Just because you can’t afford to drop a grand or two on a new bass doesn’t mean you have to forego such luxuries as active electronics, a 24-fret rosewood fingerboard and a quilted maple top. Those are all standard features with Ibanez’s RD500, the suprisingly affordable top of the company’s new roadgear line.
With its pearl dot inlays, gleaming chrome accu-cast bridge and tobacco sunburst finish, the RD500 bass is a real beauty. It’s also effortless to play, with a fast, not too thin neck and a basswood body light enough to keep four hour rehearsals from becoming backbreaking. The deep-cutaway lower horn makes it an easy leap to the ipper register, although with a fice inch difference between the upper and lower cuts, you’ll have to resort to “thumb position” to make full use of the top three frets. Overall, the feel is solid and comfortable, well suited to the rigors of steady gigging.
As for its sound, the 500 is a bass for those who like it loud. Between the heavy bridge and added mass in the bold on neck, the bass has plenty of punch and sustain, while the pickups - a music man - style humbucker in the pridge position and a jass style single coil at the neck - offer a nice balance between woof and growl, with the volume knob pulling out to activate a coil selector switch.
The RD500 is clearly not a bass for those who preger bright and trebly, but the two-band active EQ (bass and treble boost/cut, with conveniently notched knobs) offer a good range of tonal options, moist of which favot a meaty, old school roar. Although the case - which costs extra - has a nasty habit of falling over when standing on its side, the RD500 itself is an upstanding addition to Ibanez’s line and one of the better basses we’ve tried in its price range

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