Ibanez SR300M Electric Bass Guitar User Reviews at zZounds

"Best budget bass on the market" submitted April 15, 2010

By a customer from gmail.com

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Musical Background: Musician

Music Style: Praise & Worship, Rock

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Sound: The bass has very warm tone and loads of growl. You can dial in a wide variety of tones from a Fender Jazz to Precision. Tends to be more tight and punchy (read less boomy) than a Fender Jazz but comes close to mimicking the other tonal qualities. Just about nails the Precision but with more agression. The pickups are passive but the electronics are active full time but it doesn't kill the warm tone at all. You can take it very bright to very dark and it responds well at all settings. The body and neck are very resonant and the bass sounds excellent unplugged - an important factor for a good instrument. Feature: Thin fast neck with a maple fretboard that is as straight as an arrow. Very lightweight body with good quality paint. The white color isn't a super bright white, a bit gentler, and has an irridescent like effect due to the light metallic fleck - not like the obvious chunky glitter like finish of their newer SR300's with the rosewood fretboards. Passive humbucking pickups and active electronics with a "slap" control that basically actively cuts mids. Quality: Build quality, paint job and materials are all excellent. The neck and fret job are as good as my USA Fender Jazz (albeit thinner) and the neck pocket is tight. The tone pots aren't all that great - they are very responsive and move well but get scratchy quickly. The plastic plate covering the active electronics was cut poorly - a bit rough around the edges - but its against my body anyway. Value: I challenge you to find a better bass for under $400. The Ibanez SR300 and SR300M series are winners. Overall: This bass should be on the short list of every budget minded bassist. Excellent build quality where it counts, great tone and tons of flexibility. The maple fretboard is awesome and not a normal feature within this price range.

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"Couldnt be happier with this purchase! Ibanez continues to WOW!" submitted January 20, 2012

By brian schuel in macomb, MI

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Musical Background: 25 years playing bass, Jam at home with buds, Rockstar days are over!

Music Style: hard rock, alternative, metal

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Overall: This bass is so cool, just a few upgrade they made to these models, a truss rod cover that doesnt require you to bother with the screws!! slide the cover over and adjust! so convenient! Also, a new EQ added, treble and bass are stacked, but instead of a mid knob, you get a setting between "finger style playing" and "slap style" and anywhere in between! its a knobs so you can dial between the 2, its called "style Sweeper" and it really does aid what youre doing! brings out mids and high you need specifically for playing with finger, and brings out low end and extra high for slapping! The maple fretboard is sharp, and looks like a pro setup, you can feel the frets just a bit, like in most cheap basses, but nothing to be concerned with....this bass is great for any bass player, period! i dont care what you play or how good you are for 300 bucks, this bass will impress you! for pros and newbies, this is just good! just get it! i got the Iron Pewter finish, looks sweet with the maple fretboard!!

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"Great tone,versatility, and looks!" submitted June 7, 2010

By a customer from yahoo.com

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Musical Background: Church Musician/Hobbyit

Music Style: Rock, Blues, Country

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Sound: The sound is very versatile. You can go from slap funk to an upright bass sound, all of which.sound great. Feature: Smooth neck, nice tuners and.bridge. This bass i easily set up. Ease of Use: Very easy controls let you customize your sound. Very very.playable once set-up. I love the DX4 neck. Quality: The candy apple finish is nice and the maple neck.and.fretboard are awesome. Value: Variety of tone, great feel, fun to play. Manufacturer Support: Service answered my questions on etting up the neck to eliminate some fret buzz. Was an easy fix. The Wow Factor: Both.pleasing to.the eye and ear. Overall: Would give it a 10 had I not had to do a neck setup.right out of the box. The fix was easy thoughj. It's a keeper.

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"Great low-cost bass for backup, rehearsal, and open mic's." submitted February 8, 2012

By Paul B in Everett, WA

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Musical Background: Converted guitar player, gig and jam on a regular basis.

Music Style: Rock, classic to current, some country and blues. Depends on the band I'm in at the time.

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Overall: First, I have to give a big thumbs up to Zzounds.com for their customer service. I'd previously shopped for a case to fit a weirdly-shaped guitar and the Zzounds rep must have spent at least an hour with me on the phone. We weren't able to find anything suitable then, but I made it a point to do some online shopping with them in the future. This bass order was the first I'd done with them, and I'm sure I'll do more. As for the bass itself, I was looking for something inexpensive, around $300 to serve as a backup to my heavy but awesome sounding custom bass, and also as a grab-and-go bass for jams and open mic's. After doing a lot of testing, the SR300 stood out as the best option I could find, and definitely like the light weight. The usual suspects at this price point were OK, but the Ibanez just seemed more flexible tone-wise. The hardware overall is a solid OK. The tuners are very smooth, and the bridge is a step up from bent sheet metal. It will be interesting to see how the knobs hold up over time and transport. There's a lot of tone shaping available with just the pickup blend, treble/bass, and style sweep thing. I need to go from bump & thump to snap over the course of the evening, and this delivers it well. Plenty of tweaking capacity available. I did have a warranty issue that came up, but that was easily fixed locally. When the bass was assembled, one pilot hole for a pickup mounting screw wasn't located properly, and the factory just muscled the screw into the wood inside the cavity. The screw wouldn't turn, but Joe from Service Guitar Repair in Tacoma fixed it quickly. Now I'm able to set the pickup height to match and balance the other pickup. Bottom line is that I couldn't build a bass for what I paid for this one, and I'm happy with how it's working out.

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"Awesome entry level bass!!" submitted April 11, 2012

By Robin O in Dallas, TX

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Musical Background: Life long musician. Playing: guitar, bass, mandolin, drums, and keys.

Music Style: Rock, Alternative, Old Standards

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Overall: I'm very impressed with the SR300M. Nice and light as compared to most bass guitars I've played. The action was a tiny bit high on arrival, but if you know how to adjust the truss rod, it's no big deal. The 3 band on board EQ is really cool. It alows you to dial in just about any tone you'd like. The three features that really stand out to me are; 1. The battery compartment is easily accessible... Makes changing the battery a breeze (as compared to the old style that required a screwdriver to open). 2. The truss rod cover swings open... Again, no need for a screwdriver and most importantly, there is no way to lose the cover! 3. The finish... I have the Jetstream Green version and the color is amazing. There's no way anyone looking at this bass would guess that it comes in at under $400.00. If you're a beginner and looking for a fun, easy bass to learn with, this is it. If you're an experienced bass player looking for a decent secondary bass, this is it. Or, if you're just looking to add something neat to your collection, you got it, this is it. Jam on!

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"so far so good." submitted May 29, 2011

By a customer from yahoo.com

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Musical Background: hobbyist/musician

Music Style: Christian Hard Rock

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Sound: sounds real good with the active boost on. the slap/fingerstyle knob does what it says. i use it on the bridge pickup,fingerstyle setting,with the bass and treble boost maxed out through a clean PA setup and get a good classic rock/metal sound.i should have even better results when i get my bass rig. Feature: active boost works well. the slap/fingerstyle knob does change the sound to a slap type sound but i do not use it. not sure if your supposed to slap with it on or if its supposed to make you sound like your slapping because it does give that effect. Ease of Use: this bass has several different tones without using any outside effects and its easy to setup. Quality: pretty nice for the price. solid bass. Value: good for the money.good starter bass thats what i bought it for. Manufacturer Support: never required any service. The Wow Factor: good beginner bass ,i will use as a backup when i get a more professional instrument. Overall: this bass suits my needs as i am presently in a band that is only practicing and writing original music, when we begin to play live shows i will probably upgrade to a 500 series or a ltd bass.

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