Yamaha RBX765A Translucent Green (used ebay purchase)

[markytbass]

I had been looking for a cheap 5 string for a few weeks and after being out bid a few times the Yamaha popped up on ebay. I have always been a bit cautious about buying on-line let alone ebay. I prefer to play a bass before buying it as one mans very good condition could be anothers adverage. The bass came on with bids starting at £80 or a "buy it now" of £110 with £20 P&P. I thought about it for about 20 mins, found some on-line reviews etc, threw caution to the wind and hit "buy it now".

After unwrapping the bass the first thing I noticed was how dirty it was. It looked like someone had eaten their dinner off it the Elite strings had rust spots as did the gold coloured hardware. The description said "very good condition as hardly used" but I would say well used in adverage condition needs a clean and set up. Despite this I think I got the bass for a good price.

On cleaning I found out how thin the gold colour is on the hardware and even with a little polish I was soon through to the silver underneath. I unscrewed the neck and cleaned it up, lightly sanding the back then applying some beeswax polish front and back. Whilst the neck was off I noticed a shimm (2 thin strips of plastic 5mm X 50mm) in the neck pocket, so I took them out. I could always put a shimm back in if required.With everything clean and back together I fitted some new Elite Stadiums, gave it a good set up and fitted a new battery.

Now I can finally play the bass. First impressions the neck is sweet, at the nut it's not much wider than my Stingray and the string spacing at the bridge is about the same as the Ray. The neck I find easy, its not too wide like some I have played. On other 5 string basses a narrow neck sometimes means narrow string spacing but in my opinion Yamaha have got it spot on. The bass balances well on the strap. The longish top horn means that it sits back so you are closer to the nut. This and the contoured body make it a comfortable bass to play.

Soundwise it has a read beafy low end. Bridge pickup only, has a slight naisal sound but still has plenty of bottom. Both together and I get a similar sound to the Stingray. Neck only, gives you a P'bass sound and the 2 band eq lets you fine tune. The cortrols are master volume, pan pot with a centre click to have either pickup or a blend of the two. The other two controls are bass and treble which also have the centre click.

All in all I think I've found a great bass I'd give it an 8/10 overall. The only thing letting it down is the quality of the gold finish on the hardware, but I can live with that. Even the translucent green isn't as gareish as it looked in the photos and it has a nice grain in the veneer top. The other problem I'm having is putting it down, I can't stop playing. I will be taking it to the open mic night on Monday night to play it in anger and see how well it copes and cuts through. I will try and get some photos up later and give an update after playing it live.

Cheers.

Edited March 1, 2008 by markytbass

[Rich]

Nice review
I have an RBX765A too, it's a great bass... was my main 5 stringer for years. I hear ya about the quality of the 'gold' plating, however the hardware is easy to upgrade... I recently bought a new bridge for mine off eBay, [url="http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Players-Bass-Bridge-405-5-String-Chrome_W0QQitemZ130175608892QQihZ003QQcategoryZ41407QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem"]one of these [/url]in fact (only gold, obviously)... dead easy to fit and about 1,000,000,000 times better than the original, AND the finish is better too.

[markytbass]

Thanks for the pointer Rich. I'll be looking for a bridge and tuners to upgrade in the non too distamt future.

Cheers