Bass guitar?!?!

[WITH FULL DISTORTION]

Hey guys. how are you?!?!
now im starting to take some Bass guitar lessons and i bought an ibanez sr505 old model, made in korea.
Its an awesome bass but its not the new version thats made in indonesia(as far as i know. ) with bartolini pickups. this one is made in korea(i still need to clarify that cause the painting on the headstock is almost erased . does a serial number helps here?) this one still feaures ibanez soapbar style pickups.. its mahogany body with bolt one neck made of wenge and bubinga . maybe theres mahogany also .
i want to change the strings but im confused, cause theres this short, medium and LOng scale.

the guy that sold it to me said that it was equipped with daddario 45s. but he gave me no further details on it and i dont know if my ibanez has a short or medium or long scale.

can anyone help me here? is this the right section to post BASS threads??
the guy bought the bass in Japan. but its made in korea as i told you.

i also would appreciate a lot your input regarding a small bass amp with a really Nice clean and SMooth/velvety sound. with balanced frequencies. not to much bass, not too much middles and not too much highs.

im also thinking in getting flatwound strings.
thanks in advance
JP


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[Severen]

Re: Bass guitar?!?!

The Ibanez spec sheet says that it is a 34" scale length. I always have bought the long sets for 34" scale. Hope that helps and just be careful that you don't buy too short of strings. You can always cut off strings that are too long but you can't make short strings longer. I have never personally owned an Ibanez bass just Fender Jazz Fretless and my number one a "51 P-bass MIJ reissue. Good luck finding your perfect string set. I use GHS Brite Flat ML3075 52-103 on my basses and love it. They are the perfect mix in feel and sound between roundwound and flatwound. I also play old country, rockabilly, alt country, and roots rock styles. Good luck finding your perfect string set for your style.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Bass guitar?!?!

+1

The longer "standard" scale strings offered by some manufacturers are to allow for long headstocks and/or through body stringing.

Gauge-wise, I suggest buying the biggest low B string that you can find. (.130" or .135") The nut slots may require some widening with a file.

IMO, flatwound strings will kill the top end of the Ibanez Soundgear bass. The timbers should already lend a mellowness to the natural acoustic tone. Fit stainless steel strings for maximum brightness. High end overtones are far easier to roll off than to add back in artificially with electronics.

If this is what you desire, go ahead and do it.

 

[dystrust]

Re: Bass guitar?!?!

The serial number starting 'C0' indicates the bass was made in 2000 in the Cort factory in Korea. I don't remember exactly, but they switched to Bartolini pickups sometime between 2002 and 2004, and switched to the Jatoba / Bubinga neck in 2008 maybe. There are several Ibanez catalog archives online, you should be able to get more specifics there.

 

[astrozombie]

Re: Bass guitar?!?!

i don't recommend flatwounds for this bass.

too dull.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Bass guitar?!?!

small bass amp? plenty to choose from. If you want a really titanic live (or recorded) sound in pretty much any sized venue, get yourself a sansamp bass driver direct box. That will give you a killer sound in any room via the PA. Then you can use pretty much any bass amp as an onstage monitor, juts so you can hear your note definition. The big low end being pumped out by the PA will fill in any shortcomings in that area of your amp, so really the amp is only necessary to get the more directional treble part of your sound aimed towards you. There is plenty of tone shaping and response tailoring in the sansamp to get the sound you are after night after night in any venue. You know that no matter what else is happening on stage, you are sending a strong, low noise signal that is alread eqed the way you like. They can also handle that low B easily, unlike nearly all small bass amps. All thats left is for the guy at the desk to fine tune it a little so thatyour favorite bass tone fits the room. Far, far superior to the old fashioned direct box and its sterile string sound. Its a good, flexible, predictable and punchy setup that pros all over the world are using. So yeh...dont rely purely on your amp to get your tone the way guitarists do...think more about the entire live sound system to get the big tone.

Re; Flats...yeh great (also consider half flats). They allow a stronger fundamental tone and less of the zingy overtones so you sound less like a big guitar and more like a bass. Leave the zingy overtones to the guitarists in the band and to the drummers cymbals. You can rule the low end with authority. It worth staying with flats for a couple of months to really get a handle on how the tone fits in a band context before changing to the semis or roundwounds if you feel that its necessary after that. Flats are not just for old skool soul players, or jazzers. Steve HArris from iron maiden has been rocking the hell out of flatwounds for his entire career.

Remember also that on a bass, action height is a major determinant of your tone. A lot of bassists have a super straight neck relief and a fairly low action. You can use the action to create (believe it or not) some desirable fret buzz. This serves many purposes.
1 is to bring back some treble bite into your tone (especially if you are using flatwounds).
2 It allows a kind of "growl" or "grind" in your attack when you pick hard, thereby giving you some cool expressive options.
3 It acts somewhat as a kind of natural compression. Excessively hard notes get their peaks removed by the fret buzz.

I know all this seems counter intuitive, but experiment with it and youll see what im talking about.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Bass guitar?!?!

Bartolini pickups

Specifically, the Bartolini MK pickups. These have been fitted to many mid-price, SE Asian-made instruments. The website description gives little away about them beyond physical dimensions and the colour. (Black, of course!)

 

[dystrust]

Re: Bass guitar?!?!

Specifically, the Bartolini MK pickups. These have been fitted to many mid-price, SE Asian-made instruments. The website description gives little away about them beyond physical dimensions and the colour. (Black, of course!)

I should have clarified in my post; they're Bartolini's version of Duncan Designed. They sound pretty good to my ears, but they don't have the best of reputations on talkbass for instance. They also use a P2/P4 shape case, so it's an easy upgrade to Basslines or 'real' Bartolinis.

 

[Funkfingers]

Re: Bass guitar?!?!

If the stock Ibanez pickups are 4x1.5", the cavities will accept all manner of EMG-40 (or equivalent) replacement designs.

SD/Basslines ASB2-5 Phase IIs would be a good choice. Within the EMG range, there are numerous coil configurations offered inside the standard rectangular cover. You could have PJ tones, DC bridge + J neck (like some Warwicks and latterday MusicMan variants), even a big deep farty neck pickup and a deliberately weaker brighter bridge pickup a la Gibson EB-3. From a distance, nobody would be able to tell.

 

[WITH FULL DISTORTION]

Re: Bass guitar?!?!

Specifically, the Bartolini MK pickups. These have been fitted to many mid-price, SE Asian-made instruments. The website description gives little away about them beyond physical dimensions and the colour. (Black, of course!)

Hummmmmmmmmm thats really interesting. i didnt know that. but i had a suspicious that : not enough info=problem. ahahaha
ill make 2 or 3 samples of bands i like and its bass sounds and ill post them here so you guys can help me in my tone quest.

****ing thanks in advance
JP

 

[WITH FULL DISTORTION]

Re: Bass guitar?!?!

small bass amp? plenty to choose from. If you want a really titanic live (or recorded) sound in pretty much any sized venue, get yourself a sansamp bass driver direct box. That will give you a killer sound in any room via the PA. Then you can use pretty much any bass amp as an onstage monitor, juts so you can hear your note definition. The big low end being pumped out by the PA will fill in any shortcomings in that area of your amp, so really the amp is only necessary to get the more directional treble part of your sound aimed towards you. There is plenty of tone shaping and response tailoring in the sansamp to get the sound you are after night after night in any venue. You know that no matter what else is happening on stage, you are sending a strong, low noise signal that is alread eqed the way you like. They can also handle that low B easily, unlike nearly all small bass amps. All thats left is for the guy at the desk to fine tune it a little so thatyour favorite bass tone fits the room. Far, far superior to the old fashioned direct box and its sterile string sound. Its a good, flexible, predictable and punchy setup that pros all over the world are using. So yeh...dont rely purely on your amp to get your tone the way guitarists do...think more about the entire live sound system to get the big tone.

Re; Flats...yeh great (also consider half flats). They allow a stronger fundamental tone and less of the zingy overtones so you sound less like a big guitar and more like a bass. Leave the zingy overtones to the guitarists in the band and to the drummers cymbals. You can rule the low end with authority. It worth staying with flats for a couple of months to really get a handle on how the tone fits in a band context before changing to the semis or roundwounds if you feel that its necessary after that. Flats are not just for old skool soul players, or jazzers. Steve HArris from iron maiden has been rocking the hell out of flatwounds for his entire career.

Remember also that on a bass, action height is a major determinant of your tone. A lot of bassists have a super straight neck relief and a fairly low action. You can use the action to create (believe it or not) some desirable fret buzz. This serves many purposes.
1 is to bring back some treble bite into your tone (especially if you are using flatwounds).
2 It allows a kind of "growl" or "grind" in your attack when you pick hard, thereby giving you some cool expressive options.
3 It acts somewhat as a kind of natural compression. Excessively hard notes get their peaks removed by the fret buzz.

I know all this seems counter intuitive, but experiment with it and youll see what im talking about.

****ing thanks man. thats a nice explanation
but im really a beginner bass. im a guitarrist myself. im switching instruments but im yet to start playing the bass.
ill record some mp3 of my favorite 3 bands and ill send them to you guys to take a hear on the sound itself
Thanks
JP