Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
My only 5, bought new in 1997. Ultimate studio bass. I run it through a MXR M81 preamp to boost output and 400hz a bit live. This turns it into a total Super Jazz beast, really opening it up and adding power. Enjoy!
Last edited:
Nice, I'll try the 400Hz bump. Is that a Pau Ferro or Rosewood board on yours? Looks like Rosewood
Though I've never had all the blanks filled in for me, supposedly this took a while to get to market, and this is the story I've heard:
RB wanted a 5-string equivalent of his classic 4-string Jazz Basses. Pickups were problematic until the late Bill Lawrence was brought on to do the pickups and the remarkably effective, yet simple switching system: 3-way selector ganged with individual double-coil/single-coil switching for each pickup. Lots of possible tones. Bill found a way for the pickups to play nice with the B-string and still sound very Jazz-like.
RB also dug his heels in (supposedly) for that watchmaker precise Gotoh bridge. Yamaha used these on the final model, Taiwanese-build big body BB5000A2's, with the TRB pickups. I bought one used and decided (like an idiot!!) to field strip it, clean and lube and reassemble. OMG, it took three hours. Amazing bridge, locking saddles, side to side adjustment on each saddle, etc.
They finally got it launched, it wasn't cheap, and for some, it was about half a size too big. Big neck with the assymetric profile. And after a few years, it went the way of the Dodo, just like PBass Lytes, Dimensions, 24-fret Jazz Basses, and so on.
To my mind, simply the best five-string Fender ever built, or will ever build.
The current Squier Cont Act Jazz Five reminds me a lot of this one in terms of the body and neck size, and they could easily clone an RB5 onto that platform (albeit with similar but not the same pickups: Supposedly Bill's pickup company won't make or sell any these days) and re-issue under some name as a Squier.
This is the one axe where when I hear guys rant and rave about going back to passive from active pickups, I'd agree. It's a remarkable setup, which of course, Bill Lawrence made a career out of achieving.
Like any axe, not for everybody, but one hell of a five-string, and the four as well.
RB wanted a 5-string equivalent of his classic 4-string Jazz Basses. Pickups were problematic until the late Bill Lawrence was brought on to do the pickups and the remarkably effective, yet simple switching system: 3-way selector ganged with individual double-coil/single-coil switching for each pickup. Lots of possible tones. Bill found a way for the pickups to play nice with the B-string and still sound very Jazz-like.
RB also dug his heels in (supposedly) for that watchmaker precise Gotoh bridge. Yamaha used these on the final model, Taiwanese-build big body BB5000A2's, with the TRB pickups. I bought one used and decided (like an idiot!!) to field strip it, clean and lube and reassemble. OMG, it took three hours. Amazing bridge, locking saddles, side to side adjustment on each saddle, etc.
They finally got it launched, it wasn't cheap, and for some, it was about half a size too big. Big neck with the assymetric profile. And after a few years, it went the way of the Dodo, just like PBass Lytes, Dimensions, 24-fret Jazz Basses, and so on.
To my mind, simply the best five-string Fender ever built, or will ever build.
The current Squier Cont Act Jazz Five reminds me a lot of this one in terms of the body and neck size, and they could easily clone an RB5 onto that platform (albeit with similar but not the same pickups: Supposedly Bill's pickup company won't make or sell any these days) and re-issue under some name as a Squier.
This is the one axe where when I hear guys rant and rave about going back to passive from active pickups, I'd agree. It's a remarkable setup, which of course, Bill Lawrence made a career out of achieving.
Like any axe, not for everybody, but one hell of a five-string, and the four as well.
Congratulations, in Shoreline Gold it looks amazing. I don't own one but played it once. Other than the weight and the pickup switch being noisy, it was amazing. For the record, I also have small hands.
The bass player in the band I play keyboards I has the exact same configuration (V in Gold) and I’ve played it a few times. Definitely a wide neck for me, the owner has much bigger hands than me, but he also re-carved the neck to be much thinner too!
I borrowed one several years ago to play the show Hairspray that has a fair amount of extra low notes. I enjoyed playing it once I got the electronics figured out. The size and neck didn't bother me once I got used to them. The greatest thing was I played it for about five minutes in the pit and the conductor looked over and gave me a big thumbs up.
Yep that was me....but as IIRC-you bought if from me
. It was an amazing sounding instrument, but it probably weighed 11 or 12 lbs and was therefore flipped. I agree with your suggestion it'd be a superb bass with a downsized body, and probably a simpler bridge, but the same amazing 'lektronix package........it was as versatile as G & L's twin Humbucker offerings....could get almost any tone out of it.
These are very special, highly regarded basses—and they are becoming harder and harder to find. A RBV will actually appreciate in value, although perhaps not rapidly. Enjoy it!
IMO, it’s the best passive five-string of them all. Had one that I was crazy about that served me very well. A little heavy-ish but not terribly so. A seriously grooving, versatile instrument.
I think at the time I didn't quite have the scratch for one.
If they made a RB IV now, I am in trouble.
Smooth_bass88
vaxx!
- Oct 31, 2006
- 12,122
- 16,793
- Disclosures
- have been on nationally released albums, charting on the Billboard 200
Go see Roscoe Beck playing with Eric Johnson.
Go see Roscoe Beck playing with Eric Johnson.
Go see Roscoe Beck playing with Eric Johnson.
Go see Roscoe Beck playing with Eric Johnson.
Go see Roscoe Beck playing with Eric Johnson.
Go see Roscoe Beck playing with Eric Johnson.
Go see Roscoe Beck playing with Eric Johnson.
Go see Roscoe Beck playing with Eric Johnson.
Go see Roscoe Beck playing with Eric Johnson.
Go see Roscoe Beck playing with Eric Johnson.
Go see Roscoe Beck playing with Eric Johnson.
Congratulations, and may you have many, many years of good playing and enjoyment with it! It took me more than a few years of looking before I finally got one, a CAR that has become my main player. I currently have it strung with TI Jazz Rounds, but it also takes to Jazz Flats very well. As you said, it is clearly a Jazz bass, by design, but I think you may be surprised by the neck pickup soloed in parallel mode when recording. I have made recordings with a Precision and my RBV which are virtually indistinguishable when in the mix. That said, on the gig, I do mostly use it in single coil mode with both pickups on full, just like I do with my ‘65 Jazz.
