UPDATE: String information. NBD: Ibanez medium scale SRMD205 5 string

fretmeister

I've had 30 mins with it so far.
First impressions - it's remarkable, and not just for the money. (£299)

The Low B is full and fat and not twangy. It's genuinely up there with my Stingray - and it has the same D'addario strings.

I haven't set the action up to my usual as yet but out of the box it plays very well. Will only need a tweak or 2. The neck profile is lovely. 18mm bridge spacing (I find the Ray at 17.5mm a touch tight. Amazing what another 0.5mm can do!) and a nice C shape on the profile.

The Flat tone is very balanced and nicely away from the over-bright trend that seems to afflict many modern basses. The EQ is ok. Bit noisy with the treble boosted to max, but 1) it's a cheap bass, and 2) that's not my sort of sound anyway. I would say that the bass is good enough for an EQ upgrade in future if I feel like it. However I tend to set my sound up on the Amp and then only tweak on the bass for the room if needed - and most of the time that will be to cut rather than boost.

 

 

P pickup alone is very much like a P except I think the pickup is a little bit closer to the neck (difficult to assess on a different scale) so it's quite deep.

 

Similarly the J seems further from the bridge so it's doesn't quite bark as much as a J on my other basses but it's a good sound, if not quite full Jaco.

 

So far I've tried it with my Helix using a "straight into the desk" sort of DI sound with compression, then into Yamaha HS7 studio monitors. I'll try my real amps and other amp patches later.

 

 

And for those of us afflicted with age and injury... it is 6.9lb - that's nearly 2lb lighter than my PJ-Ray 5.

 

I have a youtube playlist of the tunes my Jazz band plays so I'll be cranking it after work for a proper run as close to being in the mix as I can.

 

I am now seriously considering getting the other colour as well!!!

KKJale

Interesting. Nice report  

I wonder if the look of the P pickup positioning is thrown off by the two extra frets over a Fender? On a 32" scale Squier P the E/A polepieces are 26.5" from the front edge of the nut...

Am increasingly enamoured of medium scales these days.

fretmeister

I'll measure it when I get a moment.

Sounds excellent whatever.

Winny_Pooh

Looks a good deal, and the J pickup positioning is an improvement to my mind.

fretmeister

Winny_Pooh said:

Looks a good deal, and the J pickup positioning is an improvement to my mind.

It has a very nice sound on it's own.

I like the barky sound, but it's so genre specific that it's not very versatile. For general use I am really enjoying slight shift in position.


I'm definitely thinking about getting the other colour as well!

fretmeister

An interesting discovery...

The stock strings are D'addario. Described on the Ibby website as the standard Medium scale nickel set plus a .130 B string.

I could not find the medium scale B string for sale anywhere and it is not listed on D'addario website.

So I emailed Ibanez and D'addario.


D'addario eventually answered and informed me that the .130 medium scale B string is ONLY made for supply to Ibanez directly for fitting to this bass during manufacture. It is NOT for sale to the public.

So I emailed Ibby to ask if they had really bought a bass to market where the buyer could not buy the stock replacement strings.
Ibanez UK distributor - Headstock - ignored me completely. No answers.

Ibanez USA told me to ask Headstock. Their social media pages also failed to answer.


So I've had to go looking for other brands that have a medium scale Low B. The following are available - and there might be others. Loads of brands make medium scale bass strings, but hardly any make a low B.



1: Warwick Black Label Medium Scale.
There are 2 different sets available. 40-130 and 45-135
I decided to buy a couple of sets of the 40-130 to see what they are like. Very nice indeed. Clear and deep sounding and the B is even with the other strings.


Downside - only available direct from Warwick. Shipping to UK is about 16 euro. But it's a flat fee so I ordered 2 sets. Took about 5 days to get here from Germany. Probably not helped by the virus sitution.


2: Newtone Strings.
Custom made but with prices comparable to many off the peg name brands. Very well regarded on Basschat for all manner of odd scale instruments. When buying you measure your own instrument and they make the strings to order. There is a guide on their website as to how to measure it properly. Lots of choice including hex and round core, nickel and steel, tapered or not etc etc. Jon Gomm appears to be a big fan of their guitar strings too.

Downsides - not bought them yet, but as they are made to order it seems 14 days is the delivery period - not a good choice for an urgent string replacement. I will be giving them a try though, would be nice to support a local company.


3: La Bella
They have several sets that will fit including the White Nylon coated strings. The White Nylons are an excellent string but in the UK they have an RRP of £80 and are usually about £70 street price. The steels are much cheaper.

I cannot see a lot of people who buy a £299 bass paying £70 for a string change. There will be many younger players buying this model bass. Not many stockists of the medium scale ones so may have to be a special order at your local emporium.


4: Dunlop
This appears to be the only choice for flatwounds in a medium scale with a B string.
As it happens I've not found many Low B flatwounds (at any scale) that didn't sound like arse. The low B just needs the definition of a round.



So far I cannot find any other medium scale low B maker.

mbe

Headstock is the mothership for the Laney empire. In the past,I have found them aloof to us mere punters although they will respond to retailers.

wrinkleygit

Newtone strings are excellent & for a hand made product their turnaround time is pretty good, it’s only the virus situation that has made delivery times longer. I only use these on all my acoustic guitars & just before lockdown received three custom sets in under 10 days.
  However for bass, playing in a jazz trio, I prefer L’abella low tension stainless on my 30” fretted & black nylon on my 31.5” fretless, from Bass Direct, check out their website.

ICBM

fretmeister said:

D'addario eventually answered and informed me that the .130 medium scale B string is ONLY made for supply to Ibanez directly for fitting to this bass during manufacture. It is NOT for sale to the public.

That's a bit shit. There may be some sort of exclusive licencing agreement, but then you have to ask who thought that was either necessary or acceptable...

I would highly recommend Newtone. I haven't needed any odd-scale/gauge bass strings from them yet, but everything else I've bought from them has been fantastic, and usually the delivery time is quicker than quoted as well.

fretmeister

I'm really liking the Black Labels, but I'm going to order a set of the Newtone's to see if I like them better.

I swap strings quite a lot depending on what I want to do with the bass - with the exception of my Precision. That sticks with Roto Monel Flats.

fretmeister

wrinkleygit said:

Newtone strings are excellent & for a hand made product their turnaround time is pretty good, it’s only the virus situation that has made delivery times longer. I only use these on all my acoustic guitars & just before lockdown received three custom sets in under 10 days.
  However for bass, playing in a jazz trio, I prefer L’abella low tension stainless on my 30” fretted & black nylon on my 31.5” fretless, from Bass Direct, check out their website.

The low tensions are not available as a medium scale as far as I can see.

crunchman

Could you get away with normal long scale strings?  I've just restrung my medium scale, and what was on there before were normal long scale.  I know the low B is thicker, but the bottom E on the set I've just replaced was a 105.

Jeremiah

crunchman said:

Could you get away with normal long scale strings?  I've just restrung my medium scale, and what was on there before were normal long scale.  I know the low B is thicker, but the bottom E on the set I've just replaced was a 105.

Does your bass have through-body stringing? If so, that would take up a couple of extra inches and might allow long scale strings to work. Otherwise, there is often a problem when the full-thickness part of the string has to go around/through the tuner post, which might either be impossible or cause the string to break.

fretmeister

crunchman said:

Could you get away with normal long scale strings?  I've just restrung my medium scale, and what was on there before were normal long scale.  I know the low B is thicker, but the bottom E on the set I've just replaced was a 105.

No. Tuners are very small post. Wouldn’t take the thick speaking length.
A & D might be ok as the tuners are further away, but definitely not the B and probably not the G.

Its the B that’s the problem. Lots of choice for the other strings.

fretmeister

I'm loving this bass so much that I've ordered the Sea Foam Green one as well





I'll keep the black one with the amazing Dunlop Flats that are now on it, and the SFG will get some Newtone custom nickels that are sitting here in a packet.


As it happens I have discovered that the DR Sunbeam short scale strings might just fit.
I've currently got Sunbeams on my Sandberg and I really like them, so when I've measured it all up to the millimetre I can have a look at those as well.