I got a Ibanez Talman 605 yesterday from one of the major mail order outfits . They stated it was a blem and I got it for about $130 off the regular price . I figured that it had a finish flaw or something minor , I've ordered seconds and blems before so I wasn't worried too much . When the bass arrived it was packed pretty well in a large box , not the original Ibanez box . No manual , allens or anything else you would get with a new bass . Now to the condition of the bass .
The first thing I noticed was that it had been played a bunch . Lots of fingernail scratches on the tort pickguard , body pretty dirty from sweat I suppose . The pickup screws where you would put your thumb or pick had some of the black wore off . The back of the neck had a black mark on it that I guess was the blem , it washed right off . The worst thing was the bass/treble control was loose from the chrome bezel . I thought it was just a loose nut so I took the knobs off and tried to turn it by hand , that didn't work . Then I unscrewed the plated , held onto the pot and tried a wrench and found out it was stripped . I had another nut it my parts drawer thank goodness and got that fixed . When I found the loose bass/treble control I really thought about sending it back .
At this point I decided to keep going and took the strings off to give it a good cleaning . I forgot to mention that the original strings were dead , dead , dead , another giveaway the bass had been played a ton . Cleaned everything with soap and water , used polish on the finish and pickguard and used Old English lemon oil on the fret board . It looked pretty good after that , I could still see the scratches on the pickguard but they didn't stand out anymore . I put new straplocks on it and a new set of Dunlop Superbright nickle strings . On to the setup .
The neck needed a bunch of relief . It buzzed quite a bit all over . Intonation was way off but I had put different strings on it so that was part of the problem . It took a while but I got it to play in tune and the action is like I want it . It sounds very good now and looks cool too . It is heavy at 10.4 pounds but not too bad for me . I have to say that none of the problems the bass had were the fault of Ibanez . I think someone bought the bass and tried to do their own setup and messed that up , played the snot out of it and returned the bass . It plays great now and sounds good too so far .
I don't think I'll buy a blem again , too much can go wrong . If I didn't have a bunch of experience working on my basses I would have sent it right back . I was very close to that and I know most of you guys would have done that right away . I am satisfied with the bass now but was shellshocked last night after all the work I had to do .
The first thing I noticed was that it had been played a bunch . Lots of fingernail scratches on the tort pickguard , body pretty dirty from sweat I suppose . The pickup screws where you would put your thumb or pick had some of the black wore off . The back of the neck had a black mark on it that I guess was the blem , it washed right off . The worst thing was the bass/treble control was loose from the chrome bezel . I thought it was just a loose nut so I took the knobs off and tried to turn it by hand , that didn't work . Then I unscrewed the plated , held onto the pot and tried a wrench and found out it was stripped . I had another nut it my parts drawer thank goodness and got that fixed . When I found the loose bass/treble control I really thought about sending it back .
At this point I decided to keep going and took the strings off to give it a good cleaning . I forgot to mention that the original strings were dead , dead , dead , another giveaway the bass had been played a ton . Cleaned everything with soap and water , used polish on the finish and pickguard and used Old English lemon oil on the fret board . It looked pretty good after that , I could still see the scratches on the pickguard but they didn't stand out anymore . I put new straplocks on it and a new set of Dunlop Superbright nickle strings . On to the setup .
The neck needed a bunch of relief . It buzzed quite a bit all over . Intonation was way off but I had put different strings on it so that was part of the problem . It took a while but I got it to play in tune and the action is like I want it . It sounds very good now and looks cool too . It is heavy at 10.4 pounds but not too bad for me . I have to say that none of the problems the bass had were the fault of Ibanez . I think someone bought the bass and tried to do their own setup and messed that up , played the snot out of it and returned the bass . It plays great now and sounds good too so far .
I don't think I'll buy a blem again , too much can go wrong . If I didn't have a bunch of experience working on my basses I would have sent it right back . I was very close to that and I know most of you guys would have done that right away . I am satisfied with the bass now but was shellshocked last night after all the work I had to do .
