Yep, exactly what you should do on your Basses.
Keep your mitts of mine. I was agreeing with @terb anyway Not disagreeing with you. Lol.
P.s. I like the wall that way 
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Sorry, but I’m gonna swap them back. There is something about the body shapes that make the Yamaha and the Samick to be within two mm’s of touching. I just tried… and the Samick/Cort/Yam order is the only order that provides sufficient clearance between the bodies.
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Ok, I understand, just consider posting the pic the way when showing the room so my eyes don’t go crazy:roll_eyes:
I am joking of course.
So, I’ve been playing this lady in red for five days now, using it to refresh some B2B modules I had covered earlier.
Time for a first impression. Today, I played all three basses to be able to assist where the Yamaha sits.
The outlier in the ‘collection’ is the Samick Gregg Bennett Fairlane. This is essentially a J-bass – same pickup configuration, same fairly narrow, D-style neck. It has a different headstock and a different pick guard, but that’s about it. It plays like a J, and as far as my experience goes, it sounds like a J.
Currently, the J has the lowest action, but the difference is minimal. I’m not terribly fond of the standard Fender D-style neck, but I’ve played worse. It’s also the heaviest of the three, but the balance is excellent – no sign of neck dive.
The Cort Action PJ4 and the Yamaha TRBX-304 are very similar in terms of playability. Both have 24 frets, and a low body cutout. The Cort has the thinner body, and as a result, it is fractionally easier to play on the highest frets, as the block formed by the neck-to-body connection is slightly less obtrusive.
Due to the thinner body, the Cort is also noticeably the lightest.
In terms of sound, the plot, she thickens. The Yamaha, being an active bass, has a huge sound palette. The 5-position playing style switch (as documented by Howard elsewhere) is actually quite useful, but, especially in combination with the preamp in the Zoom B1X Four, the range of possibilities is intimidating. I have currently found a few settings that seem to fit my needs, but I’m at the cutting edge of fornicating about with it, so the jury’s still out on that one.
Having said that, there is something very special and very juicy about the sound I can get with the Cort that I haven’t been able to reproduce with the Yamaha yet.
And I’ve not gotten the Yamaha or the Cort to sound as downright badass as the Samick yet. Man, that thing is capable of some serious nastiness. I’ll need to explore the Yam’s options further, but currently, my impression is that it sounds just a wee bit too ‘polished’. It’s like it’s Robert Palmer to the Samick’s Joe Cocker.
All three hold a tune quite well, but the Samick excels. What with the temperature changes we’ve had over the week, the Samick was the only one that, after not having been touched for a week was still spot-on.
Which is of no importance. All three instruments hold a tune well enough when you start playing it at 8am when it’s still bearable (in the low twenties), and continue practicing until 1pm when it’s running up to 30’ish degrees. Both the Yamaha and the Cort will be a wee bit off when you pick them up the next day, though. See if I care.
The way it stands now, the Yamaha is not capable of completely replacing either the Cort or the Samick. For all practical purposes, it’s a higher-quality instrument than either of the two, but both the Cort and the Samick have a trick or two up their sleeve that the Yamaha has yet to match.
Which one do I enjoy most?
I suppose it depends on my mood. I really enjoyed the Cort Action today. It’s such a nice, unassuming, rewarding, juicy thing. Plus it’ll play always, whereas the Yamaha will stop when it runs out of battery juice.
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That’s absolutely stunning @peterhuppertz. I hope it sounds as beautiful as it looks.
P.S. Sorry if I’m coming in a bit late on this thread.
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Awesome!
One thing you might want to try, for more thump, turn the bass up a little on the TRBX, and bias a little towards the neck pickup.
It’s definitely got a generally clean, modern sound though, yeah.
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Oh, it’s got plenty of thump. It out-thumps the Samick with thump to spare! If I pull all the stops, this is the stuff of earthquakes.
It’s just not as nasty…
A few things I forgot:
- When I got it, the red was unplayable – it played like a longbow. It had not been set up by the shop who sold it, and it was then left alone after having been played for less than an hour…
I had to do some serious truss rod adjustment to get it straightened out. When that was done, it was completely stable – it did not have to settle. Adjustment was smooth. - the truss rod adjustment arrangement on the Red is better than on both the Samick and the Cort. Much more accessible. This is how it should be done.
- As the side of the neck, the frets on the Red feel a little rough. Not enough so to cause discomfort or injury, but noticeable.
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Oh, and one last thing I forgot, which would amuse @PamPurrs: I now have a bass that is colour-coordinated with my Zoom B1X Four.
It’s also colour-coordinated with our vacuum cleaner, but I won’t speak of that again.
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