Ibanez EHB1005MS Bass Guitar – Sea Foam Matte

Alright final review time. I have had a chance to get about 40-50 hours of playtime; rehearsals, practice, recording and gigging with this bass over the last month.

Let’s get the bad out of the way first, I absolutely hate the locking Jack input. I’ve never broken cables before I started using this input style, since then I’ve broken nice sturdy cable on this bass as well as one my other Ibanez BTB. However, I finally learned the trick of removing the cables but it’s still non-intuitive and it works best using right angle terminals. RIP to my faithful Pig Hog cables 🙏🏾 🪦

As much as I love the color and texture of the finish on the body, it is not very durable at all. Despite being fairly gentle this bass, it’s still somehow gotten some serious nicks and dings and I haven’t dropped it or banged it into anything yet. I can be fairly rough on my gear onstage sometimes so we will see how this holds up but I may seal the body in a transparent gloss to protect it.

The luminlay side dots have not proven to be very consistent. While on stage they SOMETIMES work. But most other times under even moderate light I can’t see them because the dots blend in really well with the birdseye maple fretboard (see pictures). To offset this, I ended up using nail polish to mark the frets.

Lastly, it really breaks my heart to say that the stock Bartolinis are really wimpy and lack definition on their own. I love Barts but not these. However, the bass has a built in active preamp and when it’s engaged and dialed in, it brings the pickups to life and saves the day, but only barely. The in-house Ibanez pickups in the BTB605MS are monsters compared to these, even without engaging preamp. This both frustrates and disappoints me a little because at this price point (it’s more expensive than the BTB) the pickups shouldn’t be this anemic. However, there is one great upside to playing in the weak passive mode, it doesn’t wake up my wife when I play late at night 😉

Alright for the things I do like. Hands down THE MOST comfortable bass I have ever owned. I hate putting the thing down and going to bed, I’ve even fallen asleep holding it. Even after a long rehearsal, I will sit and noodle on it. It’s super light, (around 7lbs) and I never knew I’d enjoy the compactness of headlessness (is that a word?). When I became a bass player I figured I was doomed to bearing monster sized burdensome instruments but this has been a savior for my poor neck and shoulders. I’ve had surgery on my neck over the last few months so this bass has been my ace.

I absolutely love the neck and fretboard. For a 5 stringer it is a dream to play and would be a great way to transition if you’re used to 4 strings or even a guitar player. I’ve always been a sucker for birdseye maple, but ROASTED?! Takes things to a deliciously darker new level, yeah the inlays blend in but I personal rely on side dots, which also blend in… but I fixed that. I was nervous about the tuners going in because they were pretty tight when I first used them, but they’ve loosened up a little and now I find them very intuitive. I haven’t changed the strings yet so the verdict is still out on that aspect but I don’t anticipate any major issues after watching a few tutorials online. The medium stainless steel frets are a really nice touch, though I may install jumbo frets later on as they are my personal preference.

As mentioned previously, the pickups are passive and kind of lame however thanks to the brilliant active pre-amp this alone saves the day. I feel that you could probably put any junk pickups into this bass and the preamp would rescue you almost every time, this is a testament to its flexibility and power. Just make sure to keep batteries on you so you never have to get stuck playing in passive mode. If you’re the guitar player who got stuck playing the bass or a barebones bass player who doesn’t care (or know) about low/mid midrange overtones and frequencies then you probably wouldn’t mind the passive mode tone… but then why would you even buy a bass like this instead something much cheaper?!

I give this bass an 8/10, it’s definitely designed and built for ease of play, comfort and performance but misses the mark with a few shortcomings. The side dots could’ve been just plain white and a little gloss too coat on the body would’ve went a long way, but would’ve probably driven the price up another $400…

If it weren’t lost or stolen I’d probably replace it with the higher end model, because it addresses some of my issues, except for that damn input jack.