Ibanez GSR185-JB

Okay, I'm one of those people. When I'm looking at a review of a bass I'm wondering if it has a passive mode, or if it can run without a battery. But I prefer passive, if something breaks, they don't look like a powerplant inside, and my eyesight isn't the best. I don't need too many knobs that I have to be aware of. As a metal guy, when I'm recording an album, I need one sound for the whole album. If I was playing live, I'd need one sound for the whole show. I have the knobs on my amp and on my pedals where I can't accidentally move them. Even the bassist in the biggest band with "metal" in the name has only one working knob on his bass, volume. Other knobs on his basses are disabled. So I looked for a passive 5-string that looks at least somewhat metal, and replaced my old 4-string P with an amazing 5-string Harley Benton J, and lived happily ever after...

...until a month later this one appeared on Thomann, and I couldn't get it out of my head. Ibanez, who just released a jazz with 47 knobs and switches, also made this? With some fancy woods and a special color? OK, it's not black and I wanted black. But let's research. Being the style icon that I am, I asked AI which colors suit my skin tone, eye color and hair color, and it said something about "cool jewel tones such as deep sapphire". Well, sounds like "jewel blue" to me, and two basses are better than one bass, in case one of them explodes or something. So I ordered this one too.

This instrument just works, and also gets out of the way and lets you concentrate on what you want to do. The body is lightweight (less than 3.8 kilos) and shaped in such a way that there's no wrong way to hold it. Well balanced, comfortable, no neck dive. All the parts are accurately made, work as intended, and looking durable. The color varies depending on the light, from almost black to some cosmic indigo blue, and the fretboard is brown but sort of has a silvery purple glow, and aesthetically matches the body very well. Apparently even at this price point Ibanez doesn't just give you the cheapest-made instrument possible but something well made and with something extra that you can't find elsewhere.

The action was a bit high out of the box which worried me a little - but after I lowered the bridge saddles the neck turned into a racing machine. No need to mess with the truss rod, and I think I only corrected the intonation on one of the strings later on. Combined with the narrow string spacing, which is common on metal-oriented basses, as well as on my HB, it's just a crazy fast bass. And also easy to play slowly. Frets are perfectly level and seem strangely durable - new frets usually get polished in a week or two just from my playing, the frets on this one took twice as long to become shiny.

Now the sound - well it sounds like an Ibanez in passive mode. Superficially it sounds a bit basic or generic, but it simply sounds accurate and responsive. Pay attention and there is some growl, burp, and all that stuff, but nothing is exaggerated. There are even some strangely juicy, aggressive sounds with one of the knobs at 50 percent. Most of the sound is in the low and mid range, but the factory strings aren't the brightest - basically, when I play it unplugged, I sort of know what it will sound plugged-in. The low B string is equal to the others because we're in 2026 and technology is a thing.

There are two parts of the sound that I always look at - attack and tone. The first one is the punch - the beginning of the note needs to be loud and well defined. If I'm speed picking I need to hear the beginnings of the notes, and so many basses miss that part, especially on the lower notes. Also if I'm playing it distorted, I want to hear it distorted right away, not half a second later like on a P style bass. This one kicks. It's not a 3000 euro instrument but it's totally in the "don't worry, I got this" category. Where my jazz goes "dummm" this one goes "tummm" and I definitely need both. :-)

The real surprise came when I started playing it through my pedals. With my Double Thruster I got close enough to popular bass guitar sounds, but also discovered a bunch of excellent, usable, moody, nasty, and even emotional sounds where the bass almost sounds like it's playing itself. Just wow. Maybe it's a good thing that the bass sounds a bit sterile without an effect, so it's easier for it to shine through a pedal? Or some kind of Ibanez magic? I don't know but I'm almost jealous of myself for making such a good choice (again).

The one thing I knew I wouldn't like were the chrome (here we go again) knobs, so I replaced them with black ones. Now my play-ware is shiny, my sound-ware is black, my OCD is happy, and my bass looks classy. It's a zen experience seeing just the strings below me, and no knobs. Maybe I am the knob now?

Finally, the delivery took only 6 days. As I said, it's a fast bass. :-)

Es gibt nicht viele passive Fünfsaiter auf dem Markt, insbesondere wenn man keinen Jazz oder Precision haben möchte, und da füllt dieser günstige Ibanez eine echte Marktlücke. Also bestellt, ausgepackt und Wow, dieser Bass ist wirklich SEHR blau! Muss man mögen, ich finde es ein bisschen schade, dass Ibanez nicht mehr Farboptionen anbietet. Er kommt mit einem Handbuch und zwei Inbusschlüsseln.
Sobald man den Bass dann in die Hand nimmt merk man, dass der GSR185 relativ leicht ist (knapp unter 4 kg), aber aufgrund der kleinen Kopfplatte mit den kleinen gekapselten Mechaniken nicht merklich kopflastig. Der Hals ist sehr flach und sitzt fest in der Halstasche, die 22 Bünde sind hervorragend abgerichtet. Der Steg ist eine Variante einer 08/15-Fender-Bridge und tut genau das, was er soll. Das String Spacing von 16,5 mm ist recht eng, aber ich habe mich sehr schnell daran gewöhnt und finde es inzwischen sogar angenehm. Das Finish und die gesamte Verarbeitung ist bei meinem Exemplar makellos, insbesondere in der Preisklasse ist das bemerkenswert. Sogar die Saiten, mit denen er geliefert wurde und die grundlegenden Einstellungen bezüglich Saitenlage und Intonation waren in Ordnung.
Aber das Wichtigste: Wie klingt er denn nun? Den Klang der beiden Humbucker würde ich als modern-kühl und ein wenig charakterlos beschreiben, aber das meine ich rein deskriptiv und keinesfalls abwertend. Es ist halt einfach kein Preci, Jazz oder Rick. Und es lassen sich mit den beiden Tonabnehmern, dem Tone-Poti und dem Equalizer am Verstärker mehr als genug brauchbare Sounds für jeden Stil finden. Die B-Saite wird dabei für einen 34"-Bass sehr definiert und klar abgebildet, vielleicht gerade wegen den eher sterilen Tonabnehmern? Die Potis erledigen ihre Aufgabe dabei tadellos, nichts wackelt oder rauscht.
Fazit: Dieser Bass ist trotz seiner optischen wie klanglichen Schlichtheit überraschend schnell zu meinem Alltagsbass geworden, denn er funktioniert einfach. Ob mit Fingern oder Plektrum, er lässt sich mühelos spielen und ich finde trotz der unspektakulären Tonabnehmer immer den Sound, den ich suche. Für Einsteiger oder als Zweitbass ist der GSR185 auf jeden Fall eine gute Wahl, für mich hat er sich sogar zum heimlichen Herzensbass gemausert! <3