Yamaha TRBX604 4-String Flamed Maple Bass Guitar, Matte Amber

I am a novice player, with 4 basses now (Fender, Ibanez, Schecter), but kept reading many articles about this bass. It was on my list for a while and it arrived 2 days ago. I bought the black gloss, which has a tiger maple look under the gloss-and I view this as beautiful. The bass is heavier than my others and has some neck drop, but the controls are all spot on sensitive and adjustable to what sound/tone I am looking for. The piece arrived with round wound strings and I prefer tape wound and am switching them out. Even so, the action is smooth; the bass tone is throaty with the round wounds. The active/passive switch still has me a bit puzzled, but I am liking the passive sound a bit more at the early stage, as the tone is more passive-not as bold. I adjusted the action just a little bit closer to the fretboard and got a clean and throaty sound. The pickups are spaced far enough apart that the controls do adjust between them nicely; that is, in center toward the neck more or more toward the action end. They are indeed sensitive, more so than either of my fenders. The controls can be set in the middle/neutral or to cut or boost each , from bass to middle to treble. There is a pickup balance control as well and that is nice for the obvious. The master volume control has a lot of range built in, so I needed to spend a lot of time on my amp (Behringer BXL 3000) to reduce an echo effect. The bass is just strikingly beautiful. The back of the neck is a lighter maple and the body, the gloss black I chose, is stunning with the tiger maple faint striping (very faint but still distinct). I am thrilled with this bass and heartily recommend it. At the local guitar stores, comparable basses I have tried go for many hundred more, and didn't have the look or the sound this one does. Buy it.

As a keyboard player who thought about trying bass for years before finally taking the plunge I may not be the expert people should listen to, but this instrument is fantastic. The craftsmanship and quality jumps at you right from the box, the neck was straight, the saddle was perfect, and the frets are on the money. It's paired with a Fender Rumble 25 and I found it sounds great with the knobs all just about midway. I am looking forward to learning more about what this bass can do and toying with the sounds as well as the 'active' switch, but as it is currently set I chuckle somewhat when I play the few riffs and exercises I know as it sounds like there is a professional bass player in my basement. There are a lot of great beginner basses out there for half the money, and I have access to half a dozen basses including a Squier Affinity and Ibanez SR500, which sound great as well. But if you're going to spend the hundreds of hours it takes to learn to play the bass the right way, the Yamaha is well worth it and makes learning from scratch a ton easier.

Everything about this bass guitar is perfect for a beginner/intermediate player. My only complaint is rather minor: the nut needed to be slightly "sanded" by strings in order to prevent a slight buzz from occurring on certain frets. Easily fixed, sounds great! Looks beautiful too!

Arrived wrapped very well, original package inside an Amazon package. Arrived flawless. GREAT bass.

Glad I know how to setup a bass. The neck relief, intonation and string height was way off. Also pickup height was way off. Sounds great and neck feel is good