Ibanez EDA 905 F Reviews 
5 / 5 based on 1 reviewsNew, $540 from Guitar Center [Albany NY]. This model has the fretless piezo + magnetic pickup.
I saw it hanging there, and was already
aware of Ibanez EDA basses offering both
piezo and magnetic PUs combined, and I
noticed it had black fingerboard with no
frets, looking fairly wide, so I checked
the string spacing and found it has the
wider string spacing required by me, the
Bass Klutz Extriordinaire.
So I played it with the roundwounds [yuk]
that happened to be on it [why?!*!?] and
found that this ugly mis-shapen excuse
for a bass is really a multivoiced tone
monster, plus is comfortable and easy.
Front-side controls are very basic, as
in 2 gain knobs + 2 tone knobs. [All
the fussy stuff is on the back side via
holes in the control cavity covers.]
On the front each PU has just gain and
tone, but because the two PUs are very
different front each other, the simple
front controls allow mega-enormous tone
shaping with no muss, fuss, or rinse.
You can play hard-snapping funk tone
with no hammering or string yanking at
all, just low-effort finger-style does
it. Fairly credible upright-ish [OK,
EUB, not doghouse] tone is easy to dial,
as are deep drumming or thundering bass
and everything between. It responds to
all sorts of variation in attack [have
TI nickel flats on now] like a dance
partner [ballroom, swing, horizontal
mambo or whatever....]
The fingerboard is phenolic, I love the
sound of synthetic fingerboards, plus
they are wear-resistant. The body also
is synthetic, and two of my other best
sounding axen are 100% free of wooden
parts. I guess I just like the sound of
plastic [and nylon covered strings].
I like the color being a dark grey so
that the ugly styling is less visible
[the color IS a feature, ALL the 905F's
are the same color].
It's rather light weight with very long
top horn so it's well balanced, and the
body contouring is excellent. Neck is
very comfy, and I'm very sensitive to
neck shape because my thumb is hurting
big-time these days but this ax really
minimizes my thumb-ache.
The crowded narrow headstock is totally
dumbass. If you ignore Ibanez style of
stringing and string for best tone, two
tuners [B,E] wind up working in reverse
[mine is a 5 string, maybe the 4 is OK?]
Styling is pretty grotesque, sort of a
mutant from the toxic plastic swamp.
It's not offered with sissy lines. I'm
not proud -- I like lined fingerboards.
Above are minor gripes. Here's a real
one [for some players]: Although this
ax is wonderfully responsive to changes
in attack, it's very limited as to your
picking location [lengthwise]. I love
to pick fingerstyle near the neck and
often well onto the neck. If you don't
play pretty much right over the PU, you
just get a lot of noisy sloppy tone.
As mentioned it's almost wholly synthetic
material. Neck joint is 5-bolt and very
unobtrusive. Scale is 34", 24 positions,
and string spacing is rather wide but not
quite P-Bass in feel although it's a full
3 inches at the saddles.
Tuners are typical sealed gotoh-type.
Bridge is top-loading monorail setup.
PUs are single soapbar in the sweet spot,
plus Fishman piezo system in the bridge.
Construction and finish seem fine. It's
new, so I really don't know if the finish
can take a lot of knocks, or if the neck
is stable. I don't see any laminations
to the neck, but in changing from the RW
strings to the low tension of the TI FWs,
relief and action remained constant, no
need to tweek the truss rod. Maybe that
speaks well of the stability of the neck.
The electronics are quiet, and you need a
screw driver to change the battery. On
the rear of the body are holes to access
mini-pots for the Fishman piezo system:
5 individual gain pots [1 per string]
for your string-to-string balance.
1 pot for bass boost level [piezo only].
1 pot for over-all piezo gain.
It's ugly. It's a tone monster, and a
tonal chameleon. It's Rainbow Bass-zilla
and it's goona eat your town for lunch.
It's way too easy to make fun of this ax,
but it's a versatile serious music machine
and it takes no prisoners [except Ms Diva,
she's in bass-love, again ....].
BTW, did I mention it can go REAL LOUD ?
Since the only real gripe I have relates
to my peculiar playing quirks, and since
this review is for you, not me, it's a 5.
Golem rated this unit
on
2004-07-09.
