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Yamaha TRB5PII
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Yamaha TRB5PII

5+ string bass guitar from Yamaha belonging to the TRB series

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Waladze Waladze
Published on 12/29/05 at 03:45
The characteristics of the TRB5-PII are as follows:
- Made in Japan
- Channel driver in maple and mahogany 24 fret, ebony fingerboard
- Pickups 2 Yamaha alnico V-type humbucker + 1 Micro Piezo
- Adjust master volume, pickup balance, active 3-band EQ, volume piezo
- Bridge brass (which hosts the piezo 5)

I put eight characteristics that seem good, except the choice of ebony for the key. The concern is that this wood is treated to be strongly bonded to the handle, and treatment plays on its bandwidth. So, I think the B string is a bit soft (actually means more harmonics than the fundamental) and that's a little disappointing.

UTILIZATION

The handle is very nice. Before I played on a handle end (Ibanez) and I feared the neck wider, but in the end it is just as easy to play. Moreover, the largest gap strings greatly facilitates the slap.

Access to treble is good.

The ergonomics are excellent. The bass is not too heavy with about 5 kgs. It is balanced, the handle does not sting the nose when we play.

His side, do not worry, you plug everything in neutral, we play and the sound is there.

SOUNDS

The sound of the PII-TRB5 ....

Overall, the sound is very good. In fact, the sound of this bass is quite consensual in the sense that it does not have a strong characteristic that makes some people would like and others not at all. This is a great bass sound "classic".

I play on a Hartke HA3500 + 4x10TP head and it sounds, do not worry.

However, we can note three things: (1) EQ settings are very powerful. To add a little low you just turn the knob 10 degrees, no more! Ditto for the midrange and treble. (2) the overall volume is strong! It potatoes of thunder! (3) The piezo is very strong too! Should not add much to hear. In addition, it adds a lot of treble on the sound (noise frets or fingers ...).

Then we can really shape the sound without problems, the sound at its Pasto M. Miller, worry-free.

Another very positive point about sound's sustain. This is the low notes. When you put your note, it is there, and does not disappear after 3 seconds and that for a bass player who lays the foundation of harmony and rhythm in a group is very apreciate!

In short, I put 8 for sound because of the piezo. I find the piezo nice, but it really does not change the timbre of the instrument. It was a bit like using a kind of enhancer or indeed "bright" pre-amp. In addition I find that the piezo is set too high compared to other microphones, so that you can not utlise potentiometer until the end.

OVERALL OPINION

Well, I think the other owners of the PII-TRB5 found me a bit harsh in my judgments. But it seems that everything must be seen in context. The colon "negative" of the bass are really pinallage seem important but for the price. If everyone gives 9 or 10 for each product he owns, saying only "excellent", the opinions are no longer useless!

So overall I think this bass is very good. Its price (2300 €) Thomann is excellent given its quality. Basically, for me, this bass is below the bass luthiers (more expensive) but tends to approach this quality.

Before buying it, I tried several models: Active Jazz Bass, Musicman, Yamaha (the TRB1005). If I had to buy a bass, I would do this choice because if the bass is not perfect, it is excellent and above all an incomparable value for money.

PS: Oh I forgot! The bass comes in a classy and Yamaha fly very robust. It's the little extra!