SOLD PENDING Ibanez SRMS805 - Upgraded to full US Bartolini Pickups and Preamp £750

[Kev]

Up for sale I have a special bass, an Ibanez SRMS805 multiscale 5 string bass.  This one has the Twilight finish with some lovely grain poplar burl.

I bought this new last year and stripped out its Ibanez preamp and its seriously average chinese licensed Bartolini BH2 pickups out and installed US Classic Bass Soapbars and a 3 band Bartolini HR-5.2AP/918 preamp.   Configuration has changed from stock to make this the ultimate tone machine and works as follows:-

Volume - Push Pull Active/Passive

Blend

Treble

Mids - Push Pull Frequency Selector

Bass

Toggle Switch 1 - Series/Coil Tap/Parallel Bridge Pickup

Toggle Switch 2 - Series/Coil Tap/Parallel Neck Pickup

If you've played a stock SRMS805 before, this one will play the same but tonally it really is an entirely different animal.  Its fantastic and the array of different tones you can get from all the different coil arrangements is wonderful.

Reason for sale?  I'm just more comfortable on 4 strings, and I will be replacing this with a BEAD tuned 4.

Few pictures (apologies for artyness, just ripped from Instagram feed) :-

 

Bass typically retails around the £899 mark, pickups cost £220 and the preamp £145, with £50 for my tech to wire in the toggle switching etc, so all in you're looking at just short of £1,300 worth of kit, I'm looking for £750 firm.  Bass is in great condition, ding at the top of the headstock but otherwise beautiful.  The Old preamp was scrapped but I do still have the BH2 pickups somewhere if of interest.

Trades? I do have a bass in mind that I’m after, but I am open to offers for 4 strings that would particularly suit B standard.

Given Covid-19 situation, collection or meetup is obviously against the law so that won't be an option, so it's courier only until restrictions lifted. 

Thanks!

Edited April 15, 2020 by Kev

[AdamN]

Hi, do you have any videos of what it sounds like with the new pickups/pre-amp? Thanks

[Kev]

50 minutes ago, AdamN said:

Hi, do you have any videos of what it sounds like with the new pickups/pre-amp? Thanks

Unfortunately I don't really have anything worth sharing no!   In hindsight I regret not doing a before and after comparison as it really is night and day.  

Not to say that the original electronics were that bad and I'm sure some do like them as its a popular bass, its just coming from Dingwall I found it very woolly with little top end without cranking the preamp.  To give an example, I ran the treble pretty much maxed out all the time and cut bass a little to get the bite I wanted, and passive mode was borderline unusable for me; I now run the Bart preamp flat for a great modern bass sound and use the passive mode frequently with my function band.  I've used this to play anything from original progressive metal to Motown and its flexible enough to cope without whatever I throw at it  

[pajhartley]

Yes, I had a stock one & while it was great physically to play I found it disappointingly "flat", if that's the word; no life in it at all. I've avoided Barts since, but I'm seriously tempted!

[Kev]

13 minutes ago, pajhartley said:

Yes, I had a stock one & while it was great physically to play I found it disappointingly "flat", if that's the word; no life in it at all. I've avoided Barts since, but I'm seriously tempted!

This is why i don’t think Bartolini should license their designs, or at least call them something else.  So often you see people talk about how dark and dull bartolini Pickups as for many it’s only the Chinese ones they’ve tried in mid range instruments, when in fact proper US ones are a different animal altogether, depending on the model you choose.

But anyway, yeah it’s a worthwhile upgrade, the preamp is great too 🙂

[Gunsfreddy2003]

Slightly off topic but what Barts do you think go into the Spectorcore basses - Chinese?

[Kev]

1 hour ago, Gunsfreddy2003 said:

Slightly off topic but what Barts do you think go into the Spectorcore basses - Chinese?

Not sure to be honest, it’s described as “specially designed “ and “proprietary”, which is the usual language for the licensed ones, but haven’t come across them before.  

[pajhartley]

PM'd