Ibanez SR300E

Year: 2016
Finish: Ocean Fade Metallic
Origin: Indonesia
Acquired: 2019
Mods: Schaller straplocks
Still owned: Yes

Sometimes I feel like I am less a guitar player or guitar collector and more that I’m the caretaker at a guitar sanctuary. When my friend John sent me a photo of this SR300E bass, it was with the note that “This is one of the basses you’ve been looking for, isn’t it?” I loved the Ocean Fade Metallic gradient finish, and they had recently discontinued it. I’d played several other SR series basses and really liked the slim necks and light bodies — they’re high quality for a surprisingly low price. John revealed he was looking to give it a good new home, as he was out of room. We worked out a gear trade and I adopted it. I mean, that’s what friends are for, right?

There’s a lot going on inside. It’s an active bass with a 3-band EQ, a master volume, a pickup blend knob, and then a small three-way toggle switch for standard humbuckers, single-coil tapped, and something Ibanez calls “PowerTap” which is a bass boost with the single. In a word, it’s insanely versatile and can produce just about any modern sound you would hope an active bass to make. All I added were the prerequisite straplocks.

Trouble was, I didn’t have much room in my home for this one either, so I quickly took it in to be my personal bass at the office, where it gets significantly more use — and I get to tell people “No, that one’s not office property, you cannot take it to your desk — it’s mine, dammit.” 🙂