NBD: BTB33 EADGC

Plutonium244

Plutonium244

Mar 29, 2015
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4,606
Wisconsin
#1
It's kind of a niche instrument but could be a niche that suits me. I believe these are being discontinued by Ibanez. BTB33 is a 5-string 33" scale bass tuned E-C. Bartolini pickups. The extra high string makes more chordal playing possible, useful if you want to be able to, say, play some jazz standards chordally expressed with little/no accompaniment which is something I want to work on. First bass I have owned with a ramp; scale is 3% shorter than standard so it is not much different-- just enough shorter to make it play faster with, in my case, the notes falling more perfectly under my fingertips with a natural curvature of my hand.

Tone is better than expected, I rather expected the slightly shorter scale to take a toll there. E is just a little looser than what I am accustomed to with a 34" scale. Not heavy but not as not light as I thought it might be given the small body... it is a slab. Sounded good on a gig through a GK MB 800 and Barefaced Super Midget, with a tight and clean low end (which I had worried might be less than impressive w/ lower tension. Also sounded good at home through a super Bassman 300 and Barefaced Four10. I was surprised that it sounded quite good with the Bassman's overdrive such that you can mimic guitar parts. Has a cord lock jack which is nice.

I had been interested and since they have been discontinued and I hadn't seen a used one here on TB for nearly seven months, I thought it might be time to check this out. Picked this up from a quality TBer for a fair price. I am enjoying playing it.
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#9
Plutonium244 said:
It's kind of a niche instrument but could be a niche that suits me. I believe these are being discontinued by Ibanez. BTB33 is a 5-string 33" scale bass tuned E-C. Bartolini pickups. The extra high string makes more chordal playing possible, useful if you want to be able to, say, play some jazz standards chordally expressed with little/no accompaniment which is something I want to work on. First bass I have owned with a ramp; scale is 3% shorter than standard so it is not much different-- just enough shorter to make it play faster with, in my case, the notes falling more perfectly under my fingertips with a natural curvature of my hand.

Tone is better than expected, I rather expected the slightly shorter scale to take a toll there. E is just a little looser than what I am accustomed to with a 34" scale. Not heavy but not as not light as I thought it might be given the small body... it is a slab. Sounded good on a gig through a GK MB 800 and Barefaced Super Midget, with a tight and clean low end (which I had worried might be less than impressive w/ lower tension. Also sounded good at home through a super Bassman 300 and Barefaced Four10. I was surprised that it sounded quite good with the Bassman's overdrive such that you can mimic guitar parts. Has a cord lock jack which is nice.

I had been interested and since they have been discontinued and I hadn't seen a used one here on TB for nearly seven months, I thought it might be time to check this out. Picked this up from a quality TBer for a fair price. I am enjoying playing it. View attachment 2762806 View attachment 2762807 View attachment 2762809 View attachment 2762810
Click to expand...
That's pretty cool. I love using the high C on my 6 string Warwick thumb NT6 for chords. I mostly play with one guitar or one electric and one acoustic, no keys live But Ill play keys in the studio.

Check out Janek Gwizdala. He's got a great daily vlog on YouTube and plenty of online lessons. His fodera 5s are 33" scale and eadgc like this.
 
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#10
Nephilymbass said:
That's pretty cool. I love using the high C on my 6 string Warwick thumb NT6 for chords. I mostly play with one guitar or one electric and one acoustic, no keys live But Ill play keys in the studio.

Check out Janek Gwizdala. He's got a great daily vlog on YouTube and plenty of online lessons. His fodera 5s are 33" scale and eadgc like this.
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for the tip on Gwizdala, will definitely check it out. I've heard the name but until now had no idea what his thing was. I have a MTD Kingston Z6 which I am not proficient on but which I like, mostly for the c string, but have found it in the limited time I've had it to be a bit unwieldly, esp for muting etc. Practice would help to mitigate it, but I find it a little easier to forget where I am on the neck with the 6-string. Knowing I was most interested in the higher string, and that when playing and I come back to "home" -- after going on some musical tangent or getting distracted and forgetting what I am doing-- it is intuitively low E as the touchstone to find my place, it seemed like the eadgc tuning would make a lot of sense. The Kingston has a 35" scale which didn't feel bad-- but at 33" there's less effort in reaching in notes.
 
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#11
Plutonium244 said:
Hey, thanks for the tip on Gwizdala, will definitely check it out. I've heard the name but until now had no idea what his thing was. I have a MTD Kingston Z6 which I am not proficient on but which I like, mostly for the c string, but have found it in the limited time I've had it to be a bit unwieldly, esp for muting etc. Practice would help to mitigate it, but I find it a little easier to forget where I am on the neck with the 6-string. Knowing I was most interested in the higher string, and that when playing and I come back to "home" -- after going on some musical tangent or getting distracted and forgetting what I am doing-- it is intuitively low E as the touchstone to find my place, it seemed like the eadgc tuning would make a lot of sense. The Kingston has a 35" scale which didn't feel bad-- but at 33" there's less effort in reaching in notes.
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Yeah one of the things I like about my thumb 6 is how small it is. I've played several 6 strings that I wasn't huge on .
 
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#15
Plutonium244 said:
Hey, thanks for the tip on Gwizdala, will definitely check it out. I've heard the name but until now had no idea what his thing was. I have a MTD Kingston Z6 which I am not proficient on but which I like, mostly for the c string, but have found it in the limited time I've had it to be a bit unwieldly, esp for muting etc. Practice would help to mitigate it, but I find it a little easier to forget where I am on the neck with the 6-string. Knowing I was most interested in the higher string, and that when playing and I come back to "home" -- after going on some musical tangent or getting distracted and forgetting what I am doing-- it is intuitively low E as the touchstone to find my place, it seemed like the eadgc tuning would make a lot of sense. The Kingston has a 35" scale which didn't feel bad-- but at 33" there's less effort in reaching in notes.
Click to expand...

Janek just released a chordal harmony book which I've been meaning to nab. Looks pretty good. He stresses it's written for everyone i.e., 4 string is enough. But I'm sure things will sing nicer on a high C.
 
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#17
nonohmic said:
Janek just released a chordal harmony book which I've been meaning to nab. Looks pretty good. He stresses it's written for everyone i.e., 4 string is enough. But I'm sure things will sing nicer on a high C.
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I visited his website yesterday and am contemplating purchasing the "whole package" which is pretty much everything, for $58. It includes the chordal harmony ebook. Otherwise, the chordal harmony book alone is about $40 IIRC. Watched a couple of his vlogs as well, he seems to be an interesting character.
 
#18
You know, what's weird is that right now my main bass is a 4string Sadowsky Metro, but I've had two musicians tell me, after hearing me play both the Sad and this Ibby BTB33 5-string EADGC bass, that they prefer the sound of the BTB33. It kind of annoyed me the first time; the second time I had to pause and think about that.
 
#19
Plutonium244 said:
It's kind of a niche instrument but could be a niche that suits me. I believe these are being discontinued by Ibanez. BTB33 is a 5-string 33" scale bass tuned E-C. Bartolini pickups. The extra high string makes more chordal playing possible, useful if you want to be able to, say, play some jazz standards chordally expressed with little/no accompaniment which is something I want to work on. First bass I have owned with a ramp; scale is 3% shorter than standard so it is not much different-- just enough shorter to make it play faster with, in my case, the notes falling more perfectly under my fingertips with a natural curvature of my hand.

Tone is better than expected, I rather expected the slightly shorter scale to take a toll there. E is just a little looser than what I am accustomed to with a 34" scale. Not heavy but not as not light as I thought it might be given the small body... it is a slab. Sounded good on a gig through a GK MB 800 and Barefaced Super Midget, with a tight and clean low end (which I had worried might be less than impressive w/ lower tension. Also sounded good at home through a super Bassman 300 and Barefaced Four10. I was surprised that it sounded quite good with the Bassman's overdrive such that you can mimic guitar parts. Has a cord lock jack which is nice.

I had been interested and since they have been discontinued and I hadn't seen a used one here on TB for nearly seven months, I thought it might be time to check this out. Picked this up from a quality TBer for a fair price. I am enjoying playing it. View attachment 2762806 View attachment 2762807 View attachment 2762809 View attachment 2762810
Click to expand...
I have one like this, and it's a favorite of mine for duos and trios playing jazz. It has a splendid, clear sound, I think. I'm playing my first gig without a chordal instrument (drums, sax/flute and bass) soon, so I've been working up chord accompaniments: Moonlight in Vermont, Willow Weep for Me, Some Other Time, among others. Should be fun!
 
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