As Ibanez continues to explore the furthest depths of subterranean sound shaping, the BTB Standard BTB606 bass emerges. Forged with six strings of potent possibilities, a tonewood tetrad of okoume, maple, jatoba, and rosewood undergird this bass’s foundations, electrified by an unbridled suite of Ibanez Custom Electronics crafted to contour, control, and configure your perfectly personalized low-end array. Its neck-through construction and 5-piece neck are complemented by methodical shaping and beveling, impressing Music Experience’s bassists with its adaptable yet aggressive playability, providing ample access to its frenzy of fretboard ferocity. With eye-catching aesthetics exceeded by detailed and dynamic tone-crafting tools, the Ibanez BTB Standard BTB606 spares no effort to ensure its six strings of powerful and pliable performances are always at the ready.

A quadrature of tonal supports

Utilizing a neck-through construction, the fearsome foursome of the Ibanez BTB Standard BTB606’s tonewood foundations is fertile ground for nurturing the nicest and gnarliest of tones. A 5-piece maple and jatoba blend comprises its neck and core, marrying the bell-like presence and ringing projection of jatoba with the full-spectrum brightness and note-separating articulation of maple. Okoume wings augment the resonance of this bass, with its natural brightness and warmth complementing the same properties found in the neck-core maple. Up top, a rosewood fretboard completes the quadrumvirate of tonewoods, capping your sound with crystalline character and timbral transparency, eschewing muddy lows and cloying highs yet retaining power and presence.

Ibanez Custom Electronics and seriously sweepable mids

Ibanez’s luthiers and engineers worked in tandem to ensure the Ibanez Custom Electronics crafted for this bass were tailored to capture and deploy the distinctive sonic assemblage of the BTB Standard BTB606’s foundational tonewoods. A prismatic pair of α1 (Alpha 1) humbuckers are adorned by a constellation of controls, including a 3-band EQ, Balancer, Master Volume, and dedicated knobs for Bass, Middle, and Treble frequency bands. What’s more, a 3-way mini-switch augments your aural armature with an array of sweepable mids and customizable sound design, ensuring your tones are teeming with pocket-worthy panache.

Contoured for comfort and designed for diversity

Opting for a 5-piece neck and neck-through construction for this BTB Standard BTB606, Ibanez was able to not only enrich the resonant faculties and harmonic aperture of this 6-string slayer but significantly increase the instrument’s dimensional stability. Doing this ensures increased resilience to twisting, warping, or further environmental influences; it also reduces the number of maintenance trips to the workbench, allowing you to spend more time making music and less time fretting. Moreover, this assembly allows for a near-seamless heel joint, which — coupled with its accessibility-focused cutaways, meticulous body contouring, and ultra-fast BTB6 neck profile — supports unencumbered fretboard pyrotechnics all over the 24 frets that sprawl the bass’s 35-inch scale and 37.4-inch fingerboard radius. Toss in a rock-solid set of Ibanez-engineered hardware, and the BTB Standard BTB606 6-string electric bass is a no-punches-pulled powerhouse of low-frequency fervor, just waiting to be tamed in any arena.

Ibanez: a brief history

Ibanez began its life in 1908 as the Hoshino Gakki company in Nagoya, Japan. However, the company didn't get into the guitar business until 1929, when they started importing Salvador Ibanez guitars from Spain. In 1935, Hoshino Gakki began building Spanish acoustic guitars under the "Ibanez Salvador" name, which was later shortened to "Ibanez." Although Ibanez began manufacturing electric guitars in 1958, the company was relatively unknown in the West until the 1960s, when they started producing guitars based on American designs. By the late 1980s, Ibanez had stopped producing derivative guitars and had begun manufacturing the original designs that the company is now known for. Ibanez is also famous for their effect pedals (most notably the Tube Screamer) and guitar amplifiers.

What Ibanez Says...

Without a doubt, your instrument should equal the quality of your effort. At some point the word "boutique" comes to mind: Select-grade materials, neck-thru construction, and top quality components, all in a meticulously crafted instrument. But what about the price? That's where Ibanez comes in. Our ability to build small-shop quality into inspiring yet affordable instruments is showcased by BTB series basses.

5pc Maple/Jatoba neck

The 5pc Maple/Jatoba Neck with excellent strength provides an enriched resonance.

Neck-through construction

The neck-through construction contributes to massive sustain and smooth access to high fretboard positions.

Rosewood fretboard

Rosewood fretboard provides a well-balanced solid tone with a focused mid range.

Medium Stainless Steel frets

The Stainless Steel frets are durable and long-lasting.

Okoume wing body

The Okoume wing body provides a bright and solid sound.

α1 Pickups

α1 pickups deliver ultimate tonal clarity and openness with abundant mids and lows, popular characteristics among modern bass tones.

Ibanez Custom Electronics 3-band EQ w/Mid frequency switch

Ibanez Custom Electronics 3-band EQ is our latest refinement on the concept of simple, straightforward, no-nonsense EQ control. The Boost and Cut for the Mid Control are each centered on slightly different frequencies, an innovation that delivers a preset range of the most favorable bass tones.

MR5S Bridge