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NBD - Ibanez SRH500


Frank Blank
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Well a pristine Ibanez SRH500 turned up on the doorstep this morning at 08:27. Double boxed with padding between boxes and the bass inside the original Ibanez box, well done PMT and DPD. Funny to think that Andertons wanted me to pay exactly the same for an ex-demo SRH500 with significant cosmetic damage, as a discount they offered me £30 off and a free lead, turns out all SRH500s come with a free lead anyway, that’s Andertons off the Xmas card list.

The bass is very light and has that quality way beyond price point thing about it. It also has a slim fast neck that all my previous Ibanez SR models seem to have that makes it extremely easy to move around. With the absence of pickups, the dusty end of the neck Is shaped in such a way that it can be used as a comfortable thumb rest. The flatwound strings sound surprising bright acoustically, the only odd thing is how scratchy they feel against the fret when bending the strings, *shudder*. It came set up beautifully, probably a bit high for low action fanatics but about right for me. Looking forward to playing it through the QSC later and hearing how it sounds. Such bliss to have a just two controls, tone and volume.

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Edited by Frank Blank
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1 hour ago, Frank Blank said:

Funny to think that Andertons wanted me to pay exactly the same for an ex-demo SRH500 with significant cosmetic damage, as a discount they offered me £30 off and a free lead, turns out all SRH500s come with a free lead anyway, that’s Andertons off the Xmas card list.

It was odd that they couldn't do better than that isn't it?

 

1 hour ago, Frank Blank said:

The bass is very light and has that quality way beyond price point thing about it. It also has a slim fast neck that all my previous Ibanez SR models seem to have that makes it extremely easy to move around.

Or an SR neck as they call it. The neck as it should be! Turns out I have a few of those (including my maruzchyk as that has a neck sized from the ibanezes).

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3 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

It was odd that they couldn't do better than that isn't it?

It was ridiculous, no one in their right mind would pay full whack for that, it should be half price really but discovering that part of their discount was a lead which is included anyway was the last straw for me, I’ll not use Andertons again.

3 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

Or an SR neck as they call it. The neck as it should be! Turns out I have a few of those (including my maruzchyk as that has a neck sized from the ibanezes).

Well it might be a tad thin for me but time will tell.

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4 hours ago, Frank Blank said:

It was ridiculous, no one in their right mind would pay full whack for that, it should be half price really but discovering that part of their discount was a lead which is included anyway was the last straw for me, I’ll not use Andertons again.

Yeh, but was it that lead or another one. Had you played your cards right you could have ended up with 2 leads and a damaged bass!

Anyway, congrats on the SRH - I played one in PMT once and it seemed good but I wasn't that short of a few SRs at the time!

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6 hours ago, Frank Blank said:

Funny to think that Andertons wanted me to pay exactly the same for an ex-demo SRH500 with significant cosmetic damage, as a discount they offered me £30 off and a free lead, turns out all SRH500s come with a free lead anyway, that’s Andertons off the Xmas card list.

They do disappoint more often than they exceed my expectations honestly - I feel at times they just don't try enough....! Asked for a wait time on a Dingwall.... Thomann 3 months, Bassdirect 'a few weeks', Andertons.... 12 months - did you really check mate?

Also, congrats on the new bass and pictures or it doesn't exist!

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2 hours ago, stewblack said:

I have been leaking gas ever since missing out on one of these a little while back. 

Let us know how you like it Frank. Looks so very nice. 

Well it’s a doozy. Obviously it doesn’t quite have the build quality of my ACGs but you know what? It’s lighter, easier to play with the thin, fast neck, the D’Addario flatwounds are nice and comfortable. I often bang on about basses being ‘tools of work’ and how boutique basses make you worry about dinging them or taking them out to play live whereas I’d not mind getting a ding in this. I started out (in the later second part of my bass playing life) playing a £400ish Fender Jazz Modern Player, which I was completely happy with until I joined BC and was infected with a) GAS and b) the idiotic search for the ‘perfect’ bass, well I’m going back to basses I’m not so precious about. I’ve got an Ibanez SRC6, love the neck, now I’ve got the SRH500, love the neck. I will probably consult @Woodinblack in depth about more SR basses as I now have fretted and fretless acoustic basses, that acoustic sound being very much a cornerstone of the music we play in our duo, but I do need an electric bass with a wide range of tones and the SR neck. I’ll probably sell both the ACGs and go back to playing tools (that sounds wrong) rather than works of wooden art.

Back to your original question, yes, it’s a lovely bass. As with most acoustic basses it should be called an ‘acoustic’ bass because it isn’t loud enough acoustically to keep up with an acoustic guitar and singer but plugged in it has a lovely tone and with the help of the Stomp it’s delicious.

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Funnily enough I have been on a similar journey. Never risen to the real cloudy  peaks where basses are concerned but I've bought what I consider expensive instruments (anything north of a grand is expensive to me) and not gigged them for fear of damage or theft. 

I now much prefer to find a real diamond in the rough (like a couple of my HBs which I wouldn't sell for love nor money) or mid priced like my Bass Collection P-basses. 

 

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28 minutes ago, stewblack said:

Funnily enough I have been on a similar journey. Never risen to the real cloudy  peaks where basses are concerned but I've bought what I consider expensive instruments (anything north of a grand is expensive to me) and not gigged them for fear of damage or theft. 

I now much prefer to find a real diamond in the rough (like a couple of my HBs which I wouldn't sell for love nor money) or mid priced like my Bass Collection P-basses.

This was precisely my rule initially, no bass that costs over a grand. My last few purchases have broken that rule and now I’m going back to it. Past 1k and it’s all about the instrument rather than the music for me. I need an instrument that I just pick up and play rather than marvel at and be overly cautious with. Apologies for the long replies, I’m kind of working it out myself.

Edited by Frank Blank
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9 hours ago, Frank Blank said:

well I’m going back to basses I’m not so precious about. I’ve got an Ibanez SRC6, love the neck, now I’ve got the SRH500, love the neck. I will probably consult @Woodinblack in depth about more SR basses as I now have fretted and fretless acoustic basses, that acoustic sound being very much a cornerstone of the music we play in our duo, but I do need an electric bass with a wide range of tones and the SR neck. I’ll probably sell both the ACGs and go back to playing tools (that sounds wrong) rather than works of wooden art.

To be honest the SRH500 probably has the same neck as the rest of them. The SRs are all basically built around those neck dimensions, I mean when you move to the more expensive ones you get multi laminate, titanium bars and better machineheads, but the dimensions are all the same and overall the feel is the same. Even the SRC6 has a familiar feel to it, closer to an SR bass than an SA or RG guitar neck.

Having just bought the most expensive bass I have ever had, I know what you mean about the instrument rather than the music, but there is something when playing alone that inspires you with certain instruments. And yes, I wouldn't take it down the dog and duck, but I would take it to an open air event, or anywhere with a stage.

When it comes down to it, my Ibanez 1605 is the one that always stays with me. Its good enough to have all the fancy stuff like the titanium, the nord pickups and the burl, cheap enough not to worry about and non shiney enough to not worry about scratching.

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Frank, glad you like it. I've been using my own SRH500 without any pedals or FX so far. You have more experience with these kind of basses that I do so I was curious when you mentioned adding stomp of some kind. Can I ask what you would typically use with a bass like this?

Martin

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42 minutes ago, Martin E said:

Frank, glad you like it. I've been using my own SRH500 without any pedals or FX so far. You have more experience with these kind of basses that I do so I was curious when you mentioned adding stomp of some kind.

I think when he said stomp, he is reffering to the Line 6 HX Stomp.

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32 minutes ago, Martin E said:

Frank, glad you like it. I've been using my own SRH500 without any pedals or FX so far. You have more experience with these kind of basses that I do so I was curious when you mentioned adding stomp of some kind. Can I ask what you would typically use with a bass like this?

Martin

I used all my previous acoustic basses apart from this new Ibanez without any pedals or FX and went straight into an AER Basic Performer. This was a beautiful set up and I’ll still be using it now had I not had the Interesting FRFR Story conversion experience...

...my ideal with bass amplification was that I always sought to simply make the intrinsic sound of each bass louder, sounds simple but no, all amplification colours the output so I wasted years trying to get this uncoloured sound from amps and continually being dissatisfied. Until I read the above thread. Having read the whole lot and consulted with many of the extremely wise and knowledgeable experts on BC I settled on a QSC K12.2. I went to PMT with my Rob Allen Mouse and the preamp I was using at the time. Everything on the preamp set to midway, neutral settIng on the QSC plugged in the bass with the expectation of giving it a real thorough work out but the sound was perfect straight away, I made up my mind in about three minutes. So that was my setup for a while, bass > Fishman Platinum Pro > QSC. The only problem was the disparity between the outputs of my various basses, especially the RA Mouse which has a particularly hot output, I didn’t want to be continually altering the EQ on the preamp for each bass which led me too... The HX Stomp. I play in an acoustic duo but we use quite a wide sonic palette (imho) for such a genre so I was using three or four basses per gig. With the Stomp I can tweak the fundamental sound of one fretted and one fretless bass to suit each song. It sounds odd having said I spent so long looking for the fundamental tone and the, once found, tweaking it with the Stomp but the tweaks are tiny, a touch of compression, small tweaks to get a more ‘upright’ sound. In actuality I barely scratch the surface of what’s possible on the Stomp, I basically use one amp/speaker model and the rest is very subtle EQ tweaks.

Live I use bass > Stomp > QSC. If there is a PA I take a line out of the QSC (which I use as a monitor) to the desk, if there Is no PA I use the QSC as backline.

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Thank you, a very comprehensive reply and I found the FRFR thread very interesting. 

I'm afraid I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum, after years using an LM,2 or Terror Bass I find myself in musical retirement playing in a quiet jazz group where a Markbass 801 is fine for rehearsals. I would like to try one of those Bodyrez things maybe but the HX Stomp is rather beyond my needs and indeed .my self imposed budget.

 

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37 minutes ago, Martin E said:

Thank you, a very comprehensive reply and I found the FRFR thread very interesting. 

I'm afraid I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum, after years using an LM,2 or Terror Bass I find myself in musical retirement playing in a quiet jazz group where a Markbass 801 is fine for rehearsals. I would like to try one of those Bodyrez things maybe but the HX Stomp is rather beyond my needs and indeed .my self imposed budget.

 

Bodyrez?

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On 26/06/2020 at 21:45, Martin E said:

TC Electronic BodyRez - acoustic pickup enhancer. 

Ah, got you. I've had a look at these online, I must admit I am skeptical about anything that uses the word enhance. Having said that it does seem to do something to the tone, I think the only way forward is to try one out, difficult I know in the recent circumstances but there are so many variables with things like this, your playing, your guitar. Do you feel there is something lacking in the instrument you are using?

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