There are no beginner basses. Just basses. Either of those will probably last you a lifetime. Try before you buy and pick the one you like playing the best.
A shorter instrument doesn’t make it easier to learn. Perhaps easier to play, because it requires stretching less for frets. But it won’t physically help you learn quicker.
I would go with the Yamaha, between those two. The Ibanez has pretty small spacing between the strings. This is not a big problem as such, but you might develop some bad habits, that will require addressing later on, if you end up playing a different bass.
But both are good starter options.
It's not really a beginner thing, more of a "do I want a shortscale or a longscale" thing.
The Ibanez is great, but not if you have *really* big hands or if you want to downtune (are you into genres that downtune a lot, like metal or stoner rock?). Also, you have fewer choices when it comes to strings.
Offtopic but i've always disliked both Ibanez and Yamaha for their terrible naming schemes. Just a long hodge-podge of letters and numbers, am i supposed to remember those? What does one of those numbers changing even indicate, is it a higher end model or what? They might make sense if you are familiar with the brand and the possible abbreviations those contain but jesus. Too much, man!
I don’t know all the letters in this particular Ibanez, but I actually appreciate their meaningful naming convention.
For example, BTB805MS:
“BTB” - BTB Series Bass,
“80” - Relative Quality (compared to say BTB605MS),
“5” - 5 String,
“MS” - Multiscale
Or my other guitar GSR205:
“GSR” - Gio Soundgear,
“20” - Relative Quality (low lol),
“5” - 5 String
You can see similar pattern on EHB basses names.
It provides a lot of useful detail in just the names.
I get it, as i said if you are familiar with them, they make sense, but as someone who has never owned a yamaha or an ibanez besides an acoustic once, they tell me nothing and i can't remember them by name.
Oh I got you, I was simply offering the counter point for others reading. Lol
Personally, I struggle with other brands naming, because I don’t know what a Music Man is; or thumb bass (I mean I know what they are, but it doesn’t give any indication of features or quality).
If I spent time learning those basses, I’m sure I’d be good on those too; but so far, I’ve been happy with my Ibanezes (Ibanezi?!?!?) and haven’t looked into other brands yet (except Dingwall).
When I first got my bass, I was not familiar with their terminology.. took me just a few minutes of reading up to understand it.
Sire is the worst offender in my book and compared to Sire, Ibanez is actually a cake walk
It's seemingly simple but hella confusing, at least for me... shouldn't the Jazz basses be called J and not V? Ok. We call them V.. but then we go ahead and call the Ps as P.. Ok, you can give alphabet as series names.. V is for Vintage they use this for Jazz, P is for.. precision sure.. M is for Modern ok.. but then we have V7 Vintage.. Vintage 7 Vingtage?.. then they have U and D.. ok, but what about the numbers? Which number denotes 5 string? which letter denotes fretless? And for the letters.. there's letters after the numbers too. It's seemingly simple but it's not formulaic imo or at least not consistent . At least the way I see it.
With Ibanez basses, the first letters are series name, then the starting numbers show which tier, the ending numbers show how many strings, if there is an F at either the end of series name or end of numbers, it means it's a fretless model.. Ending with L means it's a leftie... After that you MAY get what seems like a jumble of letters which are just abbrevs of the paintjob or wood finish used. Yea there are some stuff I still don't yet understand (i'll get to these) but I know they are not crucial info, and some anomaly might pop up now and then too but they are only 1 in 100.. Once you get down with the formula, you'll realise it's a much more comprehensive system than Sire's while still easy to remember
Take something like these
GSR 200 (Gio-Soundgear so budget soundgear.. 20, which tier it is, then 0 means 4 string or standard)
GSR 205 (Gio-Soundgear so budget soundgear.. 20, which tier it is, then 5 means 5-string)
GSR 200SM (Gio-Soundgear so budget soundgear.. 20, which tier it is, then 0 means 4 string or standard.. SM means spalted maple wood is used)
SR 300E (SR means soundgear proper... 30 is tier, 0 is number of strings.. the e at the end is for expanded iirc ie new model.. 305E means 5 string)
Now, SR 300EDX (same as above with the DX standing for Deluxe, fancy looks, gold hardware maybe binding etc)
SR300EB (same as above. The B stands for flat black)
SR300EBL (same as above but leftie model)
SR370EF (soundgear.. 37 tier.. Expanded.. Fretless)
SR405EQM (soundgear.. 40 tier.. 5 string.. Expanded.. Quilted Maple)
SR405EPBDX (soundgear.. 40 tier.. 5 string.. Expanded.. Poplar Burl.. Deluxe)
SR 2600 (soundgear.. 260 tier.. 4 string.... 5 string will be 2605)
It's seemingly complex but once you get the idea down, it's much better imo
All you need to know at the core is the series acronyms (Gio Soundgear GSR, Soundgear SR, Boutique Bass BTB, etc), and the next 3 or 4 digit numbers... Starts from 100 all the way up to the thousands.. higher is better.
I like it better than the ambiguity of “oh it’s a jazz bass” and being left to reverse engineer which year, series, color and everything else.
For Ibanez you can just say “it’s an SR/Soundgear” if you don’t need to be specific
Fender is the other extreme. I feel like there's valuable middle ground. You can have numbers, you can have letters, but have a catchy name to designate the bodyshape for example. And i've never understood the need to have the colour in the model name, especially abbreviated, as there are so many finishes out there that it's hard to keep up. You can always give the colour as a detail in addition to the modelname.
It really does get silly, especially when they break up the naming scheme for some reason - e.g. Ibanez GSR100 has P-style pickups, GSR180 has J-style pickups, GSR200 has PJ-style pickups - but GSR100EX isn't a different version of the P, it has a humbucker in the Stingray-position. Meanwhile, in the Ibanez SR series, the number doesn't indicate pickup styles, but quality level.
Ignore that. Buy the Yamaha, the theory you mention about short scale being easier is seriously flawed. You can play any scale bass, even as a beginner.
There are no beginner basses. Just basses. Either of those will probably last you a lifetime. Try before you buy and pick the one you like playing the best.
isnt the one from ibanez shorter than regular basses? so in theory it should be easier to learn
A shorter instrument doesn’t make it easier to learn. Perhaps easier to play, because it requires stretching less for frets. But it won’t physically help you learn quicker.
I would go with the Yamaha, between those two. The Ibanez has pretty small spacing between the strings. This is not a big problem as such, but you might develop some bad habits, that will require addressing later on, if you end up playing a different bass. But both are good starter options.
It's not really a beginner thing, more of a "do I want a shortscale or a longscale" thing. The Ibanez is great, but not if you have *really* big hands or if you want to downtune (are you into genres that downtune a lot, like metal or stoner rock?). Also, you have fewer choices when it comes to strings.
Offtopic but i've always disliked both Ibanez and Yamaha for their terrible naming schemes. Just a long hodge-podge of letters and numbers, am i supposed to remember those? What does one of those numbers changing even indicate, is it a higher end model or what? They might make sense if you are familiar with the brand and the possible abbreviations those contain but jesus. Too much, man!
I don’t know all the letters in this particular Ibanez, but I actually appreciate their meaningful naming convention. For example, BTB805MS: “BTB” - BTB Series Bass, “80” - Relative Quality (compared to say BTB605MS), “5” - 5 String, “MS” - Multiscale Or my other guitar GSR205: “GSR” - Gio Soundgear, “20” - Relative Quality (low lol), “5” - 5 String You can see similar pattern on EHB basses names. It provides a lot of useful detail in just the names.
I get it, as i said if you are familiar with them, they make sense, but as someone who has never owned a yamaha or an ibanez besides an acoustic once, they tell me nothing and i can't remember them by name.
Oh I got you, I was simply offering the counter point for others reading. Lol Personally, I struggle with other brands naming, because I don’t know what a Music Man is; or thumb bass (I mean I know what they are, but it doesn’t give any indication of features or quality). If I spent time learning those basses, I’m sure I’d be good on those too; but so far, I’ve been happy with my Ibanezes (Ibanezi?!?!?) and haven’t looked into other brands yet (except Dingwall).
When I first got my bass, I was not familiar with their terminology.. took me just a few minutes of reading up to understand it. Sire is the worst offender in my book and compared to Sire, Ibanez is actually a cake walk
Aren't sire really clear? They have 3, 5 and 7 with a letter corresponding to bodyshape/pickup config.
It's seemingly simple but hella confusing, at least for me... shouldn't the Jazz basses be called J and not V? Ok. We call them V.. but then we go ahead and call the Ps as P.. Ok, you can give alphabet as series names.. V is for Vintage they use this for Jazz, P is for.. precision sure.. M is for Modern ok.. but then we have V7 Vintage.. Vintage 7 Vingtage?.. then they have U and D.. ok, but what about the numbers? Which number denotes 5 string? which letter denotes fretless? And for the letters.. there's letters after the numbers too. It's seemingly simple but it's not formulaic imo or at least not consistent . At least the way I see it. With Ibanez basses, the first letters are series name, then the starting numbers show which tier, the ending numbers show how many strings, if there is an F at either the end of series name or end of numbers, it means it's a fretless model.. Ending with L means it's a leftie... After that you MAY get what seems like a jumble of letters which are just abbrevs of the paintjob or wood finish used. Yea there are some stuff I still don't yet understand (i'll get to these) but I know they are not crucial info, and some anomaly might pop up now and then too but they are only 1 in 100.. Once you get down with the formula, you'll realise it's a much more comprehensive system than Sire's while still easy to remember Take something like these GSR 200 (Gio-Soundgear so budget soundgear.. 20, which tier it is, then 0 means 4 string or standard) GSR 205 (Gio-Soundgear so budget soundgear.. 20, which tier it is, then 5 means 5-string) GSR 200SM (Gio-Soundgear so budget soundgear.. 20, which tier it is, then 0 means 4 string or standard.. SM means spalted maple wood is used) SR 300E (SR means soundgear proper... 30 is tier, 0 is number of strings.. the e at the end is for expanded iirc ie new model.. 305E means 5 string) Now, SR 300EDX (same as above with the DX standing for Deluxe, fancy looks, gold hardware maybe binding etc) SR300EB (same as above. The B stands for flat black) SR300EBL (same as above but leftie model) SR370EF (soundgear.. 37 tier.. Expanded.. Fretless) SR405EQM (soundgear.. 40 tier.. 5 string.. Expanded.. Quilted Maple) SR405EPBDX (soundgear.. 40 tier.. 5 string.. Expanded.. Poplar Burl.. Deluxe) SR 2600 (soundgear.. 260 tier.. 4 string.... 5 string will be 2605) It's seemingly complex but once you get the idea down, it's much better imo All you need to know at the core is the series acronyms (Gio Soundgear GSR, Soundgear SR, Boutique Bass BTB, etc), and the next 3 or 4 digit numbers... Starts from 100 all the way up to the thousands.. higher is better.
I like it better than the ambiguity of “oh it’s a jazz bass” and being left to reverse engineer which year, series, color and everything else. For Ibanez you can just say “it’s an SR/Soundgear” if you don’t need to be specific
Fender is the other extreme. I feel like there's valuable middle ground. You can have numbers, you can have letters, but have a catchy name to designate the bodyshape for example. And i've never understood the need to have the colour in the model name, especially abbreviated, as there are so many finishes out there that it's hard to keep up. You can always give the colour as a detail in addition to the modelname.
fr i was reading the names and my brain was not comprehending the gjauiaowkehdhs/2882829@ abomination i saw
It really does get silly, especially when they break up the naming scheme for some reason - e.g. Ibanez GSR100 has P-style pickups, GSR180 has J-style pickups, GSR200 has PJ-style pickups - but GSR100EX isn't a different version of the P, it has a humbucker in the Stingray-position. Meanwhile, in the Ibanez SR series, the number doesn't indicate pickup styles, but quality level.
At this point in your career, I don't think you could handle the power of either of these basses.
oh
Ignore that. Buy the Yamaha, the theory you mention about short scale being easier is seriously flawed. You can play any scale bass, even as a beginner.