Ibanez BTB555

This bass has everything that a novice to pro level player could ask for. I am a profesional touring musician (as an acoustic guitar player,) but this bass makes me play like twice the bassist I am... It is sooo much better than I am!! It is a great feeling, additionaly my Juno winning Afro-Cuban Bass friend is in love with it.

Amazing, Easily adjustable on stage... very friendly on different amps and stage setups. Slap it Pop it, lay into that fat groove, or jazz it up, the sound will be great...

Ready to play out of the box, I am usually picky about the action and neck but this bass it beautiful! I especially love the natural wood and satin finish.

I would take it anywhere!

I received my new Ibanez BTB555 in the mail on Friday, and I couldn't be happier! I bought it new from Zzounds.com.

This is one well equipped bass!

The body is a maple/mahogany/maple sandwich, which gives a nice warm tone with some brightness from the maple. Alder is a well balanced wood, but this is something a bit more complex. The Mahogany part is four pieces of wood, but they joined them well and the color is consistent. The maple caps are two-piece jobs and are not figured (although I do have a little flaming in one piece). I really like the thin layer of walnut between each layer of wood.

The neck is maple/walnut/maple/walnut/maple and the walnut stringers are 1/4" thick. It's fairly wide because of the 19mm string spacing (which makes switching from 4-string fairly easy) and is 1.85" at the nut. That's not bad, though, because my G&L L2000 Tribute was 1.75" at the nut! The really nice thing about the neck, though, is that it's thin. It's 20mm thick at the first fret, and 22mm thick at the 12th fret, which works out to about a consistent 4/5" throughout the main playing area. It does have two truss rods, though, so combined with the five-pieces of wood this neck ain't going anywhere! If I'm just playing the EADG strings it's a lot like playing a Jazz Bass in terms of width, and I can easily reach the B-string even at the 12th fret with my short fingers. The fretboard is rosewood with abalone fretboard dots. The piece that I got has some color variation which makes it look more like dark pao ferro - very nice!

The tuners are well made internal gear ones. They're angles slightly back to keep with the sharp look of the bass (sharp like good looking, not like B.C. Rich). All the hardware has a satin chrome finish. The bridges are monorail types, so there's little sympathetic vibration between the strings (except that the body resonates so well). They also make changing strings a breeze (although this bass came with Elixirs installed, so I won't be changing strings for a long time, I'm sure). The frets are mediums, and they cut the tang ends a bit short and then sealed them so they're not visible. The sides of the fretboard curve gently with the curve of the neck, which is another nice touch - nice and smooth to play on.

The electronics package is great! Bartolini MK-1 pickups matched with the Ibanez Vari-Mid IIIB (18V) preamp. Bass, treble, and a concentric midrange where the top knob is boost/cut and the bottom ring allows you to choose the midrange frequency. Master volume and a pan control. The preamp is a 18v so it takes two nine volt batteries, but it gives you more headroom to play with than a 9v pre. It's completely silent - even with the treble maxed out! I really like the control I get with this bass.

The control cavity wiring is neat and the cavity itself is shielded with shielding paint. I also like the Neutrik locking jack, which will keep my cord from being accidentally unplugged.

There are a number of things I would change about this bass. I'd like to see Dunlop Straplok buttons already installed and a push/pull passive switch. This bass is active all the time. I'd also like to see a double battery box with hinged doors for easy battery changes like on a Carvin. You have to unscrew this one and the battery terminals are nothing special - I'm going to have to be careful with them. I might just swap them out for these hard plastic ones I've got.

One word of caution: if you're going to install Dunlop Straploks you need to cut one of your screws about 1/4" shorter. The strap button hole is unfortunately lined up with one of the bridge screws. I found this out the hard way when I stripped out wood from the hole trying to push past a "blockage". I now am waiting for the wood filler to cure so I can redrill and reinstall the Straplock button.

Man, this thing is growly! I played it through my Zoom B2.1U on the Bassman setting soloing the neck pup. I had the bass set flat, treble half up, and midrange half up at around the middle of the frequency range (for more cut) and it gave a nice, throaty growl.

With the controls set flat this bass sounds really good - like a Jazz with active pups. From there you can boost and cut to tailor your sound to anything you like. This has to be one of the most versatile basses out there because of the midrange frequency control. If you boost the mids in any frequency it enhances the growl. Cut some mids and it smoothes out the sound nicely. I really like the fact that I can keep the bass knob flat and boost low mids to custom tailor my bass frequency sound.

The B string is good, but not great. It might be the tension of the Elixir B string that came installed. If you're looking for a great B string for $700 new you want a Lakland 55-01. Like a piano in clarity! This B is adequate and fairly well balanced.

Not only did they choose a beautiful combination of woods, but they all resonate really well together. It's always a good sign when a bass sounds good unplugged and the body wood resonates strongly.

Will this bass compete in a tone competition with a Fodera or a Zon? Maybe not, but it sure sounds great for $700!

I used to own a BTB405QM, and I did not like the finish on that neck. I like a satin finish and it had a glossy finish. The neck on the BTB555 is a smoot satin finish that feels like finely sanded wood. It makes it very nice to play. The fretboard was a bit dry so I applied lemon oil and let it soak in. When I wiped it off my tissues came back blackened, so it looked like the fretboard was a bit dirty as well. Now it's nice and shiny, and I know it's well protected.

The finish on the body is a satin poly which makes it look like oiled wood - but I'll never have to oil it! Whew! I don't feel any rough or raised spots, so it was well sanded before the finish was applied.

The action was set pretty low at the factory, and I don't plan on messing with it. The pickups are at a great height and seem well balanced in sound. The bass was almost in tune when it arrived (personally, I'd rather have it detuned to keep tension off the neck during shipping).

The bass is well balanced with no hint of neck-dive. It weighs in at about 9 lbs according to my bathroom scale.

My complaint about the bass that I received is that the CNC router used to route out the neck pocket wasn't set right or needed a new bit or something. There was a sizeable gap (maybe 1mm at one point) between the pocket and the base of the neck. Nothing that affects the sound or that would make me send it back (if it happened once, it might happen again). but it bothers me. I used some wood filler to fill in the gaps and not you can't notice them.

The way this bass is constructed it will definitely withstand live playing! The lower end Ibanez basses are a bit iffy, but anything $500 and up is suitable for live playing. The only thing that bothers me is no passive/active switch and no fast way of changing out batteries if they die.

I really like this bass. I've had about 12 different basses in the past six years, and have learned alot about what I'm looking for. It looks really nice, but not flashy. It's go an active preamp, but the sound has a vintage vibe. The body and neck are meaty without being too big at all. It sounds great with the controls flat, which is a really good sign! I was looking for versatility and a good B, and I got it.

Is this the perfect bass for me? I think it is for now (but then we'll see in another six months, huh?). I'm sure my next one will be "better" but this one seems pretty complete. I think I'll probably just go for an additional 5-string that has a different flavor to it. Maybe a great passive one, or a Stingray or something like that.

From the dual truss rods to the 18 volt electronics, this bass is big. The bartolini mk-1 pickups are nice and even - they give plenty of meat without maxing out the gain every time you hit the B string. Lots of options with sound, from tangy funk to gutsy rock. I give features a nine because I'm assuming there has to be a ten out there somewhere, but for the money this one's tough to beat.

I'm playing this bass through an ampeg B2R head and an SVT410HLF cab. I play in a pop/rock band, as well as being part of a worship band in a church of about 3,000. This bass has a very focused and sturdy sound that you can really set your drink on. It also is very satisfying to plug into my 65 watt Laney practice amp. It can get jazzy if I want it to. It does what I ask it to do, and remarkably well.

The string spacing is extra wide and took a little getting used to, but the feel is exceptional. It's a really comfy bass to play - the fretboard has a little bit of gloss to it which I like, and fretting is effortless. I like the satin finish and chose the brown which helps to undercut the size of the bass. I thought natural would just look too big for a skinny guy like myself. Looks are tight, curves are sexy, satin hardware is a nice touch.

I haven't had this one for a long time but I'm confident that, with my previous Ibanez experience, this bass will be as durable as my previous SRX705 (which is a one trick pony that I wouldn't highly reccomend).

Can't say - though I haven't had any problems so far so I guess that's a good thing.

I work at a music store and have the opportunity to play a variety of basses. The fact of the matter is that no other companies are doing what Ibanez does for the money. This is the best mid-range priced bass that I've seen in the store - it's big, but I've been smiling ever since I bought it.

This is just an updated comment from my last one on the BTB 406:

This time round it's a 5-string bass with passive DFR pickups, sporting a Mahogany body with un-quilted maple top and back, 18-volt active 3-band electronics with stacked mid with selectable frequency (Whoa!) and a "mono-rail" bridge system which has individual saddles for each strings and actually is very easy to work with when changing the strings. This bass comes with a Neutrik cable plug (locks the cable in - thats' a plus point). Finish was Natural Satin.

This bass, for the price, sounds GIGANTIC even brighter than that of the BTB 406 which was generally wholesome but a tad murky compared to the BTB 555, thanks to its different wood choice. As for the B-String (kinda like the voice of God!), great high and low frequency dial, added with the VariMid pot (where I did mention some kind of funk-wah tone can be produced =D). It's very easy to adjust your sound wherever and however you play and you'll always be able to cut through the whole band, what more it even cuts thru' small amps like a Fender Bassman 60.....what more if it's plugged into bigger combos....

Initially my bass had earlier been tweaked by a sales representative but the setup was a tad too low until some fretbuzz occurred, but yet no hassle....I know how to set the action to my specs, otherwise there were no glue overhangs and finish checks, etc....

Please take GOOD n' PRECIOUS care of this rock-sturdy babe and it will surely rock on age to age........if I were to trade off my current 4 and 5-stringers, and if BTB555/556 basses would ever available in Malaysia, I'd go for the six-stringer ONLY IF I HAD THE MONEY....aaarrrgh!

No comments, Bentley Music is generally hospitable.....

I have been playing 4, 5 and 6 string basses for nearly 13 years now, and when it was first launched, I think in 2002, I had been pining hard for that model to arrive on Malaysian shores for a long time....comparing this bass with its peers like the Yamaha RBX775, I STRONGLY BELIEVE that soundwise, this BTB will sure emerge victorious - HANDS DOWN! Practically, any type of sound ranging from midrangy funk to boomy, thumping and balladic lows can be dialled quite easily - what more lesser hassle regarding the input jack - Neutrik's a great answer indeed!