lucatus Posted March 12, 2018 Share Posted March 12, 2018 Hi guys, I'm a very lucky owner of 3 different TRB Yammi basses. I've been using them for years on many different things live but recently I got a bit disappointed with their performance in studio. The TRB P is great for my proggy band and my mates have sworn to kill me if I ever get rid of it. However, recording our album it was very noisy, to the point that we ended up tying a cable from the bridge to my toe (true) to stop the noise. On another studio, recording some rocky songs as well, the sound engineer just ended up handing me a Musicman. The other two also sound and feel great live, but again in studio I feel them a bit limited, not managing great definition from either. Don't get me wrong, I personally love the sounds I get from them. I'm just wondering what can you guys tell me about your experiences using this lovely basses in recording sessions, if you found them limited for some jobs and if you have upgraded the pups or preamps at some point. I tend to use roundwound nickels on all of them, in case you wonder, and I've done mostly rocky stuff, at some points some jazzyish funk and electronica. Note for the moderators, if this is not the right forum, apologies. Cheers Pablo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Bass Posted March 13, 2018 Share Posted March 13, 2018 I have two TRB's, a 5P-II and a 5P. They're different beasts in tone and the 5P-II is my go-to bass as i can get any sound i want from it. Both are dead silent all original so my best bet is that your basses just need some maintenance to get rid of noises. You should have the electronics cleaned and checked, new quality batteries aplied and since you're at it you can cover the electronics and pickup cavities with graphite paint or copper foil and wire the bass's ground to it, it will help you get rid of ground noises and will add some shielding to it against RF interference. I haven't had to do it in any of my Yammis yet but i did it on a Ken Smith i owned wich had a bit of grounding noise. Painted the cavity with graphite spray (over an existing gold coloured paint of the same type that had soaked in to the wood with time) and hooked a wire from the electronics ground to the paint with a small wood screw, that bass became silent after that. Don't forget to take a look at the jack as it may become old, oxidized and loose with time, it will affect the signal also. If you don't have definition from those basses you must be doing something wrong with your EQ, possibly cutting the mids. TRB's are full/extended range basses very well balanced in their tone. Soloed they may give you the impression that their tone is a bit sterile without the personal character that some other brands have but it works a treat in the mix. Try recording them with flat EQ with the desired pickup configuration for the tone you want and leave all the tone shaping for the tech in production. Use fresh strings for recording, i like the d'addario prosteels with the 5P-II and the Nickelwounds with the 5P. I belive the references are EPS170-5SL and EXL170-5 respectively. Hope it helps, if not you can allways sell them to me! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucatus Posted March 13, 2018 Author Share Posted March 13, 2018 Thanks, that's certainly on the list! Out of curiosity, with the 5-II, what's your setting for the trim pots in the rear cavity? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Bass Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Can't remember from memory, it was a long time ago that i did it after buying it, i know that i had them set to match the volume of the piezzo with the pickups and put the most amount of gain possible whilst keeping everything balanced. In all honesty, i can't even remember right now what those trim pots are for, hehehe I'll have to take out the backplate of mine soon as i'm going to replace the jack so i'll take a look at the trim pots and post my settings here afterwards. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_Bass Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 Serched a little and found what they do in mine. From the web: Quote The trim pots on the TRB series are adjustments for the hum-cancelling coils. Yamaha's TRB soapbars have a hum-cancelling coil whose output actually slightly outstrips the "speaking" coil. By adjusting the two trimpots, you adjust the level of that second coil for each pickup so that the humbucking coil matches the speaking coil in output, thus completely cancelling noise on that pickup. I see you have earlier models of the TRB, mine has 2 trim pots and are for this exact reason, to balance the "phantom" coil or whaterver it's called with the pickups to eliminate noise. Take out your backplate (post some pics here of your electronics in each bass) and rotate the trim pots with the bass plugged in and see if you notice any difference. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lucatus Posted March 14, 2018 Author Share Posted March 14, 2018 Yes, I always have them 3/4 into the 'humbucking' side of things as I'd like to get some more output from it without going entirely into the more compressed humbucker sound. Still going to do more tinkering on the next rehearsals, though! Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.