Just recently purchased an Ibanez Portamento bass , over the Christmas vaca . I wasn't really looking to buy another bass, but I was in a local guitar center and I saw one over there ,hanging on the wall. Decided to try it out. At first glance I noticed that it had flatwounds on it: I thought, hmm this will be interesting,I like flats, but not much of a fan of the d'addario chromes which were strung on this bass. That aside I dove right in. I noticed that it had an amazing warmth to the tone but had a really nice vocal midrange and an amazing articulate top end, I also noticed that the tone of this instrument was just naturally there,meaning that I didn't have to tweak it that much if at all I could get a really bratty tony franklin tone, with tons of natural bottom, with just the bridge pickup (this bass comes equipped with passive dual coil ceramic bartolini's ,which sound surprisingly great ,with the mahogony wings.it does have an active preamp, with active has and treble boost,cut . if anyone out there remembers , Paul Simons Graceland album this bass can get all the fretless tones on that album. I found this out when I discovered the AMAZING aerosilk peizo pickup. I've not been a fan of peizo pickups : ever. Until now of course . the peizo in this bass caused me to be able to achieve 2 extremely use able upright bass tones ( just close your eyes and play, you'll swear you hearing a real upright bass) by blending the rear pickup(on full) and the neck pickup(just under a quarter turn) for more midrangy acoustic mwah and just past a quarter turn for a less midrangy acoustic groan . until now, I have never heard a peizo that could capture the real full natural midrange of and acoustic bass and not sound like an electric . this bass can do this! I am the most anal toniac for bass tone that I know. And I must say ,I couldn't take it anymore. I had to write this thread ,because its like I found a cure for cancer,or something. Any bassist will love this bass the way the pickups and the peizo blend together with the EQ is amazing they all have this cool overlap where you just blend from one tone to another seamlessly . one more thing I've got to say about the upright tone: no matter how hard you hit these strings the tone doesn't spike or break up ,the tone is so pure yet it has major mojo ( balls if you will) the peizo pick up has separate string volumes on the back of the bass. I had to buy this bass immediately ,I call it my chameleon fretless ,since I can get every fretless tone I want on it ,and I was able to get these great tones on this bass with chrome flats ,I can't wait till my thomastik's come in I won't be putting rounds on it ever.it just sounds that good. Are there any other bassists that have discovered this great bass?

I must mention that it has a five peice laminated maple,bubinga thru neck designs an unlined rosewood fretboard the lines and the dots are on the side of the fretboard, which actually subliminally, causes the player to see them on the fretboard , and the fretboard goes all the way to the neck pickup. I think it has thirty some frets 36 its a really long fretboard.action and playability is flawless!

just look right own there in my signature >>>>
the 5 string portamento is my main bass!!! I haven't put it down since I got it back in april...
Here's a pic of me playing it.
lightning fast neck, I use it for everything, even tapping.
of course, she (Matilda) will have some competition when my stick finally arrives

and I agree, the tone is beyond exceptional.
For my personal tone, I generally keep the piezo on all the time and blend in the barts when I need more mwah / bite (bridge) or more thud/body (neck). The tonal range is absolutely ridiculous on this bass. I can sit in with basically any kind of band and get exactly the tone I need, even in the louder, more rock, electronic and fusion acts!
I think the stroke of genius that is this instrument is in the bodyshape/neck-thru construction with natural finish.
Common sense would tell you that hey, if a doghouse gets it's tone/thump from the sound bouncing around the cavernous interior, then of course to get a similar sound on electric bass you'd need a big cavity. But that isn't really the case, as I've found with this bass. Structurally, the portamento strings are stretched across the entirety of instrument, and when you couple that with the bubinga thru-neck you've got one consistent vibrating center from top to bottom. The entire instrument shakes and hums (kinda violently, in the best, most natural way) when you pluck a string, especially that lovely low B on my 5. You can "feel" you're playing it even when unplugged.
All that vibration is captured by the sweet sounding AeorSilk, and voila, you're nearing upright territory! It's really fantastic. IDK if these are popular or not, but i'm ecstatic with mine and its the first intrument I reach for when it's time to write a new song with Cartoon Weapons.

hehe one more pic from the NYE house show sound check

I haven't named mine yet but I did just get the formfitting hard shell case for it yesterday ,along with a formfitting hardshel case for my neck thru tbird bass woohoo! Its hard to put it down my wife's uncle came over a couple of days ago and we had a blast, he was playing acoustic versions of classic Beatles and eagles standards, while I played outrageous double bass accompayment. Amazing how well we play when everything is just right. Glad you have one of these ,I've been checking them out for about six months ,but they would sell after a couple of days. The greatest thing about these Ibanez portamento's is that the are very consistent, they have all sounded equally great ,which is very rare indeed! Cheers!

I just put a set of thomastik infield strings on this portamento bass! All I can say is so w ow. I had no idea that they would play this much better and sound this much better! If you can ever scrape up the extra cash these flatwounds are worth the money ( that is if your that nuts about tone. I paid 112.00 for this five string set.

I picked one of these up and I FRIGGING LOVE it!! wow.... took off the flats and put some DR Nickels on and liked it, then I too put on some Tomastick infelds on and I was just amazed!!

It looks gorgeous in on that "zack bass" image! Looking at the body and fingerboard you almost "hear" that wood. It really looks as something that sounds good. I've never owned a fretless bass and a fiver would be great. So far I do some plucking on my electric cell but I guess that's far from the Portamento Bass.

I ordered and assembled a Warmoth Gecko 5 string fretless with wide string spacing. Finished the body myself, a beautiful Black Korina wood. Wenge neck with Bubinga laminates and a Bloodwood fretboard. Stuck a very hot EMG 40DC in, after considering swapping my barts out from my 6-string (the neck of the 5 string has the width of a 6 string... very wide string spacing).

Plays like butter, very low action, almost no effort required to sound a note. I highly recommend Warmoth. Unbelievable service and quality. Don't send your money to Korea when such quality is available right here. Aggressive bass, dark tone. You can choose the woods, you can choose the finish, all you have to do is assemble parts. Lots of fun, and the best basses and guitars you can imagine.

www.warmoth.com

kev