I’ve played bass for just over 30 years now, and have owned a fretless bass for most of that time—a headless, bodiless Westone Rail I had made fretless as well by a skilled luthier and family friend in the late 1990s—but I never really took to that particular instrument. I kept it around because it was just too dang weird, and did find myself writing some fretless parts on it for an instrumental piece with my then-new bandmate not quite a year ago. With my interest revived and my bandmate’s encouragement, I started looking somewhat more seriously into acquiring a fretless with ergonomics and style better suited to me; but I kept holding out, not wanting to spend a lot on something I might use only occasionally, unsure of what I wanted in a fretless.
Then I saw this for 120 USD among Guitar Center’s used listings, and I pounced immediately.
Between my trust in Yamaha’s instruments (I already have two BBs and an acoustic guitar), that price, and GC’s generous return policy, I figured I had nothing to lose even if it came to me in rough shape; but this RBX260F arrived in excellent shape and ready to play right out of the box.
with its Broadbass brethren
It sounds good, like the fretless Precision I expected, and plays kind of like a slightly sized-up TRBX or Jazz. I look forward to trying some heavy Ernie Ball Cobalt flatwound strings on it down in CGCF or even BEAD, but will give the standard-ish D’Addario set that it had upon arrival a bit of time.
I’ve always said that instruments with black bodies (and black pickguards, where applicable) and dark fingerboards with unpainted maple headstocks look like someone forgot something, and that hasn’t changed with this one, but at this price I’ll put up with it. The plastic knobs look and feel cheap, and the tuning machines only slightly less so, but they both do their jobs well enough that I feel no immediate need to replace them. This bass will either convince me to paint the headstock black and replace the hardware or get a fancier fretless somewhere down the line, but it has already convinced me that I need to incorporate more fretless bass playing into my life!
Then I saw this for 120 USD among Guitar Center’s used listings, and I pounced immediately.
Between my trust in Yamaha’s instruments (I already have two BBs and an acoustic guitar), that price, and GC’s generous return policy, I figured I had nothing to lose even if it came to me in rough shape; but this RBX260F arrived in excellent shape and ready to play right out of the box.
with its Broadbass brethren
It sounds good, like the fretless Precision I expected, and plays kind of like a slightly sized-up TRBX or Jazz. I look forward to trying some heavy Ernie Ball Cobalt flatwound strings on it down in CGCF or even BEAD, but will give the standard-ish D’Addario set that it had upon arrival a bit of time.
I’ve always said that instruments with black bodies (and black pickguards, where applicable) and dark fingerboards with unpainted maple headstocks look like someone forgot something, and that hasn’t changed with this one, but at this price I’ll put up with it. The plastic knobs look and feel cheap, and the tuning machines only slightly less so, but they both do their jobs well enough that I feel no immediate need to replace them. This bass will either convince me to paint the headstock black and replace the hardware or get a fancier fretless somewhere down the line, but it has already convinced me that I need to incorporate more fretless bass playing into my life!
