So, for a while, Nine’s been telling me I need to write up something about the gear I’ve used. If you’ve been following us for any length of time, you may realize that I’ve been playing different basses for almost as many shows as we play. That’s sort of a side hobby of mine…collecting and moving along great basses, so I decided to take a walk down memory lane.
The first bass I played for any real amount of time was an old 80′s Ibanez CT bass. It was made in Japan and I found it in a pawn shop in Ames in the late 90′s. This wasn’t my first bass. The first bass was a black Yamaha RBX 4-string that I got a few years earlier, because I thought it looked a little like Jason Newsted’s bass. I was wrong. The Yamaha was nothing like that bass.
Anyway, Nine and I had this band called Whiplash Willy at the time and I found this Les Paul style guitar at the same pawn shop that I ended up getting the red Ibanez at and ended up selling the LP to Nine to buy the Ibanez. It was a long story and most likely involved me being a bit drunk at some point in time.
Ibanez CT bass
So, as you can tell, I took to the Ibanez right away. It sounded pretty decent and I kept it for years. I handed it off to my nephew a couple of years ago so he could follow in my footsteps.
This was the bass I used on all of the Whiplash Willy albums. I was playing through an old Crate bass amp, which I got from Music Go Round in Des Moines. It was a pretty killer set up for what we were doing, which was mostly strange acoustic coffee shop stuff.
So, I played this bass for about 6 years. Changed the strings once. I had it loaded with Ernie Ball roundwounds and if you know anything about Ernie Ball strings, you realize that they sound crisp and punchy for about a month and then they soften down so you get a nice reggae thump, which was the exact tone I was looking for. The Ibanez had a PJ pickup set, so it was a hybrid of a Precision and Jazz bass in its tone.
The bass was also incredibly light. Maybe 5 lbs. or less. When you compare it to the Fenders or Musicman basses I’ve played, that’s really light.
From Whiplash Willy sessions, I continued to play the Ibanez into two metal bands I was in (which never got so far as to earn a name) and I used it to record bass for some old acoustic stuff I did waaaaaaay back in the day. By the time I joined a jam/progressive band, called Hedgerow, I had already moved up to a fretless Jazz bass. But, that’s another story.
Just did a search, hoping to find out where Ibanez CT basses were made (for that one year!). Glad to hear it was Japan. I bought one about a year ago from a guy who said his son used it til going to college. I found out it was a wreck (the guy gave me my money back, but told me to keep it).
First of all, it was natural (which told me that prior owners did their thing on it). The electronics weren’t sound either. I wound up calling it my project. I bought new pickups (EMG passive PJ setup), new wiring and pots. I disassembled it, sanded the body and refinished it.
Although it turned out pretty nice, I don’t know if I should’ve salvaged the pu’s. I still have them, and know they work. I learned afterwards that it was either the pots of the input jack that caused the electric issue.
Sounds like you had a great deal of success w/the original setup. I might have to put those pups back in. Thanks for your story!