallic. I had an inexpensive Ibanez guitar which was very well put together, and I've now only got short scale basses which have proven to be more versatile than the common reputation seems to suggest, so hopefully combining the two will work very nicely together.

Sorry, yep it was a typo - 1005SMS as Woodinblack says. I blame having too many similar letters and numbers in a jumble... Even if that jumble does actually make some sense.

I think that ship's sailed!

Placed an order for the 1505SMS (always wanted a short-multi-scale) with Andertons at the weekend, then the due date was pushed back a month to the 5th March on Monday. Therefore it'll be a slightly late birthday present, but I'll share it here when it arrives.

Thanks all for the warm welcome. On the GAS front (or should it be BAS?) I've just pre-ordered the new Ibanez 5 string short multi-scale headless as a birthday present (should arrive apparently within a few days of it anyway). This despite promising myself that I wouldn't have more than two of any instrument type... Might have to move the Epiphone on if I get on really well with it...

I've been lurking here for a while (joined to pick up an Ashdown ABM 500 Evo 3 combo from glassmoon, which is brilliant (thanks Julian!)), and feel like I should really introduce myself. I've been playing bass around 8 months, guitar slightly longer. Starting with a Yamaha TRBX174 which I stuck a set of flatwounds on as the stock strings weren't very nice. As it was my first bass experience, I kind of assumed that all round wounds would be like that so went with D'Addario flats, which were nice, but ultimately I found the scale length a little challenging (I have big hands, but relatively short fingers - thanks nature). I started looking at short-scale options, ostensibly to go along side the Yamaha, and settled on an Epiphone Allen Woody signature, stuck some Rotosound flats on it (which I didn't like - way too floppy so I just got lots of buzzing unless I raised the action significantly), then Hipshot tuners & bridge (trying to fix what ultimately turned out to be a string issue), then D'Addario Chrome flats, giving it a Hofner vibe which I really like for 60s rock. A couple of months went by and I realised that I wasn't playing the Yamaha as I'd gotten so used to the short scale and really liked it. Equally, the Epiphone was set up for a reasonably specific task, but I also enjoy playing a lot of early metal, grunge and so on. The solution was clear, a more all-round bass to replace the Yamaha. In the end I settled on a Hagstrom Swede bass. It's a really excellent all-rounder, with two humbuckers with coil split options, two volume and two tone knobs, a pickup switch and a high/mid cut switch, giving a flat-like tone if desired at the flick of a switch. This is stock, save for some D'Addario round-wounds, again with a thicker E-string (it seems so many short scale string sets are made with a .90 or .95 E string, which seems to be too loose to me), and it's great. Style wise, I play most confidently with a pick (coming from guitar), but once I 'got' fingerstyle I've come on leaps and bounds. I'm using Rocksmith to learn songs (both guitar and bass), although I've found it's not as good at teaching technique, so I've done many YouTube hours (Rick Beato and Scott's bass lessons are faves) to hopefully not pick up any bad habits. Something that helped enormously is buying an amp (Rocksmith is set up to handle all the effects etc, so you can start with just a PC, your guitar and a cable) playing independent of Rocksmith so I know exactly what sounds I'm making, which has really helped improve my playing, with more focus on left hand finger placement to stop accidental buzz etc. Most recently I've been building my first pedal board, including three DIY pedal builds from EffectPedalKits (well five, but I never got the Filter working for reasons I can't fathom, and the Compressor just wasn't very good - really fuzzy compared with the TC Electronic I have now). Just this morning I was playing along to some Motorhead and found the Compressor, Fuzz and NO2 clean boost (which was a typo, I now realise I have Nitrogen Dioxide, but never mind) gave a bloody good representation of Lemmy's tone. I'll stop rambling now and say, TLDR: Hi!