Ibanez SR605 Five-String Bass

Among the outstanding features of this ash-bodied Indonesian Ibanez SR605 include a 24-fret rosewood fretboard with genuine abalone oval inlays, a sturdy five-piece jotoba/bubinga neck; and bolt-on extended neck joint with a "tongue." This "tongue" not only looks cool but enhances upper fret access. And let's not forget the beautifully-carved headstock volute. You can read more about volutes at Haze Guitars, Sweetwater and Guitar Skills Planet.    

As the story goes, the three-band active electronics on this bass gave up the ghost several years ago. Yours truly was called upon to turn it into a passive instrument. And so the EQ module was removed and the holes plugged. Following this, the Bartolini MK1 humbuckers were each assigned a volume control; both tied in to a master tone pot. Sound familiar?

Well, it came back recently for some TLC. The A-string tuner post had somehow broken off and all the tuners were missing their nylon washers. The whole bass was also cruddy; and the passive electronics barely functioning.

I somehow managed to find four compatible tuners and cannibalized them for their nylon washers. The A-string tuner had to be totally replaced, of course. That left one tuner without a washer. A makeshift washer was fashioned out of a thin slice of pickup tubing; and seemed to do its job adequately. You can see it if you look closely at the pictures below.

The whole bass was given a good clean and polish, and the hardware taken apart for servicing. I really like the Accu-Cast B25 bridge a lot. It's solid, and the single saddle height adjustment screw makes setup so much easier. Speaking of setup, I was expecting the fretboard radius to be at least 14 inches. Imagine my surprise when I discovered it was just 12!

Electronics-wise, the MK1-5F (neck) and MK1-5R (bridge) humbuckers were still going strong. It was just the pots that needed to be replaced. Once rewiring and circuit testing had been taken care of; the SR605 was strung with Ernie Balls, set up; and plugged into my Laney RB2 for a final sound check. What did it sound like? Ahem, do pop over to SoundCloud for a listen.

Well, guess that's it for this post. For more information on the SR605, do check out Reverb, Music Bliss and Andertons. Thanks for dropping by. Till we meet again, stay home, stay safe; and God bless :)