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stewblack

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6 hours ago, dave moffat said:

currently drooling over the SR5005 unless someone tells me to get a grip

Go for a Premium with Nordstrand pickups, much more BITE to their sound than the Bartolini's in the Prestige & the Premiums are lower Mass.

Here in the U.S. you can get a pre-owned Premium for half of the new price, not sure about there in Blighty.

 

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re: re-stringing a EHB

Some have had trouble with the winding slipping off the core & they're going to the trouble of modifying tools to hold the string & using the word 'literally' far too often.

The simple solution, is to bend the wire 90 degrees, before pulling it taut & cutting it.

Some string manufacturers include this instruction with their strings.

 

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On 20/04/2021 at 17:43, Killed_by_Death said:

Go for a Premium with Nordstrand pickups, much more BITE to their sound than the Bartolini's in the Prestige & the Premiums are lower Mass.

Here in the U.S. you can get a pre-owned Premium for half of the new price, not sure about there in Blighty.

Where I would normally agree with you on the differences between the Barts and Nords, the barts on the prestige 5005 have something different to them than the others I have played, and althoguh they don't have the bite of the nords, they do have a depth which more than makes up for it. As well as a front to back variation the premiums don't manage. Why even though my #1 is the premium, I still have not sold the prestige.

Right on the mass thing though, the 5005 weighs a ton, all that wenge (probably helped by my 1605 being one of the lightest premiums).

Edited by Woodinblack
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Anyone know what the LW stands for on the BTB1905LW model?

Are the BTB series a fair bit heavier than their SR siblings?

I do love the neck through design, 3 band EQ and 24 frets - and having got used to a 35" on a Spector I'm also kinda now tempted by the BTB. However the Spector 5er has pretty narrow string spacing (17.0mm) which is a lot closer to the SR 5ers (16.5mm) and certainly helps in terms of hand stretch. I suspect the combination of 19mm spacing plus 35" scale on the BTB could be a stretch too far! 

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43 minutes ago, itu said:

Try it, you may like it. I have the Modulus Genesis 5 that works really well.

I think a trip to Wunjos on Denmark St could be called for! Can't really justifying dropping £1k+ on a bass that might be a bridge (or more precisely fretboard) too far. And I'll try to remember to take my pocket scales with me 😊 One of the fantastic things about the SR Premiums is how light they are - literally make light work of 2 x 1 hour sets (remember those?) 

Might, anyway, be time to trade in my SR 1825 - I've loved the 'bite' from the Nords on the SR Premiums as has been mentioned by lots of others on this thread, but recently finding I like even more the punch of the EMG 40s on my Spector EuroLX5. So for the very first time, I've recently been feeling that the Nords may be a little too top end bright. No idea how the Aggie's on the BTB will compare. 

Edited by Al Krow
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1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Anyone know what the LW stands for on the BTB1905LW model?

Guessing low gloss?

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Are the BTB series a fair bit heavier than their SR siblings?

Every one I tried (which is admittedly less than 10) was noticeably heavier than the equivalent SR.

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LW = LaceWood top:

https://ibanez.fandom.com/wiki/BTB1905LW

 

If you want to compare weights, look at SweetWater dot com, they have the weights of those in stock.

Except right now they have crazy low stock. I can tell you I've only ever seen a single BTB that was lower Mass than a SoundGear, & I should have bought it. 

 

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the crossover features:

neck is between a SR & a BTB, a little thicker than a SR, but not as thick as a BTB (this actually helps make it Almost as stiff as a BTB neck, along with the Graphite reinforcement)

locking output jack (a BTB feature that they used on EHB)

stainless frets (BTB was doing it first AFAIK, & now a few SoundGear have them)

Nordstrand from the SR side, but this time split-coil humbuckers (BTB use humbuckers exclusively)

 

new (neither BTB nor SR):

sweepable mids (it's actually the same preamp unit, but with an additional module)

 

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2 hours ago, Killed_by_Death said:

locking output jack (a BTB feature that they used on EHB)

Luckily mine is now nobbled :D

2 hours ago, Killed_by_Death said:

new (neither BTB nor SR):

sweepable mids (it's actually the same preamp unit, but with an additional module)

The older SRs, certainly the prestiges all had sweepable mids. 

Mind you there are also some BTBs with Nordstrands in them. BTB20TH6-BT amongst others.

Now I look I notice the 6 string BTBs have a decent string spacing. Might be worth checking one out.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

Took the SR1800E out on the back porch today, the weather was really great:

5929563-d6f8f33005ad2f905cbca2597a8eef8c

I'd been playing it quietly indoors for a long time, I guess all Winter. 

The first thing that I noticed was the NOISE when I cranked up the Gain & Volume. I guess I will keep my EHB as-is with the humbucking Big-Splits.

I was struggling to come up with something to play, but not for long, because:

 

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13 minutes ago, Killed_by_Death said:

The first thing that I noticed was the NOISE when I cranked up the Gain & Volume. I guess I will keep my EHB as-is with the humbucking Big-Splits.

 

Thats odd, I notice no noise difference between any of my premiums (actually down to 1 now) and the EHB, unless I am near a computer or my valve amp.

 

Edited by Woodinblack
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That little Vox is a tube-amp, but a hybrid NuTube, when the Gain is cranked it's noisy like an all-tube amp.

The environment matters as well, there's EMI going through here all the time. I can't even use a gOOgle ChromeCast or Amazon Firestick, the EMI is so great that it blocks the signal, in only a 3 Meter distance.

I normally don't notice noise with the SR1800E, but at the time I had it blended back to mostly bridge pickup for that extra mids bite, & it was instantly noisy when I plugged in.

fine once the pickups were balanced

 

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hmm, while I was reviewing what I wrote, it occurred to me that I forgot to change the direction the instrument was facing

When I play indoors I'm almost invariably facing East, which fortunately for me is the 'sweet spot' where the noise is least.

Out on the porch today I was facing South, which is the noisiest direction to be facing, DOH!

I want to take it out there & see if changing position solves the issue, but everything is still wet from the rain.

 

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7 hours ago, Killed_by_Death said:

 

Another difference I'm noticing is that the EHB never goes out of tune, but the SR will sometime need to be tuned UP a tad. The neck on that is less stiff.

I did an 'experiment':

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/comparing-neck-stiffness-ibanez-content.1351512

 

I haven't noticed that (and tuned the 1505 yesterday), although I did notice that neither my 2605 or 5005 ever really went out of tune. So I guess the 1605 must have been more sensitive. 

Still, yesterday was a bad day for tuning!

IMG_2072.thumb.jpeg.8e3a2de6e6a07c21fcb81ca3a15eb823.jpeg

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Hi, i’m thinking of getting a second hand 5005, there’s one near me at 950euro. I don’t know the year it was built, but wanted to ask if there’s been many mods in this model since it’s inception and if there’s points to watch out for or years to avoid?

Thanks

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I would say yes, please and thank you for under a grand - it it's in good nick.
I can't, unfortunately, speak to which years to avoid or jump on, nor to the possible mods, but overall the 5005 is a stunning bass.

My 10p

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1 hour ago, triplebass said:

Hi, i’m thinking of getting a second hand 5005, there’s one near me at 950euro. I don’t know the year it was built, but wanted to ask if there’s been many mods in this model since it’s inception and if there’s points to watch out for or years to avoid?

There has been a mod on the preamp. The original model (which I have), has a 3 band parametric EQ  which gives you 6 controls - Bass / Treble / Q / Freq, volume, balance and a preamp bypass switch. Powered by 2 AA batteries it is a bit useless. Well worth a grand though.

Later models have the same preamp which is the one from all the premium ones, which gives you Bass / mid / treble, volume, blend, frequency switch and bypass. Well worth a grand.

Whatever version it is , its well worth a grand.

 

Difference is - the new one is the 5005OL

SR5005OL-xlarge.jpg

and the old one is the 5005E

image.thumb.png.6f4fd3691c08f40a82d1bbe23adb6547.png

Ignore the colour variations - they are both the same

 

Edited by Woodinblack
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