IBANEZ PREMIUM SR2405W BASS
A SENSIBLY PRICED FIVE-STRING THAT DELIVERS A SERIOUS PUNCH. REVIEW BY MIKE BROOKS.
We’ve been suitably impressed by various basses from the Ibanez camp over the years – and the sumptuous finishes keep on coming. This SR five-stringer exhibits a rather fetching low-gloss topcoat, somewhere between a high-gloss finish and the smoothness of a satin surface. The hardware looks top-notch, and the electronics package should in theory give the player all the tonal options they could need. But does this SR model cover familiar ground?
The neck length feels longer than it is, although we can assure you that it’s certainly a 34-inch scale. The panga panga and purpleheart five-piece laminate neck feels rigid, while the neck pocket looks very solid and tightly attached. The neck does feel heavy, and there is some noticeable headstock bias on and off the strap, but it isn’t uncomfortable to play.
Neck rigidity is further enhanced by titanium rods, which should keep the timbers in order, even burdened with the extra mass required of a five-string neck. The neck profile is slinky with a nut width of 45 millimetres, but the neck depth is slim enough to offset the broadness of the fingerboard. Hardware and finishing are of a high level throughout.
The abalone oval front-facing position markers are an example of this, with white dots sitting along the side edge, as is the recessed jack socket along the lower body edge. The gold Ibanez monorail bridge units and Gotoh machine heads work well and the bridge units allow three-way adjustments to be made. The control set looks a little fussy, but it isn’t in practise. Volume and pickup pan controls are backed up by a three-band EQ, a three-band mid-frequency selector switch and an active/passive switch. The treble control acts as a passive tone control in passive mode.
Up top you’ve got a set of gold Gotoh tuners that helps keep tuning solid. The active Aguilar
Super Double single-coils offer a wide range of tones, and the fit and finish is all quality. There are hand‑crimped frets and abalone inlays on this panga panga fretboard – it looks and feels great. Ibanez basses are well known for having a fair degree of snap to their tone, and this has that as well as a standout low-mid bias which offers a woody rasp. Hooked up to an Aguilar Tone Hammer, it has a nice organic tone, but the Ibanez EQ has equal amounts of power and finesse across all the frequencies.
The passive performance is also impressive, and although it doesn’t quite have the sonic punch that the active EQ offers, the natural response works in its favour. The woody bark courtesy of the timbers, alongside the Aguilar Super Double pickups and passive tone control, provide some rich passive tones.
The 18-millimetre string spacing can be adjusted at the bridge should you choose to change it, but overall this is a bass which was designed with playability in mind: this latest iteration of the SR design ticks all of the boxes in that respect. Comfort comes courtesy of the sleekly-designed neck, and as five-string basses go, this is a mighty fine example.