[Josh plays guitar]
Josh: Hey there. I'm Josh with BassBuzz and
if you're in the market for your first bass,
you've come to the right place. Me and two
other professional bass players are taking
seven beginner level basses through their
paces and this is bass number six in our series.
We're looking at the Yamaha TRBX304. This
is a little bit more expensive than any of
the other basses we've looked at so far. So,
in this video, we're gonna start finding out,
do you get what you pay for. Is a more expensive
bass, necessarily, worth of the money. Let's
find out.
[Background Music]
Gia: [Plays guitar] The neck is really really
narrow and I like that for some things, but
not for other things.
Josh: Hmm.
Gia: I like it for playing chords.
Josh: Mm-hm.
Gia: And I like it for playing quick stuff,
but I don't like it for like, big fat dig
in, just groovy stuff.
Ben: Feels good. Yeah. Pretty tight string
tension. [Plays guitar] Neck feels great.
I don't like it. It's kinda flat and narrow.
Definitely easy to get from string to string,
but feels like, the spacing is appropriate.
It's not really tight.
Josh: There're some really good stuff going
for this neck. First of all, it's the only
bass we've looked at that has a composite
neck which is something you see a lot in higher
quality basses and not a lot in the cheaper
basses. Also, we've got a 24-fret neck which
[plays guitar] I love. I do have one complaint
which I've already talked about in previous
videos. This cutaway starts at the end of
the 22nd fret which means that to get to those
top two frets, you gotta start reaching over
and you can't just slide your hand down like
you would anywhere else in the neck. That
really bugs me and I wish that manufacturers
including Yamaha but many other companies
would get the net on that and start their
cutaways at the end of the last fret. Also,
the way the frets are cut on the G-string
side here feels a little rough. It's not quite
sharp, but I definitely can feel the frets
as I slide my fingers across. So, that's something
I feel, like could be improved on too.
Gia: [Plays guitar] It's like what you actually
won, when you're like trying to dial in different
tones. Everything changes the sound and it
changes it in a way that's controllable and
noticeable.
Ben: [Plays guitar] Yeah. Neck position sounding
good. I mean, it was nice and solid. Pretty
well-balanced tone. Nothing really jumped
out to me about, you know, the articulation
dynamic of it, but it was good. It was just
a balanced sound. The bridge position definitely
[plays guitar] added that necessary quack
to it which was nice. It seems to have actually
a lotta dynamic to it, as opposed to the first
position. There seems to be -- if I play harder,
I get more quack. If I play less --
Josh: Hmm. Right.
Ben: [Plays guitar] That's not just treble.
It's definitely the pickup. [Plays guitar]
Yeah. Nice bass tone, actually really nice.
You know, it doesn't have a specific sound,
I wouldn't say, other than -- you know, the
tone is tight, but still bassy, more like
the articulation from something like a sousaphone
or a tuba, as opposed to like a P-bass or
a J-bass topic.
Josh: Tone wise, this instrument has some
really great stuff going on. We're definitely
looking at some higher quality electronics
here which you would hope for, for the little
bit extra money compared to the other basses
we've looked at. Really, I think it sounds
kind of the way it looks. It's got -- it doesn't
have a naturally, like warm vintage-y sound.
It sounds like the bass has a little bit of
a natural scoop to the tone, so there's a
lot of bottom and some nice treble definition,
but maybe a little bit missing in the lower
mids which for me is actually not my favorite
cause I like a lot of low mids and punchiness.
But when you're dealing with higher quality
equipment, I think stuff starts to get a little
bit more subjective. So, our spread on the
tone on this was kind of in the three to four
or maybe four and a half range between the
three of us. So, it's definitely a lotta good
tone options on this instrument.
Ben: Comfort's good. The weight's nice, kinda
in-between, not too heavy, not too light.
It seems to sit and stay which is pretty cool
where some other ones are a little bit lighter,
tend to slide around a little bit.
Josh: Hmm. Comfort wise, this bass is great.
The neck balances really well. The body's
just the right weight, not too heavy, not
too light. I really like the way the contours
shaped over here for my particular torso.
It's fitting on my body really well and I
also -- I like these little thumb pockets
on the pickups. I've never seen that before.
I don't -- I'm not used to it, you know. If
I owned this bass, I would probably use it
a lot more, but at this point I just like
it. I think it's a cute idea.
Ben: [Plays guitar] Slap tone's really good.
Really well-balanced, super punchy. That's
my -- definitely the sound I like is a punchier
tone. Once again, like I mentioned before,
it seems to be -- if I play really hard, I
get a nice tone out of it as opposed to it
pushing the pickup too hard one way or the
other.
Josh: Uhh.
Ben: The attack given by my hand is much more
dynamic than some of the other pickups.
Gia: [Plays guitar] Yeah. This one was probably
the most versatile. I would say five on versatility.
Josh: Nice.
Gia: This is my first five.
Josh: Yeah.
Gia: That's exciting.
Josh: All right. Let's get the big reveal.
Ben: Hmm.
Josh: Gentlemen, you know what to do.
Ben: Let's take a look and see. Hey! So, kind
of makes sense when, you know, I was saying
I wasn't really familiar exactly where the
tones. We're looking at two humbucker pickups.
Josh: Yeah.
Ben: So, between each one, you know, even
though I heard a lot of differences, dynamically,
I definitely was hearing things that I wouldn't
have heard typically from the neck pickup
that I really liked.
Josh: Mm-hm.
Ben: And vice-versa for the bridge pickup.
So, I'd say that the shape of the body and
the feel is not exactly my favorite.
Josh: Yeah.
Ben: But, you know, not a lot to put up with,
when you got such a cool playing instrument
that sounds this good.
Josh: It's time to take the blindfold off.
Gia: [Makes noise] Yeah!
Josh: So, this is the Yamaha TRBX304, 304
in English.
Gia: [Laughs]. [Plays guitar] I like the look
of It. Rugged knobs, look at that. I don't
know if you can see that spikies on those
knobs, but that's --
Josh: Yeah. Keep intruders away.
Gia: Yeah. Overall, this was a good one. I
don't have any major complaints on this one.
This one was really fun to play and I had
probably the most sounds that we were able
to do, so.
Josh: So, again, the Yamaha TRBX304 is a little
bit more expensive than the other basses we
looked at. This retails for around $350 these
days, whereas a lot of the other basses are
more around $200-$250. So, do you get what
you pay for? Is this bass a lot better than
the other basses we've looked at? I'd say,
in some ways, definitely. There's no question
that these are better pickups, quality wise
than we've seen in any other bass. So, if
you have the money, it's probably worth going
around three or four hundred dollars for a
bass in the sense that you just get better
stuff on the bass. You know, manufacturers
can't afford to put nice pickups into a $200
instrument. That said, I do feel there are
some ways this instrument can be improved.
There are some fun sounds to be found with
the selector switch, but for me, it's a little
too complex to have. You've got master volume,
blend for the pickups, then bass and treble
booster cut and then the 5-way selector.
It just feels like a bit much, especially
for what's basically an entry-level instrument
at $350. What I would prefer for this bass
is to ditch this whole selector idea and just
go with a 3-band active EQ for bass mid and
treble and that would let me maybe get rid
of that little mid scoop feeling that I'm
having. I might actually be able to get the
sound I want outta this bass, if I could just
do a little mid boost on the active EQ, but
right now it's just bass and treble. So, Yamaha,
I think you're off to a great start. There's
a lot of really good things about this bass.
Personally, I would go with a 3-band active
EQ, ditch this and get better access to the
24th fret with a cutaway here. But really
great bass. I would say it's definitely a
contender for the top spot in our shootout.
So, we've got one more bass to review, the
next video and then we'll be picking our favorites
and seeing who wins the best beginner bass
competition.
If you're watching this on YouTube, go ahead
and go to bassbuzz.com for more info, if you
wanna know tech specs or more about the construction
quality, how everything arrived out of the
box with the setup and the strings and how
the hardware looked and also learn more about
our review methodology. So, I'll see you in
the next review video.
[Background Music]
