they only had a red one in stock, and i wish i could have gotten a black one. oh well. I guess part of me wishes i could drop alembic electronics in it for fun, maybe refinish it too. But a great part of the satisfaction of this bass is realizing that after owning fender, musicman, guild, Alembic & other basses, for ONCE i found a guitar that totally suits my use and at i 'didn't pay a lot for this muffler' I really came out a winner.

Sound
2 usable tones, like having a stingray and a percision in one. In a flick of the switch you can go from super bright to round. The brighter two tones are aggressive without being brittle. I've owned a few basses including a stingray, and the brightness on this ibanez is more useful then the musicman's. The middle position pickup gives you a decent mix of neck and bridge at all times. This axe has lot of output for a passive guitar. Also, i notied that for an affordable axe, it's not too noisey. hmm.

Features
Simple, but useful for the must part. there's a volume and a three position tone selector. If you like a bridge tone, this is not the axe for you. That's pretty much the only thing it won't do. But it will give you both a rolled off and a super bright sound in a heartbeat. Heck, Alemdivc used to do that with the Elan, i believe: switchable boosts for quick tone change. and here you have the same feature in a a bass under $200. It's MEDIUM SCALE, But still has a pretty nice… read more low E, one tends to sacrifice that in most shorter scale basses. I've had some, and i wouldn't have picked up this bass if that was the case again.

Quality
poorly dressed frets. I cut myself playing this bass when i first got it. You can tell this a machine job all the way. But this is easly remedied with a little follow up sanding down with a small file. (Make sure to tape of the fretboard properly, though.) I'll say this though: the hardware itself seems on par with higher priced ibanez axes. Actually, when i picked this guitar up, i played a few soundgears, and they had MORE rattle in the headtoack/tunes area. That would drive me crazy. The GAX was more quiet, tighter.

Value
THis is the most unbelievable deal EVER. You get decent hardware, great sound and a bass the handles like a guitar for an unreal price.

Manufacturer Support
n/a

The Wow Factor
nothing affordable is ever sexy. it's just a fact. Appeal is often an unfortunate function of unattanability. Hence we fair to protect the most valuable and irreplacable of all resources: the enviroment. go figure.

Musical Background:
semi pro for 18 years

Musical Style:
rock read less