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NBD: A coincidental Yamaha TRB purchase...or not?


BassAgent
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The year is 2001. 11-year-old me is at the local music shop to buy my very first fretless bass. There are two available. One is a Yamaha RBX270F, basically the fretless version of the RBX170 I started out on, 2 years earlier. The other one is an amber coloured Yamaha TRB 5IIF I instantly fall in love with. Even at my age I immediately feel: this is it. This is the one. I want this bass.

 

But the TRB is over twice as expensive as the RBX and the RBX is also pretty cool (because it’s black, you know how it goes). So I got the RBX. No problem, I’m happy with my bass.

Two years later I buy my first fretless Fender bass. The wish for a TRB was still there. I had a fretted one (also amber), I had a defretted version of the TRB I (the one with the slap cut), but never that one. The amber coloured, fretless one.

 

Fast forward to late 2022. I visit Dutch bass player Phaedra Kwant for a second episode of my podcast Basgasten. We chat a bit after the recording, and happen to stumble upon the subject of the fretless TRB. She says “well, I have a fretless amber coloured TRB that I bought from that very shop around that time. And I still have it.”

So she gets the bass and hands it to me. And I feel immediately: this is it. The one that got away. So I ask Phaedra to pleeeaaase think of me first should she ever sell it.

 

And then it’s December 2023. I get a text message: “Hey man! How’s life? I’m seriously considering selling the fretless TRB. Are you still sentimentally interested?”

 

And so, this morning, I went to Phaedra’s studio and take home the bass I wanted to take home almost 23 years ago. And it’s still as amazing as it was 23 years ago.

 

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Wow what a cool story! I don’t think I was playing bass at 11 let alone have known what fretless bass is. 
 

I hope to have this experience one day. There are two basses that “got away”. One was a Ken Smith at bass direct that eventually ended up in the hands of a very lucky BCer and the other was a one off Philipe Dubrielle jazz type bass which I’ve never seen again.

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It is always great when such things come in full circle. These 2nd gen TRBs are incredibly well made and great sounding instruments, I used to have a fretted amber 5er and a red 6er which I used quite extensively at a certain point. 

I tend to think that selling the red was a mistake but then again I was gravitating towards tighter spacing and more compact basses (Spector) so it made sense at the time but the sentimental me still thinks of that bass from time to time 🙂

 

 

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1 hour ago, TheGreek said:

TRBs must be (one of) the most under-rated, and consequently the most underpriced basses in the used bass marketplace. 

I don't play mine anywhere near enough but that's true of all of them. 

Well yes and no: the prices are going up in recent years. They're around 700-1000 euros now, sometimes even more. But around 13 years ago I struggled to sell mine for 450...

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There's a 6 string on gumtree at the moment for £750. 

 

https://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrument/yamaha-6-string-bass/1472796217

 

There was a 5er for £500 last week,  seems to have sold.

Bargains do come up,  normally when I'm skint, just being in the right place at the right time, I suppose. 

Edited by TheGreek
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