# NBD: My First Bass, Mostly Maple Edition



## AkiraSpectrum (Apr 10, 2017)

As a guitar player who has had to borrow his younger brother's starter bass for recording (Chinese Epiphone short scale EB-0), I realized that I deserved something that was not only my own but also of better quality for my recordings--which admittedly are few and far between nowadays. I have been scouring Kijiji for the last week or two and came across a few basses that interested me. 

Came across a really good deal on a Schecter Stiletto Custom 4-string and just about pulled the trigger on it, but realized that I would have a lot more tonal options available to me if I went with a 5-string bass. I then came across an old (2002) Korean Ibanez SR405nt for a good price. After contacting the seller I was able to not only drop the price down even further, but also get a gig bag included in the price ($250 Canadian, or $186 USD). Considering a brand new entry-level 5-string bass will cost between $300-450 Canadian, $250 with a gig bag is a great deal in my opinion, especially for someone in my position who just wants it for hobby-recording and noodling around on.

Having very little to no knowledge of the bass I must say, out of the basses I've played in my life, this is absolutely up there on the list (Gibson's, Fender USA's, Ibanez's, Warwicks, etc.). When I picked it up it felt like a higher-end bass and was in pretty good condition considering its age (15 years old, kind of grimy, a few small nicks but nothing major). The frets look 10x better on this than on my brother's Epiphone bass which has had an extremely modest amount of play time over the years. It plays extremely well, even better than all the more expensive Indonesian Ibanez's I've played over the years (although I haven't played any Premium models).

Not knowing anything about tonal qualities I am not too picky about the pickups or anything else, especially since I was able to coax out some sweet tones near instantly with Bias FX. I was expecting the bass to be much heavier considering the body is all maple, however, the bass weighs less than the 4-string Epiphone, by quite a significant amount. 

Overall I am extremely pleased with my purchase. In the next few weeks I'll grab a fresh set of strings and get in some jam time! 

PS: The bridge pickup still had the plastic covering on it, that's 15 years with the plastic on the pickup cover, LOL. 

The specs:

Ibanez SR405nt bass (2002):

- sr5 neck
- Light American Maple body
- 24 Medium frets 
- Accu-cast b25 bridge
- dx5n neck pickup, dx5b bridge pickup
- eqb-III eq
- 3-piece Maple Neck
- Rosewood fretboard
- 34" scale
- Made in Korea


MMmmmm, maple:


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## A-Branger (Apr 10, 2017)

AkiraSpectrum said:


>



those cookies are the best  I forgot about them. My paretns used to bring them every time they went overseas. So fricking cool


bass is cool too  hahah HNBD!

also in order to be a 15yr old bass that hardware looks pretty cool. That cosmo black thing should be fully chrome by now. At least half of it. That and the plastic on the pickup seems like this bass was not played at all and left in storage


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## Petar Bogdanov (Apr 10, 2017)

Sweet looking bass! Does it clank?


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## AkiraSpectrum (Apr 10, 2017)

A-Branger said:


> those cookies are the best  I forgot about them. My paretns used to bring them every time they went overseas. So fricking cool
> 
> 
> bass is cool too  hahah HNBD!
> ...



Cool! Yeah, maple cookies (this brand especially) are to die for, yum!

Yeah the tuners still have the cosmo black coloring and are in good condition. The bridge on the other hand appears to have definitely worn/oxidized. 

The plastic on the bridge pickup definitely took a little more effort to remove than plastics on new guitars, but it wasn't that bad 

Overall I think the condition of this guitar is quite good for it being 15 years old. Definitely don't think it was played excessively. My guess is that the owner played it while in a band for a few years and didn't give it much attention after that.


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## AkiraSpectrum (Apr 10, 2017)

Petar Bogdanov said:


> Sweet looking bass! Does it clank?



Thanks!
I am assuming clank is the bass version of djent... so in that case, yes, with the right settings it does clank


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## BouhZik (Apr 10, 2017)

I too am looking for a bass for hobby-recording and noodling around on, and upgrade my..... Hofner shorty 

this is the kind of deal I'm looking for. looks really cool!

HNBD!


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## AkiraSpectrum (Apr 10, 2017)

BouhZik said:


> I too am looking for a bass for hobby-recording and noodling around on, and upgrade my..... Hofner shorty
> 
> this is the kind of deal I'm looking for. looks really cool!
> 
> HNBD!



Thanks! I don't know what the used market is like where you are but I'm in a large Canadian city and there are usually some decent instruments that pop up every once and awhile. Good deals for quality instruments usually go very fast though. 

A good strategy is to try and see if a seller will drop their price (especially if they've had it up for sale for an extended period). Most sellers prefer to get less money for something than no money  But again, it really depends on the person selling the instrument. 

Keep on the look-out and I'm sure something will pop up for you eventually!


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## coupe89 (Apr 10, 2017)

Nice the I love my Ibanez bass


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## Splenetic (Apr 29, 2017)

I almost got the very same model about two months ago, but then ended up with my SRA555 instead. If they had wanted that kinda money for it, I would've grabbed it instead. Both dudes wanted 300+ back then though hahah.


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## AkiraSpectrum (Apr 29, 2017)

Malevolent_Croatian said:


> I almost got the very same model about two months ago, but then ended up with my SRA555 instead. If they had wanted that kinda money for it, I would've grabbed it instead. Both dudes wanted 300+ back then though hahah.



Cool, yeah this could have been the same guitar. The ad for it was up for awhile from what I remember. It was originally up for $300 (which was already a good price), but I was able to grab it and a fender gig bag for the $250 CDN. 

The SRA555 looks really cool, definitely more aesthetically pleasing for me, and the EMG pickups are a plus. Where is the SRA555 made? Indonesia? Would love to see some pics of your bass!


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## Splenetic (Apr 29, 2017)

Not even Indo hahah. Chinese! That said, it plays and sounds good, and that's without having cleaned it up yet. Stays in tune as well from what I've seen. Got it a few months ago in a partial trade, but had school until recently, and been lazy afterwards hahah. Maybe I'll do it tonight finally.

I was kinda skeptical because it's Chinese, but man, once I held in in my hands I realized how similar the neck felt to my RG1527. Not quite as good, especially due to the fret size and being not quite as thin, but still very solid feeling overall. It's a pretty heavy one too. Have one note buzzing lightly without having super high action, but I might be able to get rid of that as well when I set her up beyond just adjusting the truss rod a little and lowering the action.


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## Splenetic (Apr 29, 2017)

Those are pics from when I just got it btw. I'll post something better if I give her some luuuuv tonight.


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## AkiraSpectrum (Apr 29, 2017)

Malevolent_Croatian said:


> Not even Indo hahah. Chinese! That said, it plays and sounds good, and that's without having cleaned it up yet. Stays in tune as well from what I've seen. Got it a few months ago in a partial trade, but had school until recently, and been lazy afterwards hahah. Maybe I'll do it tonight finally.
> 
> I was kinda skeptical because it's Chinese, but man, once I held in in my hands I realized how similar the neck felt to my RG1527. Not quite as good, especially due to the fret size and being not quite as thin, but still very solid feeling overall. It's a pretty heavy one too. Have one note buzzing lightly without having super high action, but I might be able to get rid of that as well when I set her up beyond just adjusting the truss rod a little and lowering the action.



looks good. yeah, you can get some decent quality instruments from China, a lot of it depends on the amount of money/time the company wants put into the instrument.
good luck with your bass, i'm loving the feel and playability of mine! just got some L&M Bass strings (which are supposedly made by Dunlop) and can't wait to find some time to clean and re-string this beast.


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