Bensalem, PA (June 8, 2012) – When the bass designers at Ibanez put themselves to the task of building a solid, dependable fretless bass that would sell for less than $500, “We’re answering the many bass players we’ve heard say they’d love to add a fretless to their bass arsenal.” says Ibanez USA Bass Product Manager Kiyotaka Yamada.
The fretted versions of the bass, SR370 and SR375, are already well known to Ibanez bass fans. “The maple body, in terms of tonal character, made it the perfect candidate for a fretless version, ” said Kamada. Plus, the 370 and 375 had proven themselves to be perfect examples of what makes the SR bass line so popular: “Fast, thin, necks. Light in weight, yet heavy in terms of sound, and unbeatable quality in their price categories.” The SR 370F and 370F offer some surprisingly upscale features, like an arched-top body and a 5-piece maple and rosewood neck.
While the concept of the SR has long been embraced by bassists the world over , “5-string” and “fretless” is a rare combination—especially at the modest end of the market. The motivation? Yamada explains: “Building really comfortable, playable 5-string basses has earned us strong word-of-mouth. Every bassmaker seems to be building 5-strings now, but what players are finding is that some of them are a lot of work to play. We led the way with our 5-string basses and Ibanez players now expect any of our 4-string offerings to also have a 5-string counterpart.” For that reason, the choice to offer the fretless as a 5-string, Yamada says, was “a no-brainer.”
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