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Jon Dinham

Joined: 28/12/10
Posts: 19
Loc: Bristol, England

Yamaha Bass?
#958005 - 08/12/11 10:57 PM

Hiya everyone, i am joining a band and i need to buy a bass guitar. I think yamaha make good bass guitars so what is the main difference between the RBX374, RBX270 and RBX170? Or is Yamaha not the right make? I can afford up to about 280 pounds but i'd like to spend the least possible.

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twotoedsloth

Joined: 26/01/08
Posts: 459

Re: Yamaha Bass? new

[Re: Jon Dinham]
#958043 - 09/12/11 02:33 AM

Go to the store with a friend, and tell him your price range. Have your friend bring you all of the basses that fit in your budget, but make sure he doesn't tell you the prices. Play the basses, all of them, and then pick the one you like the most. Don't even consider the relative price or the badge on the instrument.

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SecretSam
active member

Joined: 29/10/02
Posts: 1492
Loc: Officially, I do not exist.

Re: Yamaha Bass? new

[Re: Jon Dinham]
#958046 - 09/12/11 07:07 AM

I can't comment on the current Yamaha range, but I do have a couple of their basses, bought years ago (Japan-made BB5000A and Taiwan-made BB5000AF).

They play well, sound good and are very well made. Because Yamaha doesn't seem to have the cachet of some other brands (beats me why not; they make great instruments of every kind), their secondhand values tend to be low, so you can get professional-grade instruments for not a lot of money if you look around.

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grab

Joined: 08/07/07
Posts: 2626
Loc: Cambridge, UK

Re: Yamaha Bass? new

[Re: Jon Dinham]
#958104 - 09/12/11 11:08 AM

Friend had a bad experience with a Yamaha bass that had active EQ. Ate batteries. I finally took it apart and found that they'd painted the inside of the electronics compartment with conductive paint which was shorting the battery out bcos they'd wired the jack's switched connection wrong. Also the nice glittery plates on headstock and body weren't glued on very well and came unstuck after a bit. And the tailpiece was slightly too far up the body so it physically wasn't possible to adjust the bottom-E bridge to be correctly intonated.

On the plus side, tone was pretty good.

Washburn are also worth looking at, in this kind of price range.

Main thing to check is what pickup type works for you - do you want the low-down rounded grunt of a humbucker, or do you want a bit more zing? Only way to find this out is by playing a few.

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