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Yamaha TRB 1005j. Too bright. Anything to do about it?

D

DSBass

Nov 14, 2008
223
35
Stockholm, Sweden
#1
So I just got a Yamaha TRB 1005j. I absolutely love the feel of it. I like the sound too but it's to bright for my taste. Not much happening when I reduce the brightness to the bottom.
Is there anything I can do to get it less bright and harsh? Would lowering the pickups help? Is there anything I can do to the preamp?
I will change the strings to GHS Pressurewounds. I guess that will help a little.

Thanks for answers.
Best regards/Daniel
 
#2
I don't know much about the newer trb series but here's the deal with mine...
Either use the amp knobs to furtherly tweak the sound according to your preferences or at the back of the bass, in the preamp slot, you can tweak a few things in order to cut/boost frequencies...

Again, this is on a trb 6 from 1994, I don't know if the preamp retained the same or similar design on the 1005
 
#5
When I put new strings on a bass, I usually bag the old strings and keep them handy, at least for a while. New ones are usually more bright than I like, especially on my passive J-bass, but I also don't like flats. If I have my old nickel rounds handy, I can always run them back in there in case I need to tamp down that new string sizzle for some reason or another. LOVE old strings!

Maybe I should try soaking some new strings in some seawater to get them a little "grossed up" with some corrosion before using them on a bass... I'm sure it's been tried already.

When I want my active PJ (EMG's and bass/treble preamp) sound to mellow out, I cut the highs on the bass and also cut both some of the high mids and the highs at my head.

It never hurts to noodle with different pickup heights. It's a change that's really easy to undo and you could find some new dimensions in your sound that have been hiding right under your... fingers.
 
#7
I have one too. It is my only 5 strings but I dig it. To overcome the brightness I always use it with the following preamp settings: Bass and Mids at center position, Treble rolled off a quarter turn.
I slightly favor one of the two pickups and use D'Addarios XLs 130-45 which fit this bass very well.
On my Mark bass I have the following settings: bass at 2 O'Clock, Low and High Mids at 11 and Treble at 12 or 11 O'clock.
This bass has some interior trim pots to adjust the level of the phantom coils. If you open the preamp cavity you'll see them. You must be somewhat familiar with the concept. I adjusted mine with the lowest level for each pickups which makes the bass react more like the pickups of a Jazz Bass and gives more punch. It is punchier but like a Jazz Bass, it also makes more hum when you solo either one of the pickups (I usually keeps them blended anyways). The interior trim changes don't affect the brightness though.
 
#8
Some ideas for a too bright axe:

Try flats or semi flats.

Try stainless roundwounds, but leave them on for a year or more. (Don't laugh I have 5-year old stainless strings on my 73 P and they sound great. Warm, but not dead, and they tune ffine. A great recording bass! You need stainless so they won't rust.)

put a piece of foam rubber under the bridge. This will get you closer to that motown sound.

Remove the preamp and wire it as a passive Jazz bass.

Rewire the treble and bass onto a stacked pot, then add a passive tone in the spare hole.

put a low pass filter on a push-pull switch at the volume or wherever. This could be as simple as a cap to earth on the input of the pre, or something active.

add a resistor across the input of the pre to reduce its impedence.

You may also be able to rewire the pickups to series. This depends on how they are wired now, and if there's access to the coils etc.

TRB pre's are well known as hi-fi sounding. They've been like this for 20 years. There are quite a few techs around with a draw full of TRB pres!... :hmm:

Oh, and if you have access to the preamp circuit itself (IOW, it's not potted in epoxy), you could change the caps at the treble filter. Find the cap (or caps) that go to the treble control, and replace them with similar ones that have twice the capacitance.
 
#9
Good ideas as well but keep in mind the TRB preamp is a full circuit board and it is not something a non professional would want to mess up with IMO. First time I opened it I was like, "alright let's check this sucker....aaaaaawwwww!!!! ***!? No touchy"
 
#10
Absolutely. If you don't know what you are doing, either learn on a scrap bass from the op shop, or take it to a reputable tech.

With respect, I would think that goes without saying...

Having said that, many guitar techs won't mod a circuit board, but for a hi-fi or digital tech, the circuit in a bass is pretty simple.

Of all my suggestions, I would probably go with putting the treble and bass on a stacked pot and adding a passive tone control. It's been a while since I've had a TRB on my bench, but if they still have that big circuit board with all those tl062 opamps, then even changing a pot may be a bit awkward. And if memory serves, the pickups are buffered individually, so adding a passive tone control may also not be so straight forward - electronically, or physically...

Another thing you could try is to bypass the active buffers and replace the blend with a passive type blend pot. Just loading the pickups in this way up will warm the bass up in a nice natural way. Again, for a circuit like this, you really need to know what you are doing though...
 

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