Ibanez SRF706 Fretless Review

So smooth!

I finally ordered this incredible bass after years of wanting it, totally worth the wait. It plays, sounds, and feels so smooth. I love the finish on the neck, once I start playing I can't put it down. I ordered it in July but due to delays I didn't receive it until late December but my awesome sales rep Nate Burkhardt and his team kept me updated the whole time, great job!

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This. Is. It. Not flawless, but awesome nonetheless

First, the bad. Not every one of these has "the sound". And they are quite susceptible to humidity; you'll need to be prepared to adjust the saddle heights frequently during humid summer weeks. The meh: the color pattern and finish Ibanez chose for this is nice enough, but nothing spectacular. The caveat: if you rely on position markers to find your way around a fretless, you'll… read more be lost on this instrument. The side markers are nearly invisible except in bright light. You'll need to dedicate yourself to muscle memory and ear training to really succeed with this bass. Now the good. When you get one that has "the sound", the 'mwah', it's phenomenal. With its flatwounds, it does everything from rock growl to a useful approximation of an upright. Play it around 10th position, including the B string, and you'll understand what I mean. The instrument is light weight and comfortable and responsive. The action is great, the neck feel is great, the balance is great, the controls are simple and effective. There are no dead spots on the neck. The 'mwah' happens clearly on all but the B string - and you even get a bit of it there too as you play higher on the neck. The other caveat: stick with flats or tapewounds. It won't handle roundwounds; the fingerboard is not designed for them. The whole instrument in fact is designed around flat/tape wound strings. Bottom line: You can spend 4x the money for a custom instrument, and not get as versatile a fretless as this. Blend the piezos with the neck pickup, play that B string in 10th position, and feel the jazz.

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A New Favorite

I've had this bass for about three months at this time (June 2020). This is an incredible bass for the price. It feels great to play and I'm able to get a very wide range of tones and sounds out of the combination of passive soap-bar pickups and the piezo-electric pickups in the bridge (combined with the active tone circuits). The bass is much smaller than I'd anticipated and is… read more incredibly light (it's only slightly heavier than a Stratocaster). The tuning machines are slightly angled which is ergonomically pleasing. The screw-less truss-rod cover is super handy so you don't have to worry about misplacing a screw while you're doing a setup. The nut is black plastic, and is fairly standard with rounded edges which aren't sharp at all. The nut has been filed at an angle to accommodate the different string gauges. The fingerboard is panga panga (rosewood was a 2017 spec), which has some lovely grain and it produces a wonderful 'swell' similar to what is typical of a rosewood fingerboard. There are no noticeable 'dead spots' on this fingerboard. The binding appears to be black plastic, and I would prefer it to be wood since it does feel a bit odd to me. It seems to wear on my skin more than wood. Although, at this price point, it's certainly something I can live with. It would be great if the side-markers were luminol or otherwise glow-in-the-dark, but they are fairly visible in low-light conditions. The neck is 5-piece maple/walnut (the maple/bubinga was a 2017 spec). It's a very comfortable modern flat back. The thru-neck is great, and the transition into body doesn't interfere with fingering in higher positions at all. The lower horn impedes fingering for me above the 24th 'fret' with a standard left-hand position. By shifting to an angled position, there's no issue reaching the 30th 'fret'. The upper horn is very comfortable and rounded. The wings are okoume (mahogany was a 2017-2018 spec). The 9V battery door is screw-less and easily accessible. The Bartolini MK-1 passive pickups are punchy on the low-end and crisp on the high-end. They sound great together or individually. By cutting both the bass and treble active EQ, you can come a bit closer to a passive tone. The AeroSilk piezo pickups with the active tone control only add to the possible tones, approaching more of an upright bass tone or a glassy tone, depending on the tone-knob configuration. The control knob arrangement is intuitive. Both the bass and treble pots have a center detent, but the piezo active pot does not. The bridge is a pretty standard hi-mass bridge, but has an easy re-stringing feature (having an open, keyhole configuration rather than an eyelet). The plastic saddles (presumably for the piezo setup) do give me some cause for concern regarding the long-term durability, but have shown no signs of wear so far. I would only expect an issue to arise if something metal were to strike the saddles directly. The angled top input jack is a really nice feature, as it leads directly through the strap, but it does not work well with right-angle cables or accessories with a large mold (an adapter and/or extender can resolve this). It would be great if there were other finish color options to allow for a little more personal taste, but the brown burst looks fantastic. It's a flat finish and approaches an open-wood feel. I would love to have an EQ bypass switch, ideally converting the treble boost/cut into a treble roll-off, but I would expect this to drive the price higher. The D'Addario ECB81 Chromes it ships with are maybe a bit bright for my preference, but I'll see how they age before trying something else. The Sweetwater setup was perfect. I'm typically a setup junkie and was expecting to have to do some tweaks or minor adjustments, but they nailed it. Climate and temperature might affect the setup for some, but I had no issues and have yet to need to make any adjustments. I'm incredibly happy with this bass, and it's a fantastic bang-for-the-buck instrument.

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Ibanez SRF706 Six String

...Sounds great, 30 frets and a nice Piezo bridge. Cannot find any fault with the instrument. Great balance, and the neck profile makes it easy to get around on.

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ONE COOL HYBRID

First to review this so I hope this review helps. Up front it is unique in having both magnetic and piezo electric pickups. Each has independent volume and tone circuits that are easy to manage and very practical. The variety of tones and response is quite wide and functional. it has 5-piece neck through construction, relatively light weight and thin neck with standard (like a fretted… read more bass) markings on the side of the fingerboard. These features make this a solid bass that is not difficult to play and a great choice for anyone looking to up their game. The finish and hardware are more than appropriate for the price range. After a few gigs and practices, both my impressions and others comments have been positive. I had, and still have, one concern, the rosewood fingerboard. I prefer a harder fingerboard wood, like ebony (also more expensive and difficult to mill), that is typically more resilient to wear and tear from strings. This bass comes equipped with medium gauge, flatwound strings as would be expected. If this is your preference, then no issue. Now I prefer other string designs myself, and will deal with this in due course. All things considered, the sheer value of what you get here for your hard earned cabbage is noteworthy. If you are in the market for anything remotely like this bass, take the leap, I've found no better combination of features for this price point.

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