Traben Chaos Core 5 Review

Well I will start with saying the maple neck is very smooth,with a satin finish.the fret board is a satin finish as well.The frets seem along the line of a medium jumbo.No sharp edges.The neck radius is nice and fairly thin for me anyways.This my first five string so i cant really compare it to anything else.Grover tuning keys which are very smooth and stay in tune so far.The finish on this bass is flawless,black vapor.The rockfield pups sound amazing,powerful like a grand piano.With five way selector switch,you can tap the two outside and inside coils of both pups,along with just the front soloed, both or the rear pup soloed.A tone monster with the aguilar obp3.The internal bridge has the string through the body option,also a nice feature on the bridge is the locking bridge saddles.there is a piece of aluminum which sits in a route where the bridge is attached.

The chaos core's playability is very fast and effortless,the action on mine is pretty decent from the factory.The only thing i had to do was adjust the pick up height.

here are some specs and feature trabens website doesnt tell you.
1.Grover keys
2.Dual truss rod
3.5 bolt neck construction
4.24 frets 35" scale
5.string spacing
1/4" between strings @ nut,3/8" between strings @ 12th fret and 5/8" between strings @ bridge.
6.Neck width=1.75" at nut and 2.50" at the 12th
7.locking bridge saddles on internal bridge
8.Obp3=+/-16 bass,+/-16 mids and+/- 13 treble.plus add 6db more headroom if 18 volts are used.mine came with 2 batteries 18 volt.
9.Also you get the allen wrenches,for the truss rods and the bridge saddle height adjustment.
10.This bass also come with some really nice traben strap locks.

here are a few pics.

I payed 509.98 for the bass and 93.00$ for the case,from a local dealer.They go for 599.99 on muscians friend,so i think i got a pretty good deal.

KsPiNeSh said:

What were you running it through?

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400rb with rbx 410 cab,i also have a swr workingman pro15.And this bass sounds amazing through both amps.Very clear definition of any note played.I might add that i had contacted Todd rockfield about the pick ups and he told me that they are similar to the musicman's and also that they are not available as aftermarket pups

Jordasch said:

Major, what do you say about it being someones first 5? I dont play any death metal, or metal at all, but Trabens look soo nice. Do the buckers sound okay for anything other than those genres?

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I will be very truthful,i dont play death metal either.But i play more classic rock and blues stuff.The tones you can get out of this bass are fantastic,and a great slap tone too boot.So being it my first 5,i would say this bass can be used for alot of different genre's.

CBAnaesthesia said:

NICE! Do you have any idea what the string spacing is on these? How is the low B combined with low action? How easy is it to get a tone that will work with a specific genre, using the pup combos and pre? What is the neck profile like (wide and thin like an MTD Kingston or narrow and thick like a 'Wick, etc.)? Soundclips?

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The string spacing is in the initial post,sorry it is in inches.
the low b is nice not floppy for a .125.Dadarrio medium lights are what come on the bass.the action is pretty decent and i havent really had time to make many adjustments yet.the neck profile is i geuss what you would say wide and thin.As for tone,i think it is pretty easy to get different tones out of the preamp,but this only day two of owning the bass. But i feel you can get alot out of the preamp at this point.

Darkstrike said:

How are the straplocks?

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They are really nice,heavy duty.the strap button measures .50
spring loaded.

Darkstrike said:

Can you throw up a pic?

Their standard buttons are great, when I put straplocks on them, I kept the originals for other basses.

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here you go