MrFingers Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 People who know me know that I like my basses designed before 1970, with 4 flatwound strings and not a battery in sight… so when this popped up locally for 2nd hand Squier Affinity-money I had to jump on it. A 1993 Ibanez Soundgear SR885BK, made in Japan at FujiGen. With the 2 AFR-J5 pickups and the 3-band EQ with variable midrange swoop (I think they call it the Vari-mid), afaik the only year they came in this combination. Decent bit of kit with Gotoh hardware and a very fast neck. Good enough to give it a try. 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyTravis Posted April 5 Share Posted April 5 Lovely basses these, done a few tweaks and pickup mods in my time on these - particularly when Fieldy (Korn) was playing similar basses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grahambythesea Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 It may make a whole new you of you. 😆 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrFingers Posted April 6 Author Share Posted April 6 I need to re-learn that the neck does not start at E anymore and that A is now in the middle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmo Valdemar Posted April 6 Share Posted April 6 Very nice... if you can manage the neck profile, you can't really go wrong with a Soundgear. Yours looks a lot like the one Dave Pegg used to play. He must like them, he's played Soundgears ever since! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tauzero Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 On 06/04/2024 at 17:19, MrFingers said: I need to re-learn that the neck does not start at E anymore and that A is now in the middle It's very liberating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sergelebasse75 Posted April 8 Share Posted April 8 Congrats on your new bass! How does that Vari-mid eq sound? Is It useful? Or something that you almost doesnt play and instead eq from the amp? Just curious about that preamp. Thank you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrFingers Posted April 11 Author Share Posted April 11 On 08/04/2024 at 21:05, sergelebasse75 said: Congrats on your new bass! How does that Vari-mid eq sound? Is It useful? Or something that you almost doesnt play and instead eq from the amp? Just curious about that preamp. Thank you It's like a regular 3 band EQ (so an indent at middle of the sweep where there is no EQ applied, and then a cutoff/boost on either side of that indent),the small knob closest to the bridge is the mid-control for boost/cut, and the ring around is is a stepless frequency selector to select the midrange from a rather broad range, where the mid-control is active on. So you can choose which mid-frequency you boost/cut. It makes for a very versatile tone circuit that basically allows you to ignore the amp EQ, as you can very much build & shape your tone on the instrument itself. Only downside is that you can't switch fast from one sound to another, and that the knobs are very free-rotating. In terms of tonality, that vari-mid reminded me vaguely of a WAL bass of an acquaintance that I once played that had the parametric EQ, you can get the same sweep. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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