ltownbass

Double post, sorry

Bit late to the party but I also put both pickups close to the strings to beef up the j sound. I just raise the p to balance the with the j sound.

My oh my. I like that

I'm not sure if the pickups are the same but the combination of both pickups and preamp is not the same. The circuit is available for both preamps and they are definitely different circuits (one takes a piezo pickup input) but there is no indication that one should be higher quality than the other from the circuit diagrams: That's just from my experience. The centre detents are more pronounced on the TRB5pii and the pot shafts are grey, not black. It doesn't prove anything but indicates that they are different. Another point is that the preamp on TRB5ii stops working when the battery is at about 6.5v but the TRB5pii keeps going until about 4.5v. Again, this just indicates that they are different and all that I have said about better sound quality is just from experience. I agree, but I believe they do it to increase the appeal of their more expensive basses or to decrease the appeal of their cheaper one. My EBS effects pedals have a switch from active to passive and it seems to increase the input gain. It may well be changing the impedance rather than input gain but I'm afraid I don't know for sure. I own both and the TRB5pii is louder. Please see the attached specs from the Yamaha website. The phrase humcanceled single coil doesn't prove my point but I think that they would say humbuckers if they genuinely are "just humbuckers". Sorry to the original poster because I didn't want to distract from the point of the thread. Just to summarise: I would only recommend the TRB if you can be bothered to upgrade the electronics because they are likely to leave you wanting. You won't get the high end snap that people like for slap. If you are willing to upgrade everything then try saving some money by buying a second hand one. Woodwork and fret work on Yamahas is exceptional so you'll get a bass that feels great. If you're concerned about the tuners or bridge on the Yamaha, don't be because they are excellent.

Yamahas have great build quality so TRB will play like butter. The Cort will be probably be good but not as good. However, Yamaha seem to deliberately downgrade the electronics of their cheaper basses and this has the same preamp and pickups as the Japanese made TRB5ii. I own both a TRB5ii and a TRB5pii and the electronics are noticeably better in the TRB5pii. The sound of the TRB5pii is excellent and bright and the EQ works brilliantly but the TRB5ii sounds a bit dull and the EQ is less effective. The TRB5ii (and TRB1005) is also no louder than a loud passive bass whereas the TRB5pii is very loud, as you'd expect from an active bass. The TRB5ii also has a very weak detent on the blend, treble, mid and bass controls, which annoyed me at first but I put stickers on the knobs and I don't mind so much any more. The TRB5pii doesn't have any problem with the centre detents. Unfortunately, you will only get electronics like the TRB5pii in a BBEast or John Patitucci TRB, which around £2000. The electronics are not easy to upgrade in the TRB line because all of the electronics are housed on a single circuit board so you cannot upgrade one bit at a time. The dummy coil on the pickups will only work with the TRB preamp unless you're willing to reverse-engineer the circuitry. If you do replace the electronics, you'll also need to chisel some of the wood in the cavity because the panel is very thick and only accommodates the TRB preamp. The blend control is active on the TRB1005 which gives an incredibly smooth transition from one pickup to the other but unfortunately means that you can't simply add a passive switch without bypassing blend. I've attached a picture of the impenetrable circuit board preamp just in case you're interested. I'm certain that the TRB has better build quality and will feel absolutely fantastic under your fingers but the sound is probably better on the Cort. In my opinion, Yamaha should just bite the bullet and put their good electronics in 1005, 1004 etc. and just charge another £150 and they'd have such a killer bass for the price. It's such a shame. Regards

Any nut will be okay but you'll probably find that it's too wide and the string slots don't go deep enough or the nut is too tall but it will work okay. You can sand it down to the correct width yourself and deepen the string slots if required. If you get a luthier to fit it, he/she will use a blank (i.e. one with no string slots), cut it to size and file in some string slots of the right depth for you.