Iron1
AmbassaDOOM of Red VVinter
My wife and I walked into a Guitar Center back in like 2004(ish) and they had a jewel blue Ibanez GSR200 that caught my eye. Not expecting much, I picked it up and plunked on it for a bit and was blown away by how well it played for a cheap bass. The sales guy must have been dying for sales, cause he offered it to me for $100... with a Roadrunner hardshell case. SOLD. Got it home and played it for years and years.
Well, in 2019 I started playing 7-string guitars and needed a 5-string bass. So, stupid me, I traded off that Ibanez (to a different GC who gave me more than I paid for it just for the bass - I still have the case lol) towards a Fender HM5 bass they had used at another store. The Fender showed up and it was a total trainwreck. Took it to a buddy who builds custom high-end guitars and he messed with it for a few days then gave it back and advised me to sell it. So, I did.
Then, my awesome wife got me an Ibanez SR305 for Christmas of 2019 and I loved it. But last October my brother died suddenly and I inherited his 1994 Ibanez EXB445. Not having need of two 5-string basses, I sold the SR305, which I now also regret. The EXB is a great bass, but it was stolen back in 1997 and through this really cool turn of events, my brother found it on eBay about a year before he died and got it back again. But, whoever had it didn't take great care of it. I spent hours upon hours cleaning it up, adjusting the neck, doing a proper set-up, etc. and now it plays really good again, but the wear and tear shows. It also has two J pickups in it which I can't seem to dial in as well as I'd like (thankfully, a guy at BassChat gave me a wiring diagram of how to run them in series to fatten up the tone, which I'm going to try this weekend).
So I decided I wanted another brand new bass I could take care of and keep in pristine condition. After a lot or research, I settled on another GSR200, a Jackson Spectra or a Yamaha TRBX174. Since I'm a guitar player, I really only use the bass for songwriting/recording, so no need to shell out Rickenbacher money, no matter how much I GAS for a Rick.
Went down to one of the local GCs here in MN and played a GSR200 and a Spectra, among other things. The GSR200 wasn't even close to the one I had, so #pass. Since I couldn't find a TRBX in any of the stores I knew of, I decided to go with the Spectra. Well, I called back to the GC and got some guy on the phone and asked about their Memorial Day sale price on the Jackson - he started acting like I was lying about the sale and the price, even though it had just ended. So, piss off dude, you lost a sale and your store lost a customer.
I decided to see if there were any other stores around I hadn't found yet and sure enough one popped up about 20 minutes away I'd never heard of - and best of all, they had 6 TRBXs in stock. I drove over, played all six of them, and thankfully, the blue one, which is what I wanted to begin with, played the best of the bunch. The sales guy hooked me up with a sweet discount and I brought this puppy home.
After jamming on it a bit, I decided I wanted to swap out the pickups. A bit of web searching found bass player after bass player raving about the Entwistle Neo P & J pickups. Since I already have an Entwistle Dark Star 7 in one of my Jackson guitars, I know how sweet they are (probably the absolute best bang for the buck pickup out there if you're ever looking for budget pickups) and ordered a set that should be here on Monday.
In the meantime, here's a little test I did with the stock pups:
Well, in 2019 I started playing 7-string guitars and needed a 5-string bass. So, stupid me, I traded off that Ibanez (to a different GC who gave me more than I paid for it just for the bass - I still have the case lol) towards a Fender HM5 bass they had used at another store. The Fender showed up and it was a total trainwreck. Took it to a buddy who builds custom high-end guitars and he messed with it for a few days then gave it back and advised me to sell it. So, I did.
Then, my awesome wife got me an Ibanez SR305 for Christmas of 2019 and I loved it. But last October my brother died suddenly and I inherited his 1994 Ibanez EXB445. Not having need of two 5-string basses, I sold the SR305, which I now also regret. The EXB is a great bass, but it was stolen back in 1997 and through this really cool turn of events, my brother found it on eBay about a year before he died and got it back again. But, whoever had it didn't take great care of it. I spent hours upon hours cleaning it up, adjusting the neck, doing a proper set-up, etc. and now it plays really good again, but the wear and tear shows. It also has two J pickups in it which I can't seem to dial in as well as I'd like (thankfully, a guy at BassChat gave me a wiring diagram of how to run them in series to fatten up the tone, which I'm going to try this weekend).
So I decided I wanted another brand new bass I could take care of and keep in pristine condition. After a lot or research, I settled on another GSR200, a Jackson Spectra or a Yamaha TRBX174. Since I'm a guitar player, I really only use the bass for songwriting/recording, so no need to shell out Rickenbacher money, no matter how much I GAS for a Rick.
Went down to one of the local GCs here in MN and played a GSR200 and a Spectra, among other things. The GSR200 wasn't even close to the one I had, so #pass. Since I couldn't find a TRBX in any of the stores I knew of, I decided to go with the Spectra. Well, I called back to the GC and got some guy on the phone and asked about their Memorial Day sale price on the Jackson - he started acting like I was lying about the sale and the price, even though it had just ended. So, piss off dude, you lost a sale and your store lost a customer.
I decided to see if there were any other stores around I hadn't found yet and sure enough one popped up about 20 minutes away I'd never heard of - and best of all, they had 6 TRBXs in stock. I drove over, played all six of them, and thankfully, the blue one, which is what I wanted to begin with, played the best of the bunch. The sales guy hooked me up with a sweet discount and I brought this puppy home.
After jamming on it a bit, I decided I wanted to swap out the pickups. A bit of web searching found bass player after bass player raving about the Entwistle Neo P & J pickups. Since I already have an Entwistle Dark Star 7 in one of my Jackson guitars, I know how sweet they are (probably the absolute best bang for the buck pickup out there if you're ever looking for budget pickups) and ordered a set that should be here on Monday.
In the meantime, here's a little test I did with the stock pups:
