LeftyBassist.com

I think this one must be coming from Japan. Rather a nice looking bass and probably pretty good quality. Be curious to see how much better it is than its cheaper brethren.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ibanez-SR1205L- ... 2c7c3d0720

They have been announced recently, it's the first one I've seen for sale so far.
I'm pretty curious to try one.

Wow, awesome! I wasn't aware they were doing a lefty version of those. Those are among the finest Soundgears and perhaps the finest basses they've ever built. There's a ton of cool new stuff for this year. A singlecut BTB neck-through, an attempt at Bass VI territory (the SRC6 Crossover, a Soundgear 6-string tuned an octave below a guitar) and more cool stuff. Nice!

I bought one from Sweetwater (excellent place to deal with smokes Guitar Center) I have had some back issues lately and we have 2-3 hour practices and my Wicks and Spectors get heavy. It’s made in their “premium Indonesian facility” AKA Samick who make like 30% of the world’s guitars. Not that it’s a bad thing they know what they are doing and can build spectacular instruments or lemons depends on the price point they are contracted to do.

It’s light and thin a breeze to play the string spacing is tight though 16.5 mm I believe but there is some radius to the neck and surprisingly not hard to slap or play. The neck is great excellent fretwork with “hot dog” shaped fret ends. The fretwork and leveling is as good as it gets. The Nordy pups need no introduction they sound superb. The preamp is great it looks identical to the Lakland Skyline 3 band from what I can see sort of an Asian Bart copy. The tuners and individual bridge saddles are nice you really couldn’t buy the hardware and electronics on the open market for less than $650 add quality wood and great fit and finish I think the price point is spot on.

A little review just remember this is subjective but objective as well

Pros
• Lightweight great fit and finish
• Nice woods and great neck
• Electronics and overall tone and control are great and it runs quiet
• Almost plays itself easy and fast and comfortable
• Comes with all the tools in a little “Swiss Army” knife contraption
• The pots are great they sweep evenly and my favorite thing about knobs is they are a little tight they take some effort to turn I love this they stay in place
• Hardware is great gold is a little gaudy on the wrong bass but this looks nice with darker woods
• Price point is in line for what you get new I think you would lose your shoes for resale though
• The matte finish is great I hate with a passion glossy thick sticky fingerprint laden finishes even though they can look nice. Hand rubbed oil or sprayed matt lacquer is like a beautiful girls skin
• The 2+3 tuner arrangement is great I love that it gives more length to the B and E.
• Intonating was a little tough on the E and B. The staggered individual string saddles looks cool but is just plain dumb I couldn’t adjust the E and B far enough forward because they are back further than the rest of the strings this little thing annoyed the crap out of me because although very close to spot on they are not and nothing can be done about it because of the design.

Cons (things that concern me or could be better)

• Gig bag is wimpy wimpy like a cab cover at this price point a decent bag or even a hard case would be nice
• B is a little less present than other strings my opinion is the thin body and lightness of it. I don’t think you can get a great piano like B on a light body in 34” scale unless it’s built by one of the masters: Mike Tobias, Roger Sadowsky (I need to try some other strings though they come with Elixir which I do not like)
• The mahogany body wood is well freaking ugly but it’s the back so whatever
• Although well-built it doesn’t quite have a super solid feel maybe that’s the nature of an around 8 Lb. bass but could feel a little more substantial.
• The jack on the hole with wood sanded to a thin edge around it is not my favorite I believe I will mash it up a bit as time goes on because for some reason I never look at it when I’m plugging it in or removing the cable maybe I should

I am being highly critical in my cons section I am used to playing pretty high end basses so when you put things into perspective I think it’s a great bass for the money and recorded really well and its sits in the mix well. Smooth tone not harsh very musical. Not a beginner bass for sure and I usually much prefer a little wider string spacing but a breeze to play and let hang around your neck for hours. Good balance not excellent but good. I always wanted one of the higher end lefty models from Ibanez this is not up there with their best sort of right in the middle but much better than almost any of the previous lefty models. Many details were looked after the regular suspects for being cheap on are not like electronics or hardware. Maybe best to wait for a used one but I don’t think they made many and when they are gone they are gone. I do not have buyer’s remorse at all and sounds damn good acoustically and that is the most important and best sign of a good sounding instrument. Don’t expect a thunderous B but a good one.

Thanks Thumbslam, really good review.

I have a 505, and for the price I love it: it's the ideal bass to take with you to the typical greasy bar gig, super light, good finish, decent sound with a decent tonal range (I wish it had a passive switch though), sits well in the mix and you don't need to worry about someone accidentally dropping it.

Looks like the 1205 is a step up, better electronics and better finish, and for around a thousand bucks (Sweetwater has it listed at 1099), definitely a good option to keep in mind for a light, decently priced, comfortable 5 stringer with good electronics.

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SR1205EVNFL/

I played a similar bass in a guitar shop and was not pleased with it. at all.
the low B was as flabby as some 4 stringers blames all low B's to be.
smacking the E flabby. you couldn't hear it if it was the only string on the damn thing.
the complex wood work they had looked kinda cheap to me.
the dark top it had was real rough around the edges. especially on the top horn.
but just like all ibanez's it was VERY easy to play.
so it's basically a matter of taste I guess.

Sec these just came out like a few weeks ago so not sure what you played in the past. Was it used? Were the strings in good shape? You take a diamond bass let a moron set it up let the strings get old and then sit it in a music store for a few months letting Bruno who just had a dozen wings and two slices of pizza and didn’t wash his hands do his slappy slappy tappy on it and 25 other virtuosos and its not a diamond anymore for sure. But that’s the beauty of everything if it anit for you move on you will find something.


Nice thing about the preamp there are two switches one is a mid shift switch and the other active/passive nice touch..

it was brand new, the strings felt pretty new as well. very clean. not much in the lefty e.r.b category around these parts.
you Americans probably aren't aware of this, but ibanez have different models available in different countries.
(israel : http://www.ibanez.co.jp/products/left.p ... 4&cat_id=2
u.s : http://www.ibanez.co.jp/products/u_left ... 4&cat_id=2 )
so I'm not sure if this really is a new model, or just new in the u.s.
I'm allso not sure what model I played.
so I can't say it wasn't this exact model but it was very similar, especially that darker top and the price tag.
605l go here for about 700-900$, that one went for 1000-1200$.
(I payed a similar price for my fame baphomet 6 and the two aren't even playing the same game)
I can't say it was a bad instrument because as you pointed out it might be just a shity set up.
but I can say that I didn't like it.
maybe I'm just biased against ibanez, I don't like light instruments, I always hated their guitars and they don't make lefty btb's.

Well, I'm going for it. A new BN5 24 frets would cost over $4K so, lets try that little one