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Ibanez AFB200

Summary
Price New Ibanez AFB200 @ Musician's Friend
Manufacturer URL http://www.ibanez.com/
Features N/A (0 responses)
Sound 10.0 (1 response)
Action, Fit, & Finish 10.0 (1 response)
Reliability/Durability N/A (0 responses)
Customer Support N/A (0 responses)
Overall Rating 10.0 (1 response)
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Product: Ibanez AFB200
Price Paid: UNKNOWN
Submitted 04/24/2009 at 04:16pm by Hitpicker

Features : No Opinion
Others have covered this info, so I'll jump to the good stuff.

Sound : 10
I've been on a serious hollowbody bass quest for several years; my desire was to find a bass with great acoustic sound where you can actually hear the top and the string. You can always alter and effect a bass to be more electric sounding, but you can't get the rich fat string-to-top almost stand-up sound I'm after from a solid body bass. (I should say here that I am a lifetime acoustic guitar player with some great guitars and have agonized over the tonal differences between plastic pins, bone, ebony, fossil walrus ivory etc, so I have some sense of what I want in tone. I am probably one of very few who use classic Fender Blackface bass amps for playing bass (guitarists go nuts for them) but I like the old style tone.
I've owned and sold more than several hollowbody basses, including the Gibson 335 style bass (way too muddy and not acoustic sounding)and several 1970s Japan basses from Ebay, which were somewhat close but never enough to end the quest.
I also tried an Ibanez AB 140 (335 style) bass, but with one pick-up, the sound was limited, and the tone control was non-existant; (imagine a tone control with no wires hooked up!) still, I was impressed with the build quality. Also owned and sold a pretty nice 70s Conrad Janpanese that was close but not as close as others I have, so I sold it.
I own an Epi Jack Cassidy which is pretty fine and close to what I wanted to hear but I kept on looking, so I guess not close enough.
I have a Yamaha BEX hollow that I like alot, and it has a shorter scale (more comfortable for my guitar playing hands)and is active, so very close and still I kept looking.
Then I found a rare Washburn AB 90i (active), a keeper that sounds and looks great, (This is a killer bass!) but STILL I kept looking for something I wanted to hear but just couldn't quite reach; that string vibrating a wooden top sound.
Finally I saw the Ibanez AGB 200, and read it was a short scale with TWO pick-ups, which I figured would fix the less than great sound of the AB 140 I'd owned. I also remembered the great build quality of the 140, so I looked around Ebay till finally I almost stole one.
Well, fellow hollowbody freaks, this is the one I've been hearing in my head, very acoustic, string to top sound, round sounding with the second PU adding the option of some top end string sound. The tone control pot (as on the 140) is still minimal, but this bass has THE hollowbody sound that has consumed 3 or 4 years obsessing and several thousand dollars to find. And hey, I've got lots of tone control on the amp!
Looks incredible, has THE sound, and also the short scale that's easy on my guitar playin' hands. You can still layer on effects, plug-ins etc. and get a solidbody, more WHOMPIN' sound, but this bass really shines with that almost stand-up sound that I nearly gave up on finding.
For a recent studio recording I played it through an inexpensive ART Tube Pac tube pre/compressor, and was thrilled again. Hollowbody AND tubes...now, that'll get you there! I haven't even put any decent strings on it yet, but when I get around to some flats or tapewounds, I'll probably freak...this is a killer bass, and I'm home.

Action, Fit, & Finish : 10
I own several nice Martin guitars, and this bass fits right in there,
quality wise.

Reliability/Durability : No Opinion

Customer Support : No Opinion

Overall Rating : 10
Thirty-five years professional musician, recording artist and studio engineer, with a dozen great guitars, four keyboards and six great basses.
If you're a hollowbody bass player, try one of these!!!

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