Traben john moyer sig vs ibanez sr500

beanydc

beanydc

Dec 15, 2015
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#1
Hey all,

Been having a search on google and cant seem to find much if not anything on traben basses.

Been offered a traben john moyer signiture bass trade for my ibanez sr500.

Anyone have any experiences with trabens and care to shed any light on them?

thanks in advance
 
#2
I played a couple Traben basses at Guitar center back when they stocked them. Can't remember the model names or anything, but both had MM-style humbuckers. One had an obnoxiously large bridge plate in the shape of flames which I thought looked rather absurd.

My overall impressions: both seemed solidly built but were rather heavy (way more than an sr500). I think their claim to fame was a block of metal under the bridge for "better tone." I actually thought the MM style pickups were quite good sounding: powerful, clear, a good sound for heavy music.

I don't know what the market value of Traben basses is, but they were more expensive new than the SR500 series basses IIRC. I think the John Moyer was the top of the line. Probably a decent trade. Are you looking at a 5 string?
 
#4
Trabens were great basses when the company first started up...than Hanser got their hands on it and pretty much killed the company...

some people took exception to their "Sonic Art Bridges"

I have two of their higher end bassses in the product line and am very happy with them

Make sure the John Moyer Sig was built in Korea and not Veitnam and you should be good...FWIW the company switched John's bass over under the B.C. Rich Umbrella before Traben went belly up.

at the time the John Moyer sig was one of their Better basses

Paulownia body
Rosewood fretboard
Bone nut
Chaos internal bridge
35" scale
5-string
Bolt-on construction
Two Rockfield humbuckers
Aguilar Amplification OBP-3 preamp
3-band EQ with volume
5-way switch
 
#5
I know this is an old post, but I do have both basses.
Both are equally good in their own way. The Traben (actually the bass on the left in my user pic) is extremely versatile with it's five way switch and how you can select which coils to have on. It can sound like both a jazz bass in setting 2 with a single coil on in each pickup, to what sounds a little bit like a P-bass on setting 5 with both coils on the neck pickup on. If I had to compare it to another bass, it's similar to a G&L M2000 or even the L2000 but without the active/passive option.
The Ibanez SR500 has a sweet slim neck, pretty good versatility, not too hot on the mahogany finish of the SR500 though.
 
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