Terry M.

Can't play with my rings on,too uncomfortable both physically and mentally. Even my watch has to come off.

https://thebassgallery.com/collections/bass/products/ernie-ball-music-man-5 I've actually played this bass in the store and believe me when I say my recently acquired used Ray35 is no worse. It's hard to look at this price tag after that.

No worries Steve. Good luck with the quest 😀

Hi Steve. No problem at all. To answer your question I don't think it's anything to worry about too much. What's interesting here is the TRBX you tried and the TRB have identical fretboard radius' (23 5/8"). The fact that you don't recall the fretboard feel on the RBX probably means you didn't have an issue with that aspect of the bass. If you can go and check out the TRB bear in mind it has a 35" scale neck. I've noticed on Yamaha.com that that it is now discontinued.

You know you won't regret it based on your personal experience.

I'll go as far to suggest that the price difference flatters the US made ones somewhat when you actually consider what you get with the Ray34/5s.

I have to agree with this. I've had a few US Stingray 5s in the past and took delivery of a used first gen Ray35 just this week. As far as I'm concerned I now have a Stingray 5 with a different logo and made in Indonesia. Looks feels and sounds JUST like the real thing to me.

Hi Steve, Speaking of sub £500 5 string basses that I would go for I've just taken delivery of a used first generation SBMM Ray35 in the natural ash finish. I've had "real" US 5 string Rays before so am able to make a reasonable comparison:these Ray35s are Stingrays through and through! I know these might not be your thing especially with the 17.5mm string spacing but I love the Stingray tone but not the £2k+ price tag on some of the EBMM Rays that preceded the 2018 Stingray Special range. As far as I'm concerned I have a Ray for less than 1/4 of the price of some used USA examples ☺️

Hi Steve. I tried an 845 once when it was still in production but it had the BH2 Barts which really wasn’t my thing but,what's interesting is the replacement 945 has Nordstrand Big Single pickups which IS my thing. I'm wondering if the sheer body size along with the longer scale length and possible marketing towards the metal genre has made them somewhat niche 🤔 Don't rule out the 705 however as in my experience it almost played itself and sounded good doing it. I've noticed Ibanez have removed the 705 from their website now.

Hi Steve so for current production/more recent stuff I've tried the same bass (805MS) in the original transparent gray flat colour,the 705LM and the 605LM. All fanned fret and all using the T1 pickups. Long story short I've been very impressed with ALL of them. Those T1 pickups to me sound REALLY good. I think like you the far eastern licenced Barts do very little for me if anything. The T1s I would describe as a game changer. All 3 basses were ultra playable and the fanned frets took me all of 10 seconds to get used to. The 805 had the longest B string at 37" if that's important.

Yes it's a NAMM 2026 release. Andertons have one as per below link: https://www.andertons.co.uk/ibanez-btb805ms-fnl-5-string-multi-scale-bass-guitar-florid-natural-low-gloss/ Ibanez definitely could do with more exciting finishes like this in my opinion.

Steve do you like the Florid Natural Low Gloss Finish? The colour specifically not necessarily the bass

I'm not talking about Yamaha basses in general. I'm a fan of the brand but specifically the TRBX605FM wasn't the one for me from a feel point-of-view. If that model works for you that's great.

It felt poorly assembled and didn't give me any confidence it would last too long. Really lacked "substance" in my hands. As you may have read previously my reference points are two German made Warwicks.

Being London-based I was in Yamaha Music on Wardour Street two Sundays back and tried...a TRBX605FM. It did nothing for me,felt ever so flimsily built. I would pick either of the Japanese TRB5 (MK1 vs MK2) models however. They look and feel different but I like them equally. In fact visually the slap-cut contour on the MK1 isn't to my taste so maybe not so equal after all...