u/memnoch4prez

Continuing my quest to conquer five strings(only my second ever), and I've had my eye on the Iron Label SRMS for a while now. My heart dropped when it first arrived though; it looked like FedEx played Kick the Baby with the box. Upon opening it, the volume knob was completely off and rattling around inside of the box, the treble knob was almost off, and the neck had a ridiculous amount of back bow that choked off all of the strings. Replaced and tightened the knobs, gave the truss rod almost a full turn, plugged it in and checked all of the controls. Everything is good to go now.

Planning on a set of Nordstrand Zen Blades for it like my other two SRMSs, and the Midrange Monster Custom preamp(Darkglass Tone Capsule clone with switchable low and high mid frequencies). Lūm dislike BH2s as much as I do.

Humor because this is partially my fault. This is the third stock Ibanez tuner within the past two or so years to break at the exact same point, the second time on my SRMS806. How I believe that it's on me; I usually go for one additional wrap over the post that's recommended, to have a slightly steeper break angle over the nut. Sometimes(a lot of the times) I can be dumb. This is an example.

Had a spare, replaced, and good to go for now. I'll shorten the windings this evening after work.

I've shied away from using EMG pickups mainly because the majority of my basses aren't routed for their usual sizes. Since the debut of their E4Ws, I've been itching to give these a shot.

They're running on a Mike Pope Flexcore, and installation was pretty easy(had to cut off the quick connections and solder the wires providing power to the pickups together, still no biggie). Plugged in and set flat, first impression to me was that they sound similar to Nordstrand Big Singles, but with WAY MORE bass and low mid presence, yet a more subdued and smooth high end. Soloing the neck pickup, I actually had to cut the bass down. Neck soloed is super sweet sounding and not much honkiness considering it's at the 70's position. Dead silent single coil(I'm giddy over that feature), which I wanted since the hum bugged me with the Big Singles and Big Blades that once resided in this bass. No idea on the technical wizardry behind that, but it's definitely appreciated.

Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised by these pickups. I knew they sounded pretty good from the demos I watched, but I wasn't expecting them to be this deep yet clear. Well done EMG, well done.

I got one for the Ibanez ATK810 a couple of months ago; liked it so much that I got another and just installed into the modded ATK200. I'm convinced that this preamp will make any set of passive pickups sound stellar.

Installation can be tricky with the ribbon wires and feel almost like putting together a jigsaw puzzle just to get everything in place, and then having to adjust the control wheels on the preamp inside of the control cavity to fine tune the sound, but once it's set to your liking, it can easily spoil you as far as preamps go. I'm still a whore for the Mike Pope Flexcore, but I'm REALLY digging John East's stuff.

The break angle of the A string over the nut of straight headstocks with just a two string retainer inexplicably bugs me to no end. Five minute fix for my MDM1000. Now my stupid brain can shut up about it.

I have to say that Ibanez knocked it out of the park with the new Mode series. Lightweight, great balance, lovely roasted maple neck that's just a pleasure to play on. Really like the preamp, especially with the tone control(despite it being scratchy when turning...will remedy that with Deoxit), and the pickups sound surprisingly good. I liked the finish on my SR500N so much that I had to run it again with the MDM(If Ibanez ever reissue the ATK, they GOTTA include this finish). All in all, I'm pretty smitten with this.

Even passed the critically high standards of Lūm's inspection with flying colors.

I got this heavily modded Sandberg Basic 4 used a few years ago; 2-Tek bridge, Q-tuner MM pickup, and Glockenlang 3 band preamp. Out of all of my basses, this one has the best build quality by far and was a joy to play, except for the Glockenlang. The treble frequency point is way too high for the high output Q-tuner. Even with the treble rolled completely off, it was bright like a quasar. The only thing I liked about the Glockenlang was the passive mode with the treble control acting as tone. It was only then that I could get a satisfyingly darker tone.

So I finally decided to try to tame the harsh treble. I had an unused Darkglass Tone Capsule and Nordstrand Tone Drop laying about, and rewired them with a push/pull volume pot for active and passive modes and a stacked pot for the high and low mids. Removed the Glockenlang and installed the replacement, surprisingly fired up on the first go since I'm known for always mucking up something when wiring.

And it was exactly what this pickup needed. There's still plenty of highs, but easily tamed by the high mid control and Nordstrand Tone Drop which also works while in active mode. I stayed up the majority of the night playing this rarely played bass. I definitely should had done this sooner...better late than never.

Fits perfectly and looks better than the stock black one. They make pickguards for a number of Sire basses, so I'm going for another soon for my fretless Z7.

It was sold as non functioning with a bad pickup and the wrong switch installed, but I had the spare parts necessary on hand. After about a half hour of work, I successfully resurrected the beast.

When I first tried a five string bass at my local Guitar Center over 20 odd years ago, I was completely thrown off by the extra string. I spent a good half hour trying to vibe with it , but couldn't, and felt quite discouraged. I just so happened to try the six string that was hanging next to it, and everything instantly clicked again in my brain. I wasn't confused about which string was which unlike the five, because the B and C string "framed" E-G in my mind. I know, weird, but it's been nothing but four and six stringers ever since. I haven't even touched a 5 string bass since then until today...

...and the confusion was still there, for about 20 minutes. I'm still making mistakes here and there, but it's a lot easier to grasp. Now the big decision is if I want to keep this tuning(B string is good, but I'm used to at least a 35" scale), or restring it E-C since I have a six string set of NYXLs ready to go.