Just received a new Ibanez Talman TMB30 30" short scale bass. Let me start by saying that I have several basses, mostly 34" standard, passive pu's, a Lakland short scale,a Squier Jaguar short scale and one Ibby SR 500,active bass. Most of these are in the $400 to $900 price range. So my remarks regarding this Ibby short scale will be based on what I have in my arsenal!
I bought mine through Sweetwater because I honestly couldn't find a guitar shop within 250 miles of me that had any of these basses in stock! As usual, Sweetwater does a great job of setting up their guitars before they ship them to the customer. Mine came with no cosmetic flaws, etc., so the finish on this thing is perfect. I prefer a bit lower action and adjusted that. The intonation was pretty good at the start and took just a little tweaking on the D and G strings.
The neck on this bass seems, at least to me, somewhere in the middle of a Pbass thickness, both front to back and at the nut, but yet I can move around on it like one of my Jazz basses. The fretwork was perfect. Usually on a bass at this price, I have to do a little cleaning up on the frets. Not so with this one. Compared to my Squier Jaguar Short Scale, the fretwork was a lot smoother on the Ibby. It came with 105-45 round wounds, which actually sound pretty good. Still, I prefer flatwounds for most of what I play, but will put those on later. As with the Jag short scale which does have a bit of neck dive, the Ibby has NO NECKDIVE whatsoever! Usually, I have to put some lighter Hipshot tuners to balance out some of the lower priced short scales that I've set up for students, but the TMB30 balances perfectly. I'm not crazy about the headstock on it, but it's growing on me
The tuners are as smooth, or smoother than my MIM's and SR 500's. The bridge is pretty much a standard type as is on my Jazz bass. Seems to have pretty sufficient sustain. I may or may not switch it out, will wait until I put my favorite strings. So all in all, I wouldn't classify the parts as "shoddy".
Now for the best part; The pickups! keep in mind that we're talking about a $179 short scale bass. Nevertheless, the P and J pu's on this thing have quite a bit of sound to them! Some of the cheaper Squiers, or other basses in that price range, usually have weak J pu's. I always wind up replacing them with Seymor Duncans. Not the case with this Ibby! Both the P and the J have adequate volume, tone, and range. Before it arrived, I thought that I would at least change out the capacitor, but after playing this through one of my 350 watt amps, it honestly puts out as much sound as one of my MIM Fenders with stock pu's. The controls seems to have full response at both ends so, that's another mod I'll probably hold off on.
Lastly, I read a lot here on TB that short scales are more for "beginners", or for players with smaller hands, and that they lack the low bottom end that we bassists love to hear. I'm certainly not a beginner and I'm 6'3" and have pretty big hands. I've had no problem whatsoever getting around the fretboard of this Ibby or my Lakland! If that stereotype were true, then what would "big guys" like me do with our six string electrics that even shorter! As for low end output, this "cheap" short scale isn't that far from my $1000 Fenders and the Lakland....seriously. Isn't half the battle depending on the amp and the EQ's? The only place I feel that this short scale might be lacking would maybe be with the grunge or heavy metal songs.
I'm not a professional musician but, I play a lot at church and other gigs and festivals that the band I play with does. I have both fretted and fretless basses and play just about every genre of music there is with the exception of heavy metal(I like it, just don't ever play it!). So, to sum it all up, if one felt the need to upgrade the pu's, capacitor, and maybe the pots, this bass could hold its own with my custom Lakland (with EMG's) or a Fender mustang. With my amp setup, and the various tones that you CAN achieve with this bass, it's a good bang for the buck for an intermediate player like me. Yeah, maybe someone at a gig will say, "That's one of the cheap Ibby's....", but I 've played upgraded Squiers before and people come up and say, ...Man, that thing has a great sound..." and then notice that the headstock says "Squier". My brother has been a professional in Nashville for over 25 years. Yes, he has some really expensive basses and yes, he does use short scales as well. But, most of the time he can be seen in the studio or on the road with a good old standard P bass. His motto: "A lot of the bass's (good) sound comes not from the bass itself, rather the bassist who has it in his/her hands."
If you're just wanting to try your hand at a short scale, or looking for one that you can upgrade to a "mid=range" axe, I'd give this a thumbs up.
I bought mine through Sweetwater because I honestly couldn't find a guitar shop within 250 miles of me that had any of these basses in stock! As usual, Sweetwater does a great job of setting up their guitars before they ship them to the customer. Mine came with no cosmetic flaws, etc., so the finish on this thing is perfect. I prefer a bit lower action and adjusted that. The intonation was pretty good at the start and took just a little tweaking on the D and G strings.
The neck on this bass seems, at least to me, somewhere in the middle of a Pbass thickness, both front to back and at the nut, but yet I can move around on it like one of my Jazz basses. The fretwork was perfect. Usually on a bass at this price, I have to do a little cleaning up on the frets. Not so with this one. Compared to my Squier Jaguar Short Scale, the fretwork was a lot smoother on the Ibby. It came with 105-45 round wounds, which actually sound pretty good. Still, I prefer flatwounds for most of what I play, but will put those on later. As with the Jag short scale which does have a bit of neck dive, the Ibby has NO NECKDIVE whatsoever! Usually, I have to put some lighter Hipshot tuners to balance out some of the lower priced short scales that I've set up for students, but the TMB30 balances perfectly. I'm not crazy about the headstock on it, but it's growing on me
The tuners are as smooth, or smoother than my MIM's and SR 500's. The bridge is pretty much a standard type as is on my Jazz bass. Seems to have pretty sufficient sustain. I may or may not switch it out, will wait until I put my favorite strings. So all in all, I wouldn't classify the parts as "shoddy".
Now for the best part; The pickups! keep in mind that we're talking about a $179 short scale bass. Nevertheless, the P and J pu's on this thing have quite a bit of sound to them! Some of the cheaper Squiers, or other basses in that price range, usually have weak J pu's. I always wind up replacing them with Seymor Duncans. Not the case with this Ibby! Both the P and the J have adequate volume, tone, and range. Before it arrived, I thought that I would at least change out the capacitor, but after playing this through one of my 350 watt amps, it honestly puts out as much sound as one of my MIM Fenders with stock pu's. The controls seems to have full response at both ends so, that's another mod I'll probably hold off on.
Lastly, I read a lot here on TB that short scales are more for "beginners", or for players with smaller hands, and that they lack the low bottom end that we bassists love to hear. I'm certainly not a beginner and I'm 6'3" and have pretty big hands. I've had no problem whatsoever getting around the fretboard of this Ibby or my Lakland! If that stereotype were true, then what would "big guys" like me do with our six string electrics that even shorter! As for low end output, this "cheap" short scale isn't that far from my $1000 Fenders and the Lakland....seriously. Isn't half the battle depending on the amp and the EQ's? The only place I feel that this short scale might be lacking would maybe be with the grunge or heavy metal songs.
I'm not a professional musician but, I play a lot at church and other gigs and festivals that the band I play with does. I have both fretted and fretless basses and play just about every genre of music there is with the exception of heavy metal(I like it, just don't ever play it!). So, to sum it all up, if one felt the need to upgrade the pu's, capacitor, and maybe the pots, this bass could hold its own with my custom Lakland (with EMG's) or a Fender mustang. With my amp setup, and the various tones that you CAN achieve with this bass, it's a good bang for the buck for an intermediate player like me. Yeah, maybe someone at a gig will say, "That's one of the cheap Ibby's....", but I 've played upgraded Squiers before and people come up and say, ...Man, that thing has a great sound..." and then notice that the headstock says "Squier". My brother has been a professional in Nashville for over 25 years. Yes, he has some really expensive basses and yes, he does use short scales as well. But, most of the time he can be seen in the studio or on the road with a good old standard P bass. His motto: "A lot of the bass's (good) sound comes not from the bass itself, rather the bassist who has it in his/her hands."
If you're just wanting to try your hand at a short scale, or looking for one that you can upgrade to a "mid=range" axe, I'd give this a thumbs up.
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