New Bass for older me

[fudgemaster]

 

[fudgemaster]

here in early 2020 I decided to add a less expensive bass. It’s a Yamaha TRBX204. I play at church & found this funky double octave bass a lot of sound choices & a lot of fun to play. After some theft problems in past I decided to go cheaper, about 1/3 or 1/4 the cost of my vintage style Fender. Kind of a mix of active Pbass & Jazz Bass. Anyone else had fun with one of these?

 

[Bergerman]

What a timely post! I too recently decided to pick up something inexpensive to keep at church and not worry about...but I decided to see how low I could go with the cost and still have a good player (I usually play Sadowsky fivers). I found an older Squier Affinity on the local Craigslist that needed a lot of love. The truss rod was maxed, the strings were rusty, knobs were missing and the electronics were totally buggered up, but the pickups were functional. Just put the final touches on it last night. I put some washers behind the truss rod nut, replaced all the wiring and pots and generally cleaned it up before putting on some new Dunlop nickel rounds and some 70’s era Akai aluminum stereo knobs I had laying around. Total investment came to $134, including pots, jack, strings and strap locks. I’m very surprised by how good it sounds and how well it plays! Good, inexpensive fun!

 

[eastcoasteddie]

What a timely post! I too recently decided to pick up something inexpensive to keep at church and not worry about...but I decided to see how low I could go with the cost and still have a good player (I usually play Sadowsky fivers). I found an older Squier Affinity on the local Craigslist that needed a lot of love. The truss rod was maxed, the strings were rusty, knobs were missing and the electronics were totally buggered up, but the pickups were functional. Just put the final touches on it last night. I put some washers behind the truss rod nut, replaced all the wiring and pots and generally cleaned it up before putting on some new Dunlop nickel rounds and some 70’s era Akai aluminum stereo knobs I had laying around. Total investment came to $134, including pots, jack, strings and strap locks. I’m very surprised by how good it sounds and how well it plays! Good, inexpensive fun!

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These can be absolutely fantastic. But in my opinion, the stock pickups are the weak link. Not until you replace them with anything better do you realize how horribly colorless they are.

 

[Bergerman]

These can be absolutely fantastic. But in my opinion, the stock pickups are the weak link. Not until you replace them with anything better do you realize how horribly colorless they are.

Yeah...I was wondering about them. They sound ok in the practice room solo, but they’ll get a full band rehearsal tomorrow night. Maybe it would help if I played through my Sadowsky outboard preamp/DI. Probably can’t hurt...

 

[fudgemaster]

These can be absolutely fantastic. But in my opinion, the stock pickups are the weak link. Not until you replace them with anything better do you realize how horribly colorless they are.

 

[fudgemaster]

East coast Eddie, they didn’t have an amp at little local music store but I do a lot of minor business so I said if I don’t like I’ll bring back. I tried through a sub at home & loved the depth. I took to church where I have an ‘80s TNT with a 15” Eminence steel guitar spkr. It’ll get plenty loud loud mellow twanky but not a lot o fm deep. I also run through a Crate used bass amp into a ported 12” Memphis car sub. It brings all the deep missing from the 15”. I love the variety of mellow funky tones. It’s everything my single coil Fender Pbass with smooth flats is not. The Yamaha for under $300 I thought a pretty good deal.