Ibanez GAXB150

This is 2007 built, seems to vary from descriptions here of older instruments in that he body on mine is mahogany rather than alder as several have stated (and it's solid wood, no ply). Great warm tone with plenty of bite available if needed, and it can ring like a grand piano. It is badly balanced, but the easy fix is to move the strap button to the neck hold-down screw, kind of where an SG would have the button on the back of the body, and it balances right out. This makes it seem to weigh less as well, and gets the neck at the proper angle without having to hold it up and play at the same time. That little mod improved this bass immensely.
I personally love the neck on this thing. It's almost as wide as a P-Bass and not very thin at all- compared to most Ibanez bass necks, this is a baseball bat. With the 32" scale it fits me perfectly.
Very basic feature set- volume and a pickup coil selector switch, which is all the "tone" switch really is on this dual-coil soapbar. No tone-sucking capacitor/pot in the circuit is actually a plus in my mind.
The hardware is good, with a nicely adjustable bridge and tuners which I don't seem to be having any issues with.

It comes with 3 sounds pre-installed, and from there you're on you're own. EQ with a pedal or at the amp and it becomes more versatile. It records well, no noise and good tone thru the board.
I play rock, blues, rockabilly, punk, metal- whatever- and this can be usable in any of them with some knob twisting. It's a natural for blues and rockabilly run straight, pipe it through a hot preamp and a compressor and it can be extraordinarily aggressive sounding. Note to others- if you buy a bass that doesn't have the sound you want that's your fault, not the guitar's.

The setup was usable as delivered, strings were OEM light (.100) gauge. Don't try to use heavier strings unless you want to do some serious truss-rod adjustments, and it won't sound any better anyway. I use ENR71M strings on mine, the ground finish cuts down on the fret noise without deadening the tone much. Properly set up this bass is alot of fun to fly around on, much faster than my Jazz Bass.
The body fit and finish is good, had to clean a little buffing compound out of the crevices but it's done as nicely as their expensive stuff- no cutting corners like those other guys.

I don't quite trust the electronics on a bass in this price range, so higher grade pots, jack and switch will be installed before this one hits the road. Other than that, I think it's got the goods to be a great stage guitar.

Previous dealings with Ibanez have been good. None concerning this guitar.

I've been playing over 30 years now, a bassist by trade but I also play guitar and slide guitar regularly. My road arsenal includes the Jazz, a Washburn Hammerhead, and a vintage Yamaha BB300 nicknamed "Big Red". I run those through Fender Dual 400 and/or Genz Benz amps, using various cabinets to suit the situation. The Ibanez has a neck like the Hammerhead, and the body rings like the Yamaha. From a pure price/performance/build quality standpoint this bass is more than the sum of its parts, so I score it higher here than in any particular category.

maple neck, mahogany body, 1 soapbar double coil pickup, volume knob and "pickup selector", 20 fret 32" scale neck. its pretty simple. im fine with simple, but i gave it a 5 because of the switch thing. i would just prefer a tone knob. the only real difference i can hear is that when its on the tremble(bridge) side you can hear the different noises like finger touching the string, hitting the body, etc. the middle is for bass, but i'm a tremble guy so i dont use this one.

the sound for me personally is pretty bad. its way too... "metalic." and i dont mean the band. especially with the strings it came with. just imagine popping the strings except really hard. thats what its like all the time. otherwise its fine

the finish was fine. the set-up was good too, but i got it slightly used so i dont know if that was the factory or the guy. every thing was fine.

i think all the important stuff will last. at least if treated properly. the finish had one little dent on the back and i dont remember what it was from but i hardly touched it and it got a ding in it.

overall its ok. it works and right now that really the most important for me ever since my piece of crap beat up squier p stopped working. personally i dont like the feel of it. i think the body is stupid because it was a guitar that was just coping the SG, which is ok for a guitar. but this is so uncomortable as a bass. and the frettboard is buzzy. and i am WAY too big for short scale.

just remember that these are just my opinions. i suggest that if you want this you try it out first. this just isnt the bass for me. but it might be for you, so go try lots of different ones and find one you like.

The size is perfect. Feels kinda like my Les Paul. Front strap mount is not way out on the top horn (doesn't have a bigger top horn, it's the same size as the bottom) so it feels slightly head heavy, but a good wide leather strap seems to stop it from slipping somewhat. The bridge suprised me with two allen screws to adjust each string segment. This is similar to my strat bridge which is really infinitly adjustable. This bass was eash to adjust the string height to my liking. Had a little trouble with tuning. I'm a guitar player so I'm not sure if it was getting used to such low notes or what, but using a hard pick just to tune really helped.

I use this to record bass parts in my home studio. The recorded sound of this instrument is good for the type of recording I like to play with (Rock, Blues and Jazz).

I bought this bass for $125 at Guitar Center. I was a floor model with a ding in the finish near the rear stap hook. I only had to adjust the string height at the bridge.

This is a pretty solid little bass guitar. It's so simple that there is not much to go bad on it.

Don't know.

I've been playing guitar since 1962. I am writing and recording original songs and needed a bass to play the parts in my songs. This has been a good low cost fun to play bass that has exceeded my expectations.

terrible hardware. 1xvolume control. good humbucking pickup

sounds rather good actually. this is where i like it. i'm not actually a bass player, i play lead guitar. but i was pleasantly suprised. sound better than my bass player's bass.

horrible. WORST BALANCE IN THE WORLD. neck jabs at your toes if you let go. no jokes. tuners suck, dont stay in tune for 10 mins. Have to really clamp the string down to eliminate ooodles of fretbuzz. finish is a sexy red? volume pot came unstuck first time i used it. twists round electronice inside the body. bummer. and its not a regular thing which you can take off the nob. this (plastic) one doesnt have the hole for the screwdriver/allen key/whatever yu use.

very unreliable

not dealt with. YET.

nice sound. yuck everything else. oo and i forgot to say - HORRIBLE NECK. CHEAP WOOD. it won't make you proud.

Not much on features. Symmetrical, double cutaway alder body, I think it's ply, but the spec says alder. One volume control, and a 3 position Les Paul-style toggle switch, which is used for the coil split on the 1 soapbar pickup, sounds to be reviewed later. Nice thick gloss black lacquer finish on the body and headstock, satin finish on the back of the maple neck. Short scale. Rosewood fingerboard with pearl dot inlays. Cool body shape, kinda like a Les Paul Special Double Cut. Neck has a guitar-like feel, in contrast to the wide thick bass necks out there. Pretty cheap bridge and tuners. Chrome finish on all metal parts. Came with a gig bag that's way too big for it. I added a chrome bridge cover to it. Looks way cool now.

I'm using it with an Ampeg B2R thru a Crate 4x10, with a BBE Sonic Maximizer running thru the loop of my head. Has a very dark sound, no matter what position the pickup selector is on. Speaking of: Switch in Position 1(bridge): Very bright, tone is similar to a Jazz bass with more growl and balls. Tone down the treble in your amp and you have a great early KISS sound. Mid Position: Think John Paul Jones sound on early Zeppelin recordings. You can feel the note more than hear it. Very round with a bit of volume drop. Position 3(neck): Not as much treble as in Position 1. Great for blues and rock. The Position 1 sound is what I use most with it, and it's the coolest bass sound I ever did hear, and I own a few basses that cost mucho more. Fits my personal sound and style for bass (I'm a guitar player first, so naturally I play bass like a guitar.)

Bass needed a lowering of action when I got it, which took all of 2 minutes. Pickup was fine. Fretwire was smooth, and that contrasts with the other reviews of the fretwire being sharp. Guess I got a good one. Tuners seem cheap and seem to slip. They will eventually be replaced. Intonation was good. Saddle of the D string tends to buzz; I'll probably end up replacing the bridge, even though ya can't hear it thru the amp.

Oh yeah, this bass can withstand live playing. Changed the strap buttons to straplocks. Finish is good and thick. Other than the tuners and bridge it's damn good, and the tuners aren't THAT bad. After owning a Spector I like my tuners to stay put, that's all...

Never dealt with Ibanez. Hope never to do so.

For $179, I got a damn good sounding bass with the perfect body shape and a short scale. Been bass playing for 14 years now, but like a guitar player, pick and all. Love the neck. Thought about changing the pickup to a Gibson Sidewinder pickup, but that would require routing and I don't wanna mess it up. May add a chrome hand rest/pickup cover. It'd be cool if they made this with a flatter body with white binding, but oh well. For the money this is a steal. Would I buy it again? In a second.

The other reviewers covered all the features nicely, just a quick rundown: Alder body (mine has a chrome red finish), maple neck (satin finish) rosewood fretboard with pearl dot inlays, pretty short scale for a bass. Single soapbar pickup located just slightly closer to the bridge than the neck, 1 volume pot and a 3-way tone switch that I didn't completely understand until I read one of the reviews below, I'll try to offer my own explanation in the Sound section of this review. Overall, not a ton of features when you compare it to a Musicman Stingray with on-board active eq, but that's fine with me because it has what you need and I like its simplicity.

For a cheap bass, it sounds pretty great. I should mention that I just bought the bass earlier today and have been playing it for about 4 hours now, so I'm still in my honeymoon period but I'll attempt to be critical nonetheless. Instead of having a regular tone pot, this bass continues its "simplicity is good" theme by replacing it with a 3 way switch. When the switch is in the "bridge" position, it's like having the tone pot all the way on with full treble. This position has great attack, great for slapping. When you switch it to the "neck" position, that's like rolling the pot down halfway (this is my favorite position, a happy medium). The middle position is like having the tone rolled all the way off (or, as the review below pretty accurately described it, like hearing a car drive by with the subwoofer cranked :) but it is good for mellow slow songs). The bad news is that as the amount of treble drops, so does the volume. The volume difference between the full tone and tone off positions is pretty huge, so it might be a good idea to use a compressor if you plan on switching between the 3 positions a lot. I don't play bass professionally so I don't have a good bass amp, I'm just playing through a little Suzuki all-purpose mic/instrument amp, but the bass still sounds pretty nice. In the few years I've played bass, I've found that a great amp can make a shitty bass sound great, and a great bass can sound pretty shitty through a cheap amp. So I say buy an inexpensive bass like this one that sounds okay and feels good, and save your money for a great amp.

The reviewer below mentioned having problems with the fret edges sticking out, unfortunately that's one of the most common problems when you buy cheap instruments that are mass-produced overseas. The good news is that for every one that has annoying problems like that one, there's probably one that feels fine. The one I bought has no fret problems and plays great (although I would have preferred a glossy finish on the neck instead of satin, but that's just a matter of personal preference). My advice would be to buy one in person so you can play it first, if you order online you might end up with a shitty one. Another thing which I'm suprised the other reviewers didn't mention (or maybe it's just my particular bass) is that it's very neck-heavy which takes some getting used to.

It's a solid, heavy bass and the finish looks pretty thick so I'm not too worried about it. I also opened up the back and checked the wiring, everything looks clean. One of the reviews mentioned the strap buttons being worrysome but I think they looks a lot more secure than the ones that have come on some of my more expensive guitars, they're pretty wide. I would feel comfortable using this bass at a gig without backup.

N/A Don't know what their customer support is like, hopefully I won't ever have to find out.

I give this bass a 9 considering what it is: probably one of the best basses you can find for under $200, and probably a bit better than some $300 basses. I traded in my old Yamaha RBX-260 which was a nice starter bass, but this one is definately better because it cost less than the yamaha did, it sounds a lot better, and on a more superficial note it does look a lot cooler too :). If it were stolen I'd definately buy another one (as long as I could find another one with such a nice neck). Make sure you try before you buy!

Very simple but versitile bass.
Just one volume and one pickup but it has a pickup splitter that can add some variation to your sound.
The body is alder it has a soapbarish pickup which for a 150$ bass is very quiet.
Medeum scale neck (30in) which is thinner than most basses and standared tuners. Which i may replace...

This bass is possible the most versitile bass in this price range.
I am running this bass through a ProCo Rat and a Boss ODB-3.
As i said before this bass isnt noisey at all.
There are three pickup settings.
1 in the bridge position- It has a trebley slap bass type sound lots of bite
2 in the middle which is almost useless- Sounds like a car with a huge sound system blasting the bass.( In the worst possible way)
3 to the neck- this is a nice mellow sound would be good for blues and such.

The action on the neck was ok but is very easy to adjust on this bass.
The finish looks great and is flawless and the pickups/wiring were great right out of the box.

This bass will be with me for a while.
The finish is thick and every thing seems to be solid.
I would use this without a backup.
Ive had this bass for a few months now and rarely need to tune it up.

Havent and probly wont need it.

I love it. If it was lost of stolen id buy a new one. I was comparing it to a few other basses. A fender mustang bass, Epiphone EBO3 And Squier Musicmaster. Those were all almost double this price and dont sound nearly as good.

Alder body, based on the Ibanez pseudo SG body with a maple neck and Rosewood fretboard
Gloss black finish
Single soapbar pickup
A volume control and 3 way "tone" switch

The neck is fairly slim with good spacing between the strings. This instrument also comes equipped with a bridge that's a little more heavy duty than your standard fare from Fender. A very bare bones piece of equipment.

I tried this bass out on several Ampegs, Crates, Fenders, and SWR's when I purchased it. At home I'm running this bass through a Behringer V-Amp into a Marshall Lead 12 and a Yorkville AM50.

Sonically, this bass has a very bright sound to it, but a very solid bass punch. The little Ibanez soapbar is very responsive and can pick up subtle variations in how you play. The three way tone switch swaps the tone setting from full on, cut at half, and all the way off. It sounds limited in print, but you get a fairly decent amount of versatility from it.

One important thing to note however, is if you play near the bridge, the sound can get "farty" when using the tone switch to cut down on the brightness. Those of you who rest your thump on the pickup when playing might want to take your time in considering this one. Also, there is some high frequency noise when the tone switch is full on.

Overall, this bass isn't the master of versatility, but what it does, it does very well. The 3 way switch can variate between the trebly sound of Tool's Schism and the deep Geezer P-Bass punchy sound.

I've only had it for a week, so here is what I have based on that

When I plugged the instrument in at home, I found a severe amount of buzzing on the D and G strings. I spent some time adjusting the truss rod and setting up the action to get it comfortable. However, the intonation was just about spot on.

What really dissapointed me about this bass is that all the frets (not just one or two, but all) had a sharpened edge down the side of the neck. I know this is a budget bass, but those edges are ridiculous.

Otherwise, this was a well set up instrument. The finish, the materials used seem to be durable. It would have gotten much higher, without those fret issues

This thing is a heavy plank of Alder, so I imagine it'll survive just about anything. Everything seems to be well put together. The strap buttons are unusual though. I've never had so much trouble keeping an instrument on a strap than this bass. Could be an isolated thing.

Like I say, I've only had it for a week, but I have no doubts that this thing could withstand anything.

I haven't dealt with Ibanez at all. Guitar Center is giving me a free set-up after 30 days. I'm hoping they'll cover the bad fret edges under warranty. If that happens, I'll truly be a happy man.

I've been playing music for about 9 years now, and been playing bass for 2 of those years. My other bass is a LTD B-105 5-String. I was originally looking for a comparable 4 string, but these two instruments have some contrast to them, so I know need to rethinkI picked up the bass at the store because I was interested in the design and the simple control configuration. It sat comfortably in the hand, and had a good pure sound.

It's not going to have the versatility of other basses, but what do you expect for a 170 dollars retail? It generates a very simple, unhindered sound and if that's what you want, take this bass under consideration.

I would most certainly buy a new one if it ever got stolen. Considering how expensive P-Basses and similar instruments are, and how most single pickup basses are made out of composite or crap wood, this instrument stands out from the crowd a bit. It probably isn't for everybody, but it's different, and in this case, different is good.