Ibanez TMB100-MGR Talman Bass

Mi ha colpito per prima cosa l'aspetto del basso, il colore, la paletta ed il battipenna tartarugato.
Il prezzo poi molto allettante ha fatto si che decidessi di prenderlo.
Devo dire che come al solito Thomann ha confermato la proverbiale affidabilità per tempi di consegna ed imballo, lo strumento è arrivato praticamente accordato e perfetto, a parte due regolazioni alle sellette ed al manico ed una registrata ai pomelli dei pot per il resto lo strumento è perfetto.
Sembrerebbe uno strumento di fascia molto più alta e pure attaccandolo all'ampli non delude per timbro e ergonomia.
Molto leggero e comodo tende però a scivolare verso la paletta se si una una tracolla liscia, le corde sono quelle di serie, niente di eccezionale ed andranno cambiate al più presto.
Insomma, tutto sommato ho comperato uno strumento buono spendendo veramente poco.

Premetto di non essere un bassista, ma un chitarrista. Cercavo un basso per un'amica che voleva imparare, e sfogliando il catalogo di thomann trovo lui. Specifiche ottime, ed aspetto (anche se soggettivo) davvero bello. Appena uscito dallo scatolo, era ovviamente scordato, ma 20 secondi dopo già era decisamente meglio di qualsiasi altro basso io abbia provato. A confronto uno squier affinity jazz è un giocattolo. In quanto al suono, mi sembra davvero caldo e bello. fantastiche poi le manopole "doppie". In pratica le due manopole sono divise a loro volta in due, con la parte superiore e quella inferiore che girano autonomamente per regolare il tono in modo davvero preciso.
l'unico difetto che posso riscontrare sono le meccaniche per la tracolla, che sembrano un po piccoline, quindi potrebbe scappare facilmente. Nulla che un paio di straplock non possa risolvere.
Che dire, se state iniziando, o se volete suonare il basso anche in sala prove o in qualche live per me è una scelta fantastica. Ottimo come sempre anche thomann, sia per la regolazione dello strumento, sia per l'assistenza e la celerità nell'evadere gli ordini anche in piena crisi COvid-19. Fantastici!

Ok, let's start a semi in depth review!

Fretjob's good. It's a 200 dollar bass, it's got some proud frets if you wanna go waaaay low but for now it's fine. Maybe I'll get around to do a full level and crown when I'm itchy to polish those "dirty" frets. A plus for doing a nice job on the edges. None of the frets wants a blood sacrifice, and that's a good thing.

The neck itself is a DREAM to play. One of the most comfortable neck/fretboard/fret size combos I've ever played. I mean it's fantastic. I did not expect it to be that nice, I'm LOVING it. I could go with a tad more junk in the trunk but really, it's just LOVELY. Fretboard wood's also feels very nice. Jatoba, I believe. Very, VERY, V E R Y nice!

Pickups are fine! Didn't expect that, but they're ok. A few usable tones out of both. They're not perfect and solo'ed even less so but the smack-in-the-middle setting gives a nice P tone mixed with enough burp from the J bridge to keep it tasty and present in the mix. It snarls well enough. They're cool. Would I change them to Geezers? Absolutely. But not right away.

The preamp's ok. Didn't fiddle with it too much but you can add or subtract treble and bass. It's ok. Nothing impressive and I don't much care for active electronics so... yeah. It could be useful for on the fly adjustments, I suppose. Tone shaping... eh...

Bridge seems fine. Sturdy enough.
Tuners are serviceable. They seem a little cheap and fragile but they work smoothly enough.
Everything's bolted on correctly.
Finish is good. Didn't see anything obvious. Couple of negligible blemishes but I'll probably put more dents on it so I don't care.

It came set up pretty ok from Thomann. Needed a few adjustments, nothing too excessive.

Now the bad.

Pickup screws are crap. And the pickups need to be lowered quite a bit, which isn't easy.

Nut's badly cut. It does its job but it's a very shoddily cut nut. Had to tidy it up quite a bit.

String tree's the cheapest piece of metal I've ever seen. To be expected but, oh well.

A few shoddily cut places on the pickguard. Pretty negligible as well, just me being way too nitpicky.

Now the pots. I absolutely hate them. Two concentric ones. One's a volume/blend and the other is bass/treble for the preamp. I HATE them. The concentric crap are so tightly bunched together they keep bumping the other control whenever you turn the knob. They're kinda stiff, too. One's sticking out too high from the guard, as well. And I'd certainly prefer a tone control over the preamp. I'll be getting a bunch of 500k pots and I'll rip out the preamp and convert it to passive. HATE them.

Worst of all, the bridge pickup routing. It's by far the WORST routing job I've ever seen. If you'd told me they did it with a drill and a screwdriver, I'd believe you. Corners have "teeth", there's no line that's actually straight, the J "ear" cuts are totally eyeballed. WORST. ROUTING. JOB. EVER.

I can live with it (after I go at it with a file...) but yeah, BAD. SHAME!

It's got a set of rounds on it that sound... well, ok. I'm used to playing with flats for such a long time time it's a welcome change. For a while. Already got a set of LaBella 760FS waiting to be put on. Guess I'll wait til the roundwound novelty wears off again. Although, I do think this would sound amazing with a set of black beauties...

In any case, I'm quite happy with the bass, overall. It needs a few stuff but for the price, it's quite nice.

After getting a bit more into funk, I've decided to buy a bass. The TMB100 was quite an automatic choice since its nearly rude not to buy an active bass at this price.
This BASS is a pleasure to look at as the Mint Green is an eye catcher. Came setup straight away so all I had to do was plug it into a BASS amp, and its magic. Its very playable, and I'm already getting some practice momentum. Minor deficiences with this bass as I had to shield it since a small hum was coming out of the amp when IM not touching any of its metals. Otherwise, its a great guitar!