# NBD: 1987 Ibanez RD828



## jrstinkfish (Dec 17, 2013)

I've been in the market to replace my LTD B-50 for a little while, trying to get a little more serious about playing both bass and guitar. I spotted this used on GC.com, and it had been lowered to $189 recently. Couldn't really find much about it online, but that seemed to be a good price, so I went to take a look. Well, turns out it's seen the world a few times, and it shows. For the most part it's in decent condition, but the back looked like this:













So I decided nah, I'll pass. MIJ, played great, sounded great, but $189 for it ... I didn't know. Thought about it all day Sunday, and came to the conclusion that since I wasn't really concerned about resale with this one, and the damage was on the back, I'd see if I could negotiate down and then decide. Long story short, I got them down to $125, so now I have a really nice playing bass that I will define as having "character" rather than being beat-up  Much more versatile tonally than my B-50, surprising how much the knobs change the sound, gonna take some getting used to. GC guy said it belonged to the dude from Tora Tora, but I bought it anyway  I prefer to think of it as Greg Christian's model (though I think this ad is a couple of years after mine was made):


----------



## TemjinStrife (Dec 17, 2013)

Those are solid basses. Congrats!


----------



## mphsc (Dec 17, 2013)

Congrats man! Who looks at the back anyway,


----------



## Necris (Dec 17, 2013)

I love the look of older ibanez basses, I've heard good things about that particular series, I had an SB (Saber Bass) from the early 90s myself a year or 2 ago.


----------



## Shawn (Dec 17, 2013)

Wow....that brings back some memories. I knew a guy who had one back in the day. He played in a death metal band and it was the same color. I really love those knobs they used back then as well as the earlier S series. Nice score!


----------



## Daf57 (Dec 18, 2013)

Ah, very cool! Congrats!!


----------



## jrstinkfish (Dec 18, 2013)

Thanks guys. Playing with it for a couple of days, I can't really find anything wrong with it other than that mangled backside, so it's a keeper. For a 26 year old bass, it looks like it was well cared for, just had some severe buckle rash or a nice ding that turned into flaking and got out of hand. It probably needs a setup, no telling how long it was hanging there in GC dropping in price and getting manhandled. It's a bigger bass than I'm used to, for sure.


----------



## CrushingAnvil (Dec 18, 2013)

jrstinkfish said:


> Thanks guys. Playing with it for a couple of days, I can't really find anything wrong with it other than that mangled backside, so it's a keeper. For a 26 year old bass, it looks like it was well cared for, just had some severe buckle rash or a nice ding that turned into flaking and got out of hand. It probably needs a setup, no telling how long it was hanging there in GC dropping in price and getting manhandled. It's a bigger bass than I'm used to, for sure.



$189 was a good deal as it was, I don't know where you got it in your head that it wasn't worth it even with the huge amount of missing paint on the back (I think it looks badass). 

Clean that thing up and play the .... out of it. 

Congrats!


----------



## jrstinkfish (Dec 18, 2013)

Well I usually buy guitars with one eye on resale value, and this one was hard enough to get a value already with not much out there on the interwebs, and the damage didn't help matters. After I left and thought about it, I decided I didn't care too much about the damage as long as it played well, but if I could use that damage to knock the price down, it'd be that much sweeter  Really is a nice bass, leaps and bounds better than my B50.

I already gussied it up for the pics, and it cleaned up really well. It was dusty and smudged/grimed to hell from hanging at GC for so long, so it just needed about a half hour of cleaning, and now it looks great. No damage or wear at all to the neck or fretboard, electronics work perfectly, just a damn fine deal.


----------



## Reykbass (Apr 25, 2014)

I just bought this exact bass. It just got here today and I love it!!


----------



## MrMcSick (Apr 25, 2014)

Love those old regulated loz pickups and the gotoh (Ibanez branded) bridge. Same ones as my 89 sr800. Be careful with those bridge set screws though as they can crack the saddles and parts are non existent for those bridges.


----------



## NeglectedField (Apr 25, 2014)

Regulated lolz.

They should reissue these. Even if just the cheaper passive versions. Would sell like hot cakes to people in no-frills thrash/death/black metal bands.


----------



## MF_Kitten (Apr 26, 2014)

I always found guitar-like superstrat basses odd looking, but I love them at the same time. That looks sweet!


----------

