The Vintera on the left looks gorgeous.
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Thanks. I own 3. I take it to my gig and I kept getting offers and sold it, 
thinking about my next Steve Harris mod.
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Hey everyone! Iâm new to this community and new to bassâŚany comments on the ibanez sr250 electric bass?
Itâs got an active pickupâŚis this going to be problematic for a new bass player?
Anyone familiar with this model?
Any other thoughts or comments are appreciated and welcome!
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Welcome! I donât know the Ibanez, hopefully someone can chime in on that. As far as the active thing though, I think youâd do fine. It is an extra layer of stuff to get familiar with learning as a new player but it isnât an onerous task or anything. I certainly wouldnât let that be the thing that stops me from buying it. If you do, remember to always unplug your bass when youâre done playing. The jack in a lot of active basses acts as the on/off switch for the preamp so leaving it plugged in will drain the 9V.
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Sr series are tried and tested they are solid basses. The active part is the preamp not the pickups. It allows for the 3 band EQ and boost in volume.
The only thing you need to remember is to unplug the jack after each use or have a lot of spare 9v batteries on hand. Each battery usually last about 300 hours. Itâs a decent usable life but itâs nothing if you leave it plugged in,
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Thank you! Super helpfulâŚdidnât want to buy an active bass if it was going to be a hinderance to me learning to playâŚgood to know how to use it and save the battery! The lead sales guy at the store had mentioned that it def needed to be unplugged after playing! So I had been warned :^D
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Thanks for the reply! Itâs great knowing that these are solid instrumentsâŚand thanks for helping me with the distinction of âpreampâ vs âpickupsâ! This clicks for me. Good to know that the battery will last for quite a while if the jack gets unplugged - thanks for that life estimate!
The guy I spoke with at the store said it would make a great starter bass - good to have someone not in the store validate that.
Appreciate both individual responses! Helpful info from you both.
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The batteries Ibanez ship with are awful, mine lasted a week tops. Although I did leave it plugged in for a day or so until i read the instructions booklet 
Stick a Duracell in or similar, itâll last a good while.
I havenât tried the model you mentions, but as others have said, they have a decent reputation
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Instructions! Who has time for instructions? - HAHA! Wait - isnât that one of those classic things teachers used to do to us in grade school: âInstruction #1: put your name on your paper, turn it over on your desk, and put your head downââŚhaha!
I appreciate the heads up about the battery type!! Thank you! I will make sure I do that for sure (instruction #1)
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@howard kinda nailed it.
I donât know what you have in your life to compare it to.
Wine always comes to my mind, as I grew up in Sonoma, California.
People get waaaaaay into wine.
But if youâre not into wine, wine just tastes like wine.
Unless itâs vinegar.
Bass is a lot like that.
Itâll sound like bass until you start to get deeper into the world.
Then youâll start waxing poetic about the tasting notes in the 65â P bass vs. the Rickenbacker, etc. etc.
My P-bass is the $900 one, and that was after years of working and teaching in music stores and playing and testing just about every Pbass that came into the store.
The $4,000 65â Pbass was way better, but it wasnât in the budget.
So I got the $900 Made in Mexico one, and itâs the one I bring to every gig and every recording session, and itâs killer.
So, there are differences, but they arenât always significant. It varies instrument to instrument, and makes the physical testing and playing of the instrument super important to the decision making process.
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This is also worth watchingâŚ
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Why is Nate so vain and not putting on glasses?? Heâs squinting all the time⌠
Also: those Fenders are over-prized anyway⌠so, not a fair comparison
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This cannot and should not be overlooked when youâre buying a bass.
I have 3 basses now. A standard Fender Player Jazz, a Geddy Lee signature Fender Jazz, and a Fender Special Deluxe Precision. As mentioned earlier in the thread, they all do sound different to me when I play them solo. In the mix, though, they all 3 tend to sound about the same.
That standard Player Jazz? There is just something about the way it feels to me when I play it. The other two basses have better components, better finishes, but⌠that Player is my go-to because it feels so good to me when Iâm playing it. As @howard mentions, I canât explain why⌠it just does. It feels better than the other two.
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The bass chooses the bass playerâŚ
like the wand chooses the wizardâŚ
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A different bass for every day of the month? If I read something that says thereâs bass shortage in your neighborhood Iâll know why.
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This. Also, if someone loves the bass sound in a song, what they love about it is likely the effects used, the technique of the player, and possibly the amp. It likely has nothing to do with the bass itself.
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I would have saved so much money if I would have followed Mr. Ollivanderâs wisdom.
I spent so long telling myself things like, âyou hate Fender, theyâre too heavy and the necks are too thick, you like Ibanez⌠no wait⌠Carvin/Kiesel⌠no wait, Fender but only the Dimensions⌠no, Charvel (shaddup that itâs really a Fender now), no, no, itâs Schecter for sureâŚâ
If I would have just shut up and played to see what felt good to me - to see which wand was choosing the wizard - Iâd have so much money today, LOL.
(Ok, thatâs a fallacy⌠I just would have spent it on something else⌠BUT EVEN SO!)
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Yeah this. ^^^
If you eat different sound out of your bass you can do it by
-change the pickups $100-250
-change the string $15-100
-play with a pick 15 cents
-change the position where you plug the string or adjust the tone knob. Thatâs free.
The differences between cheap and expensive bass of the same brand are
-Look and feel, this is usually a huge improvement.
-country of origin
Color options
-limited production and Rarity
I donât know of gigging musicians who gig with their custom shop basses. Most if not all gig with MIM or Squier bass with some mods. I gigged with my $400 Yamaha Motion bass for the longest time. The thought has never crossed my mind to bring my $2500 (funny saying that price now) Ken Smith outside my home regardless of how awesome it sound.
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I used to be buddies with a guy named Corey Cofield. He was (or maybe still is⌠we lost touch, and I havenât talked to him in like⌠20 years or so) a Ken Smith and Aguilar artist. He always gigged with his Ken Smith⌠Iâd go see him in one of his early bands - Solomon Grundy - at a little dive bar club in Fullerton (Club 369, no longer exists) and heâd be up there rocking his Ken Smith.
At that point I was playing (and by âplayingâ I mean doing nothing but chromatic exercises) on a really cheap Yamaha RBX170 or something. I was blown away by his Ken Smith, and floored that he would bring it out to gigs.
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