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Yamaha TRB in metal?

#62
Kauczukowe_Jajo said:
I like flat and wide necks. I heard some not very good things about this preamp, but it can't be bad.
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I think it's something inherent to many modern Yamaha basses (at least all the models I've tried in the store as well as the trb1005J and 1006J I own/owned), they all tend to sound quite bright and brittle to me, but I have a vintage BB5000 too and that one doesn't seem to have the same problem, it's really punchy and solid sounding. So maybe this problem I mentioned is not a preamp problem, but a characteristic of how they're constructed. And in that case, it's good that there's an on board preamp on the trb1005j to adjust for that. But I can't say whether the preamp itself is good or not without changing out the preamp on this bass for comparison.
 
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#65
iTzPrime said:
A friend of mine got a used Yamaha (you can find them for around 500, i am from Austria - so used market in Poland should be similar) and put EMG's in there and the EMG Preamp. Cost him all in all around 900 bucks and you can even hear his bass in a grindcore and blackmetal band ;D
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How did he managed to put the EMG pickups in? The pickup cavities have weird size, but I'm glad that someone did it :D
 
#67
iTzPrime said:
he took the emg out of their pickup cavities and put it in the yamaha one ;D
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I put Bartolinis in mine and had to cut little pieces of ebony to fit into the gaps that the OE pickups left. Like I said, all the Yamaha elex are totally bespoke.

Burying the aftermarket pickup into the OEM cover is a great idea that I didn't think of though.
 
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#70
Kauczukowe_Jajo said:
There are no non custom pickups for this size?
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Mine was a TRB5, probably built around 1995 give or take. Design may have changed. Its pickup covers were very much wider than the pickup electronics inside were. Each pickup had a little plastic "wing" on either side of it, which was the space left empty by the Bartolinis, which were standard humbucker size.

There seemed to be no reason to design the pickup cover that way, and I am unaware of any other builder who does it. So, I'd be very surprised if there are any aftermarket choices.

Having said that, installing the little ebony pieces in the gaps was no big deal; I just had to find a guy with a good enough saw to cut them properly.
 
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#71
Altitude said:
Mine was a TRB5, probably built around 1995 give or take. Design may have changed. Its pickup covers were very much wider than the pickup electronics inside were. Each pickup had a little plastic "wing" on either side of it, which was the space left empty by the Bartolinis, which were standard humbucker size.

There seemed to be no reason to design the pickup cover that way, and I am unaware of any other builder who does it. So, I'd be very surprised if there are any aftermarket choices.

Having said that, installing the little ebony pieces in the gaps was no big deal; I just had to find a guy with a good enough saw to cut them properly.
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Thank you for your answer! :) That's pretty weird. Can you use the pickups without filling this holes?
 
#74
Kauczukowe_Jajo said:
I'm sorry that I ask so much questions :D Is it hard to change the pickups? You need to drill some holes?
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Unless the holes on the new pickups align with the ones from the old, yes. But of far more complexity are the connections to the preamp. Hooking a passive pickup on a P-bass to a volume and tone pot is something a guy with a soldering iron can try out on a Saturday morning and not screw up too badly. Connecting a set of active pickups to a preamp is much more involved and there are opportunities to fry some of the electronics along the way.

Also, in my case the OEM Yamaha pickups and preamp were obviously built to work together and only together - it seemed impractical to replace the pickups and not the preamp. The same may be true for you.

Candidly, if I were you and wanted to switch out electronics on that bass, I'd find a shop to help me do it.
 
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#75
Altitude said:
Unless the holes on the new pickups align with the ones from the old, yes. But of far more complexity are the connections to the preamp. Hooking a passive pickup on a P-bass to a volume and tone pot is something a guy with a soldering iron can try out on a Saturday morning and not screw up too badly. Connecting a set of active pickups to a preamp is much more involved and there are opportunities to fry some of the electronics along the way.
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Yeah, I've read about this. The preamp works only with original pickups, but the pickups can be wired to other preamp like singles, because they have a "dummy coil" that eliminate some noise, but they don't work with other preamps.
 
#76
If you need any more proof of Yamaha making "metal-worthy" bass tone, perhaps this will be enough for you. John Myung's first signature Yamaha, the RBXJM, had, in my opinion, the most incredibly gnarly bass tone for rock and metal. Dream Theater is progressive metal, so they certainly have their moments. Jump to 2:40, and see what I mean:



Or maybe this (jump to 1:46):

 
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#77
songwriter21 said:
If you need any more proof of Yamaha making "metal-worthy" bass tone, perhaps this will be enough for you. John Myung's first signature Yamaha, the RBXJM, had, in my opinion, the most incredibly gnarly bass tone for rock and metal. Dream Theater is progressive metal, so they certainly have their moments. Jump to 2:40, and see what I mean:



Or maybe this (jump to 1:46):

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That's a great tone :o His older signature (not the RBXJM2) had the Yamaha pickups.
 
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#78
Kauczukowe_Jajo said:
That's a great tone :oops: His older signature (not the RBXJM2) had the Yamaha pickups.
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Yup, and the only thing that maybe comes close, is his current EB Bongo bass. I've played the latter on stage, though, and it sucked ass, both tone and action-wise. The EB tone is just too "airy" and open for my tastes, while the Yamaha is like a freight train from Hell, with playability to rival a guitar.
 
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