Ibanez GSR205B-WNF

I am a guitarist, bought this instrument to have some fun. I strated my music adventure from playing a bass guitar and after many years I decided to buy myself a bass guitar. I am a person who doesn't like to spend his hard earned money unwisely. I spend hours and hours listening to demos and reviews of different bass guitars in this price range and finally found one!!! I borrowed Ibanez gsr 200 from my friend for a few days and after that I fell in love with this one. I wanted to experience something different so I purchased 5 string model. I am honestly very glad I made this decision. This guitar sounds huge, I like the active battery driven equaliser that gives more kick of sweet punchy bass sound. Slap and finger style sound awesome. I cant believe that for that money You can have such good sounding instrument. I like the color too, thin coat of stain and thin coat of satin laquier. Which is great, because the bridge sits on the wood not on the laquier.
pros:
- well balanced, light body
- very thin coat of laquier
- very good machine tuners, stays in tune amazingly
- very good quality hardware, they look expensive, chunky bridge
- lovely pots, great feeling when You turn them
- good pickups (passive)
- overall finish is very good
- sort of basic but very well manufactured instrument
- highly recommended, 10/10 in price/quality ratio
unboxing video :
- for some people thin coat of laquier could be
dissaponitment ( wasn't for me )
- would be great if it comes with a gig bag ( I know price is a factor)
I would buy this guitar again if I had to make this decision again

I bought this for recording some bass tracks. I was not expecting anything too great considering the price of this instrument but I was okay with it as I didn't have too much extra money (I am primarily a guitarist so my money goes there) and needed to record some bass tracks.

As soon as I received the bass and gave it a try, it blew my mind. It's very light. The neck is fairly flat, straight and feels great. I would not probably go gigging with this though, I'm not sure if this would survive rough handling. But for studio use this is great.

But when I got to try this with an amp I noticed the pickups are not that impressive. This has a knob that adds some boost to bass/treble but this also distorts the sound so I prefer changing EQ in the amp.

Considering the price though this was still a great purchase and I strongly recommend this to anyone looking for an affordable studio bass maybe for a spare. Or for someone interested in starting to play bass.

This bass plays beautifully and has a lovely full sound, even with the supplied strings.

Some reviews mention fret buzz, but I have found none. Intonation was good on arrival, but I will spend a little while setting up and adjusting.

The bass looks fantastic, the oiled walnut is very attractive.

The only downside is some faint indentations around the neck/head joint, probably from clamping.

Overall, fantastic value for a lovely instrument