On Thursday, Mrs. Instrumentlevel wanted to go to Target, so I went along and popped into Guitar Center across the parking lot. I had joked about getting a new Rick for the quarantine. My son tried to help convince her, saying “I heard that playing a Rick is the best way to protect against COVID-19 because the sound is so clean that it sterilizes you when you play it”) Great kid.
Walked in and they happened to have a Ibanez Talman shortie in Ivory. It was used—and only $109! Been thinking about grabbing one since they were released, but never had an extra $189 to play with. But at $80 off, how could I not!?
And it only weighs about 7lbs. How could I not?!
The bass is in pristine condition. Not a scratch, scuff, or donk on it. Still a bunch of the plastic pickguard wrap underneath the knobs, so the first owner didn’t pull the knobs when removing it. The “ivory” looks more like buttercream, a bit more saturated with yellow.
The jatoba fretboard is no rosewood, but looks attractive to me, and is darker than in the closeup pic.
It’s no Rick, but I’m liking it anyway!
As others have remarked in various threads, it is a good sounding, solid bass—certainly better than the $109 suggests. I figured that if I didn’t dig it, I would return it in the 45 day return window. We had a gig scheduled for next Saturday night, so I was going to put it through its paces then. But southeast PA is being shut down for non-essential businesses, so that won’t happen. (FWIW, Gerald Veasley’s Philly BassBootcamp has been postponed until August.) Oh well . . . I may have to keep it beyond the 45 days...
The only thing I don’t like is the hurkin’ headstock.
Seems needlessly large, and the spacing on the bottom tuners is weird. And there is a little bit of neck dive, probably because of the light body. My son says it is a “great vintage look.” I think he’s just saying that old stuff looks weird.
Now the mea culpa: over the years, I’ve seen lots about fret sprout. I’ve never thought that was super serious, since I’ve never run into it, even on my super cheap basses. That goes double for sharp ends. I figured people had super soft hands or something.
Boy was I wrong. This bass is great, but had some sharp fret ends. I figured, no big deal, maybe at some point I’ll deal with them. Turns out, I sliced up my index finger pretty good!
I was able to file down the ends with the rounded side of a single cut file real quick—only took about 15 minutes. I strayed into the wood a couple of times, but buffed it out easily with no lingering marks. No more sharp ends, and my finger is happy.
So, to all of you who I though were a bit dramatic, please accept my heartfelt apologies for my doubts about “people on the internet.” Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Walked in and they happened to have a Ibanez Talman shortie in Ivory. It was used—and only $109! Been thinking about grabbing one since they were released, but never had an extra $189 to play with. But at $80 off, how could I not!?
And it only weighs about 7lbs. How could I not?!
The bass is in pristine condition. Not a scratch, scuff, or donk on it. Still a bunch of the plastic pickguard wrap underneath the knobs, so the first owner didn’t pull the knobs when removing it. The “ivory” looks more like buttercream, a bit more saturated with yellow.
The jatoba fretboard is no rosewood, but looks attractive to me, and is darker than in the closeup pic.
It’s no Rick, but I’m liking it anyway!
As others have remarked in various threads, it is a good sounding, solid bass—certainly better than the $109 suggests. I figured that if I didn’t dig it, I would return it in the 45 day return window. We had a gig scheduled for next Saturday night, so I was going to put it through its paces then. But southeast PA is being shut down for non-essential businesses, so that won’t happen. (FWIW, Gerald Veasley’s Philly BassBootcamp has been postponed until August.) Oh well . . . I may have to keep it beyond the 45 days...
The only thing I don’t like is the hurkin’ headstock.
Seems needlessly large, and the spacing on the bottom tuners is weird. And there is a little bit of neck dive, probably because of the light body. My son says it is a “great vintage look.” I think he’s just saying that old stuff looks weird.
Now the mea culpa: over the years, I’ve seen lots about fret sprout. I’ve never thought that was super serious, since I’ve never run into it, even on my super cheap basses. That goes double for sharp ends. I figured people had super soft hands or something.
Boy was I wrong. This bass is great, but had some sharp fret ends. I figured, no big deal, maybe at some point I’ll deal with them. Turns out, I sliced up my index finger pretty good!
I was able to file down the ends with the rounded side of a single cut file real quick—only took about 15 minutes. I strayed into the wood a couple of times, but buffed it out easily with no lingering marks. No more sharp ends, and my finger is happy.
So, to all of you who I though were a bit dramatic, please accept my heartfelt apologies for my doubts about “people on the internet.” Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
