Ibanez Soundgear 480 Reviews 
5 / 5 based on 1 reviewsI bought this rather fine instrument for GB£525 in Professional Music Technology in Oxford.
This bass is my second, after a washburn bass that wouldn't have been fit for firewood. This bass is far from that, with a beautiful deep red, and THOROUGHLY beautifully smoothly curvaceous mahogany body and gold hardware, with two Bertolini pickups and active electronics. It is equipped with volume controls, pickup balance controls, and a generous helping of eq control, with bass, treble, and two midrange boost/cut controls. It has a very slim neck [perhaps too slim for some] which allows for frighteningly fast flying around the fretboard; and you say jump, I say how high? 24 frets, that's how high. Yes, it goes a full two octaves, giving you that extra edge over those poor souls with only 20. The sound it makes is beautiful, I am still yet to find a bass whose sound I prefer, and it is easily tailored to the genre of music you are playing through the extensive eq controls. I use it for both jazz and 'rock' playing, and the range of sounds available to you are jaw dropping, and it could be used for any type of playing, I am sure. In other words, this bass is fit for a KING!
This only begs the question...what am I doing with it?!
[Although having said that I am sure that this bass has actually really helped improve my playing. Just playing my old washburn again really does show what a top quality bass this is..]
There are only two faults I can find with this bass. The first is that the eq controls often come loose, I am not quite sure why, but it seems that the screws holding them in become slightly looser with continual use. However this is easily remedied, just screw them back in!
The only other is that it would be very useful to have a warning lamp or something similar in order to show when the battery is low. There is nothing more disheartening than hearing your sound diminish and just fizzle out to nothing all of a sudden, so it would be nice to be warned just before it happens..
Otherwise I can't think of anything!
This bass is extremely sturdy. I try not to knock it about because I'm so affectionate towards it [yes,I'm afraid that *is* true!], but it has taken the occasional quite bad knock, and nothing has gone wrong. There are a couple of dents but, uh, that's due to my clumsiness..
It is extremely strongly made, aside from the eq controls problem that I mentioned earlier, I have no complaints and I at the rate it is going at the moment,am sure it will be good to me for many years to come.
Bottom line?
All I can say is buy it.
And no, I'm not an advertiser for Ibanez, just a kid who absolutely adores this bass.
I've never found any better. Ever.
End.
Michael Chilcott rated this unit
on
2003-01-04.
