The year is 2001. 11-year-old me is at the local music shop to buy my very first fretless bass. There are two available. One is a Yamaha RBX270F, basically the fretless version of the RBX170 I started out on, 2 years earlier. The other one is an amber coloured Yamaha TRB 5IIF I instantly fall in love with. Even at my age I immediately feel: this is it. This is the one. I want this bass.
But the TRB is over twice as expensive as the RBX and the RBX is also pretty cool (because it's black, you know how it goes). So I got the RBX. No problem, I'm happy with my bass.
Two years later I buy my first fretless Fender bass. The wish for a TRB was still there. I had a fretted one (also amber), I had a defretted version of the TRB I (the one with the slap cut), but never that one. The amber coloured, fretless one.
Fast forward to late 2022. I visit Dutch bass player Phaedra Kwant for a second episode of my podcast Basgasten. We chat a bit after the recording, and happen to stumble upon the subject of the fretless TRB. She says "well, I have a fretless amber coloured TRB that I bought from that very shop around that time. And I still have it."
So she gets the bass and hands it to me. And I feel immediately: this is it. The one that got away. So I ask Phaedra to pleeeaaase think of me first should she ever sell it.
And then it's December 2023. I get a text message: "Hey man! How's life? I'm seriously considering selling the fretless TRB. Are you still sentimentally interested?"
And so, this morning, I went to Phaedra's studio and take home the bass I wanted to take home almost 23 years ago. And it's still as amazing as it was 23 years ago.
But the TRB is over twice as expensive as the RBX and the RBX is also pretty cool (because it's black, you know how it goes). So I got the RBX. No problem, I'm happy with my bass.
Two years later I buy my first fretless Fender bass. The wish for a TRB was still there. I had a fretted one (also amber), I had a defretted version of the TRB I (the one with the slap cut), but never that one. The amber coloured, fretless one.
Fast forward to late 2022. I visit Dutch bass player Phaedra Kwant for a second episode of my podcast Basgasten. We chat a bit after the recording, and happen to stumble upon the subject of the fretless TRB. She says "well, I have a fretless amber coloured TRB that I bought from that very shop around that time. And I still have it."
So she gets the bass and hands it to me. And I feel immediately: this is it. The one that got away. So I ask Phaedra to pleeeaaase think of me first should she ever sell it.
And then it's December 2023. I get a text message: "Hey man! How's life? I'm seriously considering selling the fretless TRB. Are you still sentimentally interested?"
And so, this morning, I went to Phaedra's studio and take home the bass I wanted to take home almost 23 years ago. And it's still as amazing as it was 23 years ago.
