Yamaha TRBX504 Bass Guitar - Translucent Black Reviews

I've been a musician for 40 years and this is one of my best instruments. Great tone and intonation. Feels awesome in my hands and music just flows through me into it. I love it and you probably will too.

I have gone through a handful of basses trying to find the right feel and versatility that I wanted, including 2 American made, high priced models which were both quite disappointing. All things considered, this Yamaha blows them away in every aspect, for 1/3 the price.
It is obvious that Yamaha really does their homework to produce high quality instruments. This bass sounds awesome, is about as versital as it gets with the active/passive switch and the eq, built with high quality components, is fairly lightweight and has a perfectly balanced feel. The slim neck design is incredibly comfortable and fast, I love the smooth satin finish of it versus painted or gloss necks, which tend to feel "sticky" to me. Between the awesomely designed pick ups and active EQ this thing produces phenomenal sounds. I play through a Fender Rumble v3 500 and it partners well with this bass.
To speak of Sweetwater, I don't think that I will ever buy another instrument elsewhere. Their customer service was amazing, the bass came on time, was packaged with care and was perfectly set up. I really liked the option of choosing the exact instrument that you want out of their stock and being able to view multiple pictures of each individual one before ordering. A nice touch was the sales assistant then sent me all of the studio pictures of the bass that I ordered via email, I know that's not a big deal, but I thought it was a cool touch. Bottom line is that I highly recommend this bass and just as highly recommend that you purchase it from Sweetwater if you want a fabulous experience. I hope someday to get down to their store, it looks incredible!

BUY THIS BASS NECK IS SLIM, SMOOTH AND FAST GREAT SOUNDING BASS YOU WON'T REGRET IT.LOVE THE PASSIVE&ACTIVE SWITCH! LIKE I SAY SWEET BASS!!!

Has a deep, punchy tone, yet bright enough to make your playing cut through the mix. The dual humbuckers have a unique sound to them, and you can get more tonal variety out of them than just on split-humbucker, like a p-bass. The active/passive switch is a great feature for a bass at this price point. Altogether this bass is very versatile and sounds much better than any other bass at this price point. Don't be afraid to buy Yamaha. This was my first Yamaha bass and I haven't regretted it. Even though I love the clear tone of a jazz bass, the TRBX model is a whole world of its own. Great quality!

I love this Bass. The sound is outstanding. The two modes (active and passive) are an extra feature that cannot be overlooked, specialty when playing at church or a concert. The neck is so smooth that is unreal the way it feels. In my humble opinion Yamaha has made one of their best bass line they have and will compete with the Fenders, Gibson and Ibanez. I think by far Sweetwater is the best online music store I have deal with. Also I wanted to thanks Ryan Darmos for all of help he provide me and for his professionalism was outstanding.

I bought the Yamaha TRBX504 as a back-up for my Ibanez SR1820 because the neck dimensions and overall shape of the basses are very similar. While quite not up to the Ibanez' overall fit and finish level (or price), this Yamaha is a very nice bass for the money. The finish on the Yamaha's body and neck is consistent and well done. The hardware is good quality. When it arrived, I had to correct the intonation on two of the strings. The string heights on the same two strings were also higher than they should have been, but they were easy to adjust. The tuning machine tension for all four tuners was a bit looser than I like, but they were easy to adjust too. Finding the tone I want on this bass is easy in both the passive and active modes. One of the things I especially like about this Yamaha is the way all three tone adjustments work at the same time when in the active mode. Ibanez, for example, makes you switch to the tone adjustment (low / mid / OR high) you want to the exclusion of the other two. Sweetwater sales associate David Mikautadze was excellent to deal with and Sweetwater's quick free shipping was a nice bonus.

I've had this tranny black TRBX 504 for a couple of weeks now, and I'm very satisfied with it. I had to tweak the saddles and pups to get it to have even output across the strings, but otherwise it came ready to play. No "sprouted" frets like the one hanging on the wall at GC. This Item # was listed at 8 lbs, but weighs 8lb 3oz on my scale (without battery or strap). Still, this is lightweight enough. I bought it for ergonomic reasons. After 40+ years my 10lb Stingray is just too much for my neck and shoulder. The 504's sculpted body is also a plus, allowing less bend in my right wrist. A couple of years ago I picked up a used RBX 260 and liked the neck width and the fact that it has 24 frets (need that for the bass riff in Magic Carpet Ride!), but after awhile the thickness of the neck started to cause pain in my arthritic thumb joint. The 504 neck is the same width but much thinner and very comfortable. While the body shape is very similar to the 260, the lower horn doesn't hook downward, so if I play seated I can swing the neck further away from my body before the horn digs into my leg. Although at first I wasn't excited about the appearance of the satin finish, it turns out that it's silky smooth to the touch and I now count this as a plus as well. Tonewise, I'm still diddling with the knobs but won't really know for sure how happy I'll be until I have it in a gig situation (house jams with somebody else's amp so far). The negatives are few and minor, worst being that the battery is "on" whenever a plug is in the output jack. I tend to play off and on all day many days, and would like to leave the bass plugged in all the time. I've broken more than one plug by accidentally dropping it on the hardwood floor. My solution in this case is to pop out the battery and switch to passive for practice (one reason I'm not further along with evaluating the active preamp). Another negative is the pop you get if you switch from passive to active after connecting to and turning on your amp. Perhaps this could be avoided with additional circuitry (and cost), but I expect Yamaha traded this negative against the positive of being able to switch (pop-free) from active to passive on the fly if the battery dies during a song. In any event, the pop can be avoided by muting your channel before switching on the preamp, or simply switching on the preamp before switching on your power amp. Lastly, the strings tend to go flat over several hours. I haven't looked into this - maybe the machines will tighten up as the grease dries a bit.

I love the satin feel of the body and neck and the low sheen flat matte black appearance. The black version seems to suck up light like a black hole. But the really important part is the sound. The tone is very nice and the electronics contribute greatly to the sound quality, with good quality pickups, an active/passive switch, and a three band EQ when in active mode. With proper knob twiddling, a huge range of tones can be achieved to complement any playing style or mood. The overall build quality is excellent. Everything was put together correctly and the frets were leveled so there is no fret buzz. The intonation was way off, as if the bridge was installed but never adjusted, but that was easy enough to correct and that's something that every bassist needs to know how to do anyway. The tuners hold the tuning fairly well.

Special thanks to Dontae. I placed my order online at 3:14 AM Sunday morning and Dontae called me at a little after 11 AM the same day to confirm the order and tell me it'd ship for free by FedEx on Monday and I'd have my new bass on Tuesday, and that's exactly what happened. The bass was packaged well, it arrived in perfect condition, and I've been enjoying it ever since. Sweetwater had the best price, and everyone knows they have the very best service. I mentioned Sweetwater's sweet service to a guitar playing friend and he told me, "My first order was for some strings and they treated me like I placed a thousand dollar order."

Bass is a daily hobby for me, meaning it is a huge part of my life, but not how I make a living. I wanted to give this bass a try since I was looking for another back up bass for when I send one of my main basses to my tech, break a string, etc. I was very surprised with the great tone and comfortable feel of this instrument. Very crisp and clean overall sound. Can't go wrong for the money, most bass guitars at this price are considered lower end. This is defiantly a great bass at this price.

I've been playing this daily for a couple weeks and enjoying myself immensely!

I read a few reports of issues with the active/passive switch, but for me it's worked every time, and silently--there's no pop when I toggle the switch.

The electronics must be well-shielded; I hear no hum in locations where my older (unshielded) bass picked up a lot of hum.

The only thing I can think of to complain about is a little hiss in active mode, most noticeable if the treble's boosted. The hiss goes away in passive mode.

I've verified that passive mode continues to work after the battery goes dead.

Out of the box all it needed was a little tuning and it was ready--action felt low, no fret buzz with my playing.

It feels comfortable. (I play mostly standing up with a strap.)

The controls give a good variety of usable sounds. (But my previous bass was a passive RBX260 with only a single P-style pickup and tone control, and I'll confess to not a lot of experience here.)

Had this bass for 3 weeks now. VERY nice bass for the money. Looks, feels, and plays like a bass that is easily in the $800-$1000 range. Frets feel very nice, smooth and no sharp edges. The matte finish is just awesome. No smudgey hand prints to worry about. Defiantly going to get some DR Hi-Beams as those strings feel and sound so much brighter than the strings that come with the bass. Passive mode sounds awesome! And when you dial in with the onboard EQ it can sound as bright or dirty as you want it!

Would have rated 5 star but the battery door is very flimsy and doesnt lock into place very well. I can see this door breaking or falling off. And with out it the battery will pop out.

Also..and this goes for any bass you buy...I will need to take it in to my local and have it set up properly

This bass is a GREAT intermediate level bass for anyone who gigs out regularly, but doesn't want to break the bank on a boutique bass. My current main squeeze is an original Yamaha TRB4P neck thru that I purchased new in 1992, and has been on over a thousand gigs and many recording sessions with me fairly exclusively. I have had various back up basses, but none I have enjoyed as much as the TRB4P. Along came the TRBX504 and I just had to check it out.

Although not quite the same feel as my TRB4P, it is still "familiar". The neck feels more like an Ibanez SR series neck, which while very different than the wide, flat TRB4P neck, is refreshing, fast and very easy to play, I'm assuming even for someone with small hands.

Because my TRB4P is active, I wanted an active bass that I can switch to without the need for EQ adjustments to my amp. The feature that I loved about this bass is the passive/active switch, which allows you to switch to passive mode if your battery dies. Just extra backup. It also has an LED light that warns you before your battery does die.

The 3 band EQ is very effective and this bass sounds very nice and has slightly more low end than my TRB4P. Highs sparkle and the mid control is perfect for that extra tweak.

At first, I was worried the finish would scratch easily, but after a few gigs, it seems fairly durable, although, the grain isn't AS visible through the stain as I expected, and in most light, appears solid brown. Aesthetically, this bass looks really cool in a stand and when you are playing it and is balanced well for sitting and standing. It's much lighter than my TRB4P and because the bridge is closer to the edge of the body, is shorter as well.

Of all of the bases in the $500 range, this one does give you a lot more bang/features/feel for your buck than most others even in a slightly higher price range. I've played basses going for $1,000 that don;t play or feel as good as this one and I'm definitely happy with my purchase.

I was super excited to get this bass and was very happy when I plugged it in for the first time. Sweetwater set it up perfectly and it played beautifully out of the box. It doesn't have the deep tones that my jazz has but I was expecting that. What I wasn't expecting was how terrible it is to play live. I'm in a rock cover band that plays a few gigs per month so I was looking for a second set bass to use when we play our harder covers. However, when I'm plugged into my amp or directly into the PA, the volume drops by half compared to my Fender Jazz. This makes using it at gigs tough because I need to make adjustments to the mixer prior to using it. Again, it plays beautifully. The neck is amazing and the action is perfect for our harder rock covers. In order to get it to sound like I need, I would have to invest the same cost of the bass. I will be returning it. As disappointed as I am in the bass, Sweetwater was amazing during the whole process.

looks amazing, sounds ok, feels average, not impressed. Strings have to be way too high for you to get a clear sound out of them. I've been doing this all my life, adjusting the neck, etc, is not the problem. I think the neck is very low quality. I have an acoustic bass i bought for a fraction of the price of this bass and the neck feels 100 times better, strings are way lower than they have to be in this bass, and i get a clear sound out of them. I was expecting a bigger difference in sound when going from passive to active, a big kick in active mode like I get with other active pickups, but i'm not getting it. After reading all the reviews, and watching all the videos about it on you tube, I was really looking forward to playing this bass, but not exited anymore. I guess i'll keep it for now, maybe i'll get used to it.