NBD 2nd day in a row - Ibanez EHB1005F

[nightsprinter]

Sold my fretless 6 string bass last week and had a bit of an empty nest feeling for extended range fretless afterwards. Got a little trigger happy on Reverb and took a shot on my first headless deal.

This one is easier to play than my other atm due to the side fret marker lines.

It's light but not so light that it feels like something from Toys R Us. Lightest instrument I have I think. Neck feels great, fingerboard is nice and smooth.

The arctic ocean matte finish looks good. It's not as smooth as my other matte finished guitars. But that's fine by me, I don't care. It will get shined up and scratched up soon enough.

Stock B string feels good for a 34" scale. I prefer 35" typically but tons of great records were recorded with 34" 5-string basses, so my bias might just hail from some type of Periphery Syndrome where bigger and longer MUST be better, or whatever the hivemind is leading miserable consumers like me to believe. I have a 37-34" ms btb 6 string bass for the djunga bunga stuff anyway.

So far, so good, so what. I'll put it through its paces over the next couple days, find some stuff to bitch about, and report back.

 

[Crungy]

Congrats on the new bass! I didn't realize they offered those as fret less.

Do you normally do standard tuning on it or is it much hassle to drop down to A on the headless hardware?

 

[nightsprinter]

These tuners are easy it turns out. I haven't done a string change yet, but I switched between A standard and B standard with ease when I was testing them out. They aren't hard to turn and what's more is they have a certain level of resistance to them that seems to imply to me that they're gonna keep tune well. It isn't the kind of resistance once associates with a worm gear that's about to shear or round off.

 

[Grindspine]

I have three EHB basses now, 2x EHB1505ms and one six string 1506ms. The fact that a 35" scale can fit into a guitar gig bag still astounds me. The EHBs are so nice and light compared to my BTB845v and easier / more comfortable to play than my SoundGear SR1825 or my Squire Mustang bass

Ibanez did something right with these.

I will note, though, that I still have the 1506ms because every 1505ms in Black Ice Flat was a dud. One had lifting frets and another had a split in the fretboard. Panga Panga and Wenge are awesome when properly handled, but those two did slip past QC. The three EHBs I still have are amazing though.

 

[nightsprinter]

I have three EHB basses now, 2x EHB1505ms and one six string 1506ms. The fact that a 35" scale can fit into a guitar gig bag still astounds me. The EHBs are so nice and light compared to my BTB845v and easier / more comfortable to play than my SoundGear SR1825 or my Squire Mustang bass

Ibanez did something right with these.

I will note, though, that I still have the 1506ms because every 1505ms in Black Ice Flat was a dud. One had lifting frets and another had a split in the fretboard. Panga Panga and Wenge are awesome when properly handled, but those two did slip past QC. The three EHBs I still have are amazing though.

Hear hear dude. I have bones to pick with the ibanez Indonesia fret department, I'll put it that way. Glad you found a keeper. I really like the feel of this thing.

I like panga panga and wenge when they're done well but the lumber needs to be selected very carefully. I sometimes find boards where the pores are borderline cracking down the whole thing.

And whoever decided the srf705 fretless should have a soft and porous panga panga fingerboard is insane.

 

[Grindspine]

Hear hear dude. I have bones to pick with the ibanez Indonesia fret department, I'll put it that way.

Buying a fretless was a great way to get past that! I have handled a few instruments with Richlight and am undecided on it. It should make for a decent board on a fretless though. Are you keeping the stock roundwounds or switching over to half-rounds, flats, or tape?

 

[nightsprinter]

Rounds for now. I want to test out how succeptible richlite is to witness marks. I used to run halfs on the mtd kingston w ebony board I had and will probably wind up going that route eventually.

 

[Grindspine]

I have never been able to commit to flats. I have liked the half-rounds I tried, but that was back when I only had two basses and wanted some more brightness so stuck back to rounds. Let me know how the fretboard holds up to rounds!

 

[Dayn]

Nice, I want to get one at some point. I have an EHB1006MS, which had a slightly raised fret, so fretless will pretty much solve that immediately.

I was going to get tapewounds, but since I don't have a fretless it's only hypothetical at the moment.

 

[Shawn]

Very sleek. Congrats!

 

[omynel]

This looks sick. I'm a little late to this thread but I have an EHB1005SMS which is the short scale 30"-32" version.

There's a cool little +6 db mod you can make to these which adds a little more life to the pre amp. No soldering required, very simple. I've only just tried it and haven't done any meticulous side-by-side comparisons but it seems to improve the low B string in particular.

Before



After

 

[omynel]

I have three EHB basses now, 2x EHB1505ms and one six string 1506ms. The fact that a 35" scale can fit into a guitar gig bag still astounds me. The EHBs are so nice and light compared to my BTB845v and easier / more comfortable to play than my SoundGear SR1825 or my Squire Mustang bass

Ibanez did something right with these.

I will note, though, that I still have the 1506ms because every 1505ms in Black Ice Flat was a dud. One had lifting frets and another had a split in the fretboard. Panga Panga and Wenge are awesome when properly handled, but those two did slip past QC. The three EHBs I still have are amazing though.

View attachment 143024View attachment 143025

Really nice collection you've got there. How do you like the pickups in the 1505 / 1506? They're Nordstrand right? I really wanted the short scale for ease of playing alongside my 7 string but I've since regretted not getting the full length scale with the Nordstrand pickups rather than the stock Bartolinis in mine.

 

[Grindspine]

I have the B2 Bartolini / made for Ibanez pups in my BTB845. The Barts are definitely not as defined as the Nords and have a rolled-off high end. I have read that other Bartolini pickups are more balanced. If given the choice, I prefer the Nords though.

 

[nightsprinter]

I got rid of this thing. There were things I liked, and things I didn't.

Likes: weight, balance, feel. the meh barts sounded better in this fretless configuration than on fretted counterparts.
Dislikes: fingerboard needed a leveling- had high and low spots, weird overtones, buzzy spots. the buzzy spots on the first 3 positions would clean up, but only with more relief than I wanted. stacked plastic knobs felt cheap and weren't the best.

So I've now bought and sold the btb805ms, btb806ms, and this ehb1005f and I'm thinking for as much as I covet Ibanez electric guitars, I don't like this sampling of basses at all. Just not for me, I guess. Most people I've interacted with seem to think they're solid, so more for them I guess. I just think the build qualities of everything I have had did not meet my expectations.

 

[Crungy]

Sounds like it's Dingwall time.....

 

[nightsprinter]

Sounds like it's Dingwall time.....

Getting close I tell ya...

 

[omynel]

I just think the build qualities of everything I have had did not meet my expectations.

The build quality of the EHB in particular gets a lot of heat on the EHB Facebook group. Thankfully mine is good but I've seen some really bad QC.

 

[nightsprinter]

The build quality of the EHB in particular gets a lot of heat on the EHB Facebook group. Thankfully mine is good but I've seen some really bad QC.

Yeah I knew it was a gamble. Thing is I really liked it, but I just wanted it to be better.

 

[GenghisCoyne]

I know it's a polarizing thing to even suggest to certain people but I prefer my 6 string kiesel vader bass to my Ibanez and my mtd z6

 

[nightsprinter]

I know it's a polarizing thing to even suggest to certain people but I prefer my 6 string kiesel vader bass to my Ibanez and my mtd z6

If they did a 35" straight scale headless, id have one by now. What color is your z6?