Review : Yamaha TRBX 305 Bass
Hey bass friends! I recently reviewed a bass from Ibanez, one of the SR400 models. Feedback was decent, but a few folks felt that $769 was a bit rich for someone starting with bass or even looking for something of quality but keeping the cost of acquisition down. Fair enough. I also got a message from a young player who was well down the road to a five string, because his band was into drop tuning on their guitars and he wanted the ability to go lower than with the 4 string Squier he is playing now. He likes the Squier a lot, but wants lower notes. So with the help of the good people at The Arts Music Store, it was arranged to get me on short term evaluation a Yamaha TRBX 305 5 string bass that comes in at a lower price point. The TRBX 305 has a CAD MAP price of $499.99. although at the time of this writing, you can find them on sale sometimes.
TRBX 305 Specifications
This 5 string bass from Yamaha has a solid mahogany body, with a laminated maple and mahogany 5 piece neck for strength and stability. Even after travelling from the factory in Indonesia in a container, out of the box, the neck was perfect. The strings go to a straight pull nut / headstock and the tuners are really smooth.
In addition to straight through pull, the neck is well sized for people without monster mitts and will be very comfortable for folks of all sizes.
The bridge is a heavy duty unit with each string individually adjustable for action and intonation. The intonation was perfect out of the box, and the action was good, although I found it a bit low and raised it a full 1.5 turns on each saddle to eliminate all string buzz and to better support slap and pop style, as an action that is too low tends to cause the strings to bounce off the frets.
The laminated neck not only looks good, but plays great and is joined to the body with a proven four bolt system
The pickups are Yamaha’s own YGD Humbuckers with oversized pole pieces and ceramic magnets. This makes them both powerful and having a nice punch if you want it. Yamaha notes that the upper edge of the pickup has a thumb rest. I must confess I did not notice as my hand technique keeps my them up, unless I am slapping.
Pickups on the 304, the 305 as expected has an extra pair of pole pieces on each pickup
There are four potentiometers and what you may think is a pickup selector. Except it isn’t. What it is a rather cool preset EQ selector. The knobs are Master Volume, Pickup Blend, Bass and Treble. As the system is active, it requires a 9V battery that is easily accessed via a battery box door on the back.
The EQ switch offers five presets. They are :
Slap
Pick
Flat
Finger
Solo
You can see from the image below the preset EQ curves that they come with and as both the bass and treble controls are active, you have great flexibility in tuning the preset sounds. I will give Yamaha a lot of credit here. The presets are all, in my opinion, very well done and none have that over-cooked nature that we often encounter in presets.
Flat means no changes to the EQ curve. Finger and Solo are boosted in the low frequencies and have a rapid falloff after 1k to reduce finger slide and squeal noise. Both Pick and Slap are boosted at about 3k to put in some zing, but also are cut below 1k with a larger cut for Slap to help again reduce noise.
Playability
Yamaha does not disappoint. The balance of this bass is excellent and it fits all body sizes well. My gauge says it is a 34” scale, which is comfortable and the frets are medium width without being overly tall. It came with standard bass strings, and this is one place I would recommend a change, particularly for newer players. It takes a while to build calluses on regular bass strings, and for folks without, that can sometimes be painful and not fun, so if the player is newer to bass, or new to the calluses for bass, perhaps consider a set of flat wound strings when buying any new bass for that player. They are smoother and while you will build calluses, it will not be as painful and can also develop good fret hand form by not scaring away the use of the pinky finger.
The output jack is on the lower edge of the rear lower bout. The jack is mounted in a metal plate, but in my example, the plate had not been fully conformed to the shape of the body. I’m picking nits here I know, but you might have your seller check this before you take your bass home as it is not a difficult fix.
The knobs are very smooth and there is a detent on the pickup blend, the bass and the treble knobs to find the neutral position easily.
Sound
My initial tests were played through my Mark Bass CMD100 bass amp. The Mark Bass amps have a very punchy sound, but it also sounded just fine through my Traynor with the big 15” and also very nice through my Ampeg Micro CL-100 and 2x10 cabinet. Not overly boomy as can happen with a 5 string bass and without the treble getting bitey or brittle. I think it is a very versatile bass, and I see no reason why this would be a short term ownership kind of thing. You could spend more, but the TRBX 305 isn’t going to wear out or leave you left behind in any way that I can see. Just remember to unplug the cable when you are done playing as not doing so will kill the battery if left unattended for an extended period of time.
Samples
While I have a number of physical bass amps around here, in order to maximize the examples, I used the bass direct into my Kemper Stage for which I have a number of excellent sounding profiles. There are five samples here, they are all with both pickups selected, and both bass and treble neutral. The first three have volume at ten, the last two have volume at eight. The only post processing adds Universal Audio 1176 Rev A compressor before bouncing down to MP3. Each indicators the preset EQ setting on the bass.
1959 Fender Bassman 4x10 - Flat
Ampeg B15 - Flat
Mark Bass 500w - Flat
Darkglass B7K - Flat
TECH21NYC SansAmp - Slap
Eden 800 - Slap
Good To Go Kit
When getting started or even upgrading, there is often more to the success than just the bass, so I have decided to include a Good To Go recommendation kit. For this bass, here’s my kit list.
Yamaha TRBX 305 (or TRBX 304 if you want a four string)
Either a bass amp of reasonable solid state power greater than 50 watts for home, jams and small gigs, or a Bass DI box that goes straight to the PA. If an amp, the Ampeg Rocket 50, Fender Rumble 40 or MarkBass CMB121 are good choices. In physical amps, I personally like MarkBass and Ampeg, but note that they have very different sounds. Of course for portability a Spark Mini or Spark GO are unbeatable for sound and flexibility. If you decide to go with a DI box, this was done with basses long before guitarists started doing it. There are many out there but I will always lead with the EBS Microbass 3, and Manny recommends the newer Ampeg SGT-DI unit that emulates both an Ampeg B15 and Ampeg SVT and adds the Ampeg Super Grit Technology for a more driven sound. I have not had the chance to use this device but I trust Manny’s judgement. I like the drive side of the EBS Microbass 3 for the times I want a bit of preamp overdrive.
High quality cable - 20ft or less. Good cables last and are quiet. Cheap cables are a horror show. Consult your sales professional for their recommendation but I like cables from Pig Hog, Ernie Ball, Digiflex and D’Addario. Avoid coiled cables, they look cool to some but are noise factories.
Gig Bag - Hard cases are terrific until you actually want to take them anywhere. Unless you are in a band on the road, in which case a regular hard case won’t do the job, a well padded gig bag is ideal. In my experience, the Profile or house name bags are better built with more functionality than the guitar maker’s bag. Many guitars these days do not include a gig bag. Make sure that there are pockets for your tuner, any tools that came with the bass, like the truss rod wrench, a set of spare strings, and a string winder / trimmer.
Bass Stand - Hercules make the best stands but you can often get a house brand that will hold the guitar when it is not in its case and you are not holding it. Just make sure that whatever you choose if the hanger type extends long enough to handle the standard 34” bass scale length.
Bass Strap - Every bass needs a strap and every player, even sitting should use a strap. Gravity always works and a strap will save your guitar at some point. Lots of choices. Avoid fabric straps where the edges are sharp which hurts, Seat belt material is cheap, but the edges can be rough. I recommend real leather that has suede on the inside, which helps rein in instruments that are neck heavy. I do not like the fake leather or “vegan” straps as they are hot and sticky vinyl and develop an “interesting” aroma. My favourite straps come from Walker and Williams, and I like a wider strap for a bass guitar.
Tuner - No bass is complete without a tuner that goes with it all the time. Pedal tuners are great, but every player needs an in case tuner, and the Snark tuners are hard to beat. I prefer the cheaper models that take clock batteries as for the difference in price to the rechargeable unit, you can order a sheet of batteries from Amazon, or you may find a card of them in the shop from D’Addario priced very low. Do check in advance that your tuner can properly “hear” the low B string.
String Changing Tool - The D’Addario Bass tools are great. One tool has a string winder and a bass string cutter. Every bassist needs this as every bassist should learn to change his or her own strings. It’s not hard, and that quality guitar shop might even offer a free session on how to do string changes efficiently that you can attend live. Also, there will be about a zillion YouTube videos on the subject.
Wrapping Up
I like this bass a lot. The neck at the nut is narrow, more Jazz bass than P bass in width, albeit in the five string version. While I might prefer to not have an active system, they are pretty common in basses these days, so I would say that it sounds great, and just be sure to have a fresh spare battery in the gig bag. There is also a four string version, the TRBX 304 if you prefer that. I could not get my hands on one for this review, but from a construction and specs perspective it is identical to the 305 just built for four strings. Fit and feel are subjective things and that is why I always recommend visiting a real guitar shop if you can because a bass that doesn’t feel good, will not get played as much as one that does. For me, I would actually choose a TRBX 304 over the more expensive Ibanez SR400 based on fit and feel alone, but you need to decide what fits YOU best. In that, no review will tell you the right answer.
I was very impressed to find how little adjustment was needed right out of the box, and so long as you deal with a professional music store, they should deal with all issues before you leave. The one I used is finished in what Yamaha calls Factory Blue and the photograph does not do it justice. However, the bass is also available in a beautiful Candy Apple Red, as well as Mist Green, Black and White. If you are in Canada, consider shopping with The Arts Music Store as they ship Canada wide, if you cannot go to the physical store. If you are in the United States, please contact my friend James Ridings at Sweetwater.
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