Thinkin'bout a trade...

[woodyng]

Well,in the ongoing fretless bass saga i am experiencing,the Ibanez Musician i ran into a while back did not work out. (Something about cramming 24 "frets" into a 34" scale,i suspect,i had a really hard time staying in tune on it)
I took my Italia Rimini bass in to a friend to have new strings put on,(labella white tapewounds,HIGHLY recommended,btw),and he was smitten with it. He has a nice Mexican Fender Jazz fretless in olympic white (my favorite color on a J bass),and he has replaced the stock pickups with Fender custom shop 60's pickups,and the stock bridge with a badass 2. I think with the upgrades,the basses are in about the same ballpark price-wise,so we would do a cashless swap. As much as i love the Rimini,it's frets are huge,tall,and protrude through the neck binding.(which is another thing i'm never happy with). Whaddaya think? I believe the J bass will be a tangible improvement over my pretty-nice Yamaha fretless,which i will probably be selling soon.

[jps]

(Something about cramming 24 "frets" into a 34" scale,i suspect,i had a really hard time staying in tune on it).....nice Mexican Fender Jazz fretless.....swap......I believe the J bass will be a tangible improvement over my pretty-nice Yamaha fretless,which i will probably be selling soon.

As these all have the same "fret" spacing (34" scale length), the only difference being a bit longer fingerboard to accommodate frets 21-24, where would the improvement in intonation come from?

[woodyng]

Well,the 34" scale is the same,but the amount of notes contained on said scale isn't,so there's your difference. What i found with the 2 octave fretboard on the Ibanez,was that what my left hand thinks of as a whole step is more like 1 and 1/3 on the Ibby. A point the bass' owner agreed he had the same conclusion of. Meanwhile,back to the main question... ...i am going to go swap basses this evening,and try the Fender out for a few days,that really is the litmus test when you get down to it,innit? I do like j basses,so this will probably be a go......
The "improvement" will be in my perception,more than likely.
Edit just realized that i didn't point out the ibby is fretless,but i figgered ya'll remembered from my last chaotic post what i was talkin'bout. in a nutshell,i have a starter yamaha fl,and am wanting to get something more of a step up. And s model Fl Ric's are not easy to come by....

[jps]

...in a nutshell,i have a starter yamaha fl,and am wanting to get something more of a step up.....

Call Martin Keith,, he'll make you a nice step up model bass!

You might have a problem though, as mine has a 26th "fret" position on it!

[cassius987]

Well,the 34" scale is the same,but the amount of notes contained on said scale isn't,so there's your difference.

But the distance from semitone to semitone is the same... By the nut, it should be totally identical. Ergonomics might be different for other reasons like radius or neck profile but the fingering positions ought to be the exact same.

[jps]

Well,the 34" scale is the same,but the amount of notes contained on said scale isn't,so there's your difference.

..the fingering positions ought to be the exact same.

All 34" scale instruments will (should, anyway) have identical fret/position spacing, so the reason Woody had issues must to be chalked up to some other dimension, as you say.

[woodyng]

Or dementia,perhaps. Yeah,its all semantics to me,i could not get comfortable with the Ibanez bottom line. I tried the jazz out tonite,and was like,home,on it,no issues,other than i wasn't crazy about the half-round strings on it. It plays really well,sounds good to me,and i am able to hit my notes without constantly micromanaging my finger positioning. I think we may have a love connection. my friend really likes the Rimini,and this bass is a reasonable step up from the yamaha. (I have a feeling the Keith basses are outta my price range). Thanks for your comments.

[jps]

I tried the jazz out tonite,and was like,home,on it,,,...I think we may have a love connection.

Have you two been to........never mind!

[ajish4]

Hey Woody,

Can you tell me about the Ibanez Musician? I've been eyeballing one of those early 80's models, but they LOOK so heavy! I've never been an Ibanez kind of guy, but something about them just LOOKS like it would be a great fretless!

[woodyng]

I tried the jazz out tonite,and was like,home,on it,,,...I think we may have a love connection.

Have you two been to........never mind!

FUNKYTOWNNNNN??? why,Yes,we have......

[woodyng]

Hey Woody,

Can you tell me about the Ibanez Musician? I've been eyeballing one of those early 80's models, but they LOOK so heavy! I've never been an Ibanez kind of guy, but something about them just LOOKS like it would be a great fretless!

Well,the beast is a bit on the heavy side,yes.,I didn't measure it while i had it,but i would guess 10-11 pounds at least.The model i had on loan did not have the earlier varitone and brown matching pickups,it had a passive Disguised P-J set up,and a switchable active 3 band eq,which did wonders for its kind of flat sound. (New strings would surely have helped too,it had some old ghs flats on it,and just had no sustain or mwah) The neck is a 5 piece neck through,and it is very slender side to side with a very rounded "c" shape. (think Jazz bass neck without any widening taper) I have rather long fingers,and found myself always "overshooting" the note positions. the body shape is really nice with a sort of german carve on the front upper edge. The more i play most other basses,the more i realize i am just a Ric guy,for the most part. One of these days i will run across a RIC fretless to try out. I had the chance at the first BARC,when Joey brought one of his,but at the time i wasn't even willing to pick up any fretless and embarass myself in public. Ah,well....

[cassius987]

Sounds like you really like the Jazz. I'd go for it!

[woodyng]

Well,the 34" scale is the same,but the amount of notes contained on said scale isn't,so there's your difference.

..the fingering positions ought to be the exact same.

All 34" scale instruments will (should, anyway) have identical fret/position spacing, so the reason Woody had issues must to be chalked up to some other dimension, as you say.

I should have measured the side dot position markers on the Ibanez whilst i had it,but just eyeballing it at the time,it seemed the "frets" were quite a bit closer together on that bass than on my Yamaha. Anyhooo.....

[woodyng]

Sounds like you really like the Jazz. I'd go for it!

Well,it ain't perfect (a bit heavy actually),and the strings on it i just noticed are Daddario half rounds,which even tho they are a light gauge seem really stiff and tension-y,like most daaddario strings i've tried,but i think with a new set of the labella white tapewounds,it would be a great sounding bass. It plays like butta,and the pickups sound good.

[ajish4]

Thanks Woody, much appreciated!