NBD - Ibanez TMB35

[Woodinblack]

So not really today, it was last week.

After much deciding on a short scale bass, I decided I wanted to get the TMB35 but turned out there aren't many around until things are restocked . I had a previous bad experience of dealing with Bax, but as this is quite a cheap bass anyway (and a tenner cheaper from bax), I thought I might as well try them.

Was disappointed when I saw from the tracking that it was in Amsterdam, but it spent a weekend travelling and turned up without trouble on the date when it said it would, so full marks for them, and it seems like apart from having to deal with our UPS guy, they seemed to do the job too.

So the bass is a 5 string 30" scale with wider than I like string spacing and quite a fat neck for an ibanez - nothing like an SR.

It has a P pickup and a J pickup, and is passive with a tone control. It was £193.

It came setup fine, and I haven't had to adjust anything at all. The tone control was loose as the bolt had fallen off the pot, but turned out I had to take them all off to get the plastic off anyway. The colour is probably best described as 'toothpaste green'.

It is reasonably light compared to most of my full length basses but the headstock is a bit massive and the machineheads are large, so it is noticably headstock heavy both sitting and standing, which is unfortunate, not sure if I can do much about that. I find the headstock ugly but on a bass like this I don't mind so much.

It is hugely fun to play and it is an easy thing to just pick up and play which is what is happening with it, it sits behind me at my work desk and gets picked up a lot.

Sound wise it sounds great, especially the B string, which is very useable and it doesn't sound like a short string, or like you are missing anything. the P pickup is great and with mixing of the j pickup there are a lot of really useable sounds. The J pickup on its own is a bit noisy and thin, but its ok.

It is definitely playing above its cost. I would have no problem gigging this - in fact at some of the more 'down to earth' venues, I almost certainly will! 

The bass - Pigeon for scale

[Mikey D]

30 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

It is hugely fun to play and it is an easy thing to just pick up and play which is what is happening with it, it sits behind me at my work desk and gets picked up a lot

 

Exactly this with mine too.  Plus its been fun to do mods on, I'm near to doing the machineheads to be lighter and I'll let you know how that helps.

[Woodinblack]

21 hours ago, Mikey D said:

Exactly this with mine too.  Plus its been fun to do mods on, I'm near to doing the machineheads to be lighter and I'll let you know how that helps.

Yep, would be interested in that. It is really the only blot (not that it is a major thing) on an otherwise splendid instrument

 

[BassApprentice]

Do we know if these are the same pickups that are in the Mezzo? Tempted to go for a shorter scale 5 string but not sold on the SR shape or the pickup placement 

[Woodinblack]

8 minutes ago, BassApprentice said:

Do we know if these are the same pickups that are in the Mezzo? Tempted to go for a shorter scale 5 string but not sold on the SR shape or the pickup placement 

There is always the EHB short scale. Slightly different price bracket though!

Not sure what the pickups are, they don't say anything, they look pretty generic. I would suspect they would be similarish. It is very clearly not SR like at all though!