So, as is tradition, my NBD is not actually today. I took possession of this beast on Saturday but last night I decided to keep it, so it seemed like a reasonable time to post.
It's on the heavy side at 11.3 lbs. on the bathroom scale, and I was concerned that that was too heavy; I've moved previous basses along due to weight and I'd like to see that not happen here. Tonight I played it at band practice standing for two hours with a Levy's 4" leather strap and had no back or shoulder pain. With the weight out of the way, it's exactly what I wanted; a quality fanned fret bass that I could reasonably afford that did something a little different than my Dingwall Combustion.
It sounds good both active and passive with no noticeable volume bump when switching while flat. In passive mode the treble knob acts as the tone knob which is a little odd to me, I'd prefer it where the bass knob is. The EQ seems very usable especially with the mid switch.
I do wish they had angled the end of the fretboard at the headstock, especially since the other end looks so nice, but the whole bass is pretty dark, so it doesn't really stand out. The zero-fret is interesting. I think I can hear the difference but I'd really need to compare side by side to know for sure.
The strings that came on it feel different than Dingwalls or Paysons. They're D'Addario NYXL strings according to Ibanez. They seem very bendy, I guess I have heavy hands.
I dig the finish, I always liked burl but I never really wanted to pay for it as an upgrade. The case is pretty nice, I may or may not switch to to a Music Area gig bag that I have. The locking jack is a pain and will probably be disabled tomorrow. All that's left is to put some straplocks on it.
Some pics!
It's on the heavy side at 11.3 lbs. on the bathroom scale, and I was concerned that that was too heavy; I've moved previous basses along due to weight and I'd like to see that not happen here. Tonight I played it at band practice standing for two hours with a Levy's 4" leather strap and had no back or shoulder pain. With the weight out of the way, it's exactly what I wanted; a quality fanned fret bass that I could reasonably afford that did something a little different than my Dingwall Combustion.
It sounds good both active and passive with no noticeable volume bump when switching while flat. In passive mode the treble knob acts as the tone knob which is a little odd to me, I'd prefer it where the bass knob is. The EQ seems very usable especially with the mid switch.
I do wish they had angled the end of the fretboard at the headstock, especially since the other end looks so nice, but the whole bass is pretty dark, so it doesn't really stand out. The zero-fret is interesting. I think I can hear the difference but I'd really need to compare side by side to know for sure.
The strings that came on it feel different than Dingwalls or Paysons. They're D'Addario NYXL strings according to Ibanez. They seem very bendy, I guess I have heavy hands.
I dig the finish, I always liked burl but I never really wanted to pay for it as an upgrade. The case is pretty nice, I may or may not switch to to a Music Area gig bag that I have. The locking jack is a pain and will probably be disabled tomorrow. All that's left is to put some straplocks on it.
Some pics!
