Hi all, I posted this in another place, and did get some responses, but I wanted to ask here as well.
I have a Squier Jazz (Affinity I think, cheap starter pack one), and a Yamaha TRBX 604, I set them up following Josh’s video including lifting the pickups on the Jazz, and I tried to do the same for the TRBX but I didn’t manage to raise the pickups, they just become loose when unscrewed. EDIT: I also changed the Yamaha’s strings to flatwound (Rotosound 77) if that matters.
One question is, am I missing something w/ the TRBX pickups? Are they not supposed to be raised beyond 2.5ish mm?
On a related note, because of the setup, my Jazz is now significantly louder than the TRBX. I have a Rumble 40 and the Yamaha can be up to 50-60% volume (30% gain) and sound ok, while the Jazz is way too loud by 30% volume.
The feedback I got was that actives are not always as loud as passives, but I was hoping for someone who had played this bass to confirm, esp. the pickup thing, I fear in my ignorance I may have messed something up, and I’d hate to have messed up my Yamaha, as I love it way too much.
The only mistake you made with the Yamaha was putting flats on it
(mostly joking, but that’s a bass I would definitely stick with rounds on).
I owned a TRBX604 and loved it. No volume issues on mine. I doubt yours does either and it’s possible the J’s pickups are too high as well. 2.5mm is actually closer than Yamaha’s recommended 3mm (it’s in the manual). tl;dr, your Yamaha is fine.
Many basses ship from the factory with pickups at max height already, too. It’s just a thing.
While technically true, the Yamaha has passive pickups and an active EQ with a switch to make the bass fully passive as well. The real answer there is that pickup loudness varies greatly between pickup models and how they are wound; being active or passive has little to do with it. Active pickups are actually rare (though they exist).
It sounds to me like the pups are too high on the Jazz. This can also affect tone and sustain.
Thank a lot for your reply, it puts my soul at ease. I love this bass and I would’ve hated to have done something bad to it (besides putting flats )
I play with a very loud main pianist that likes the bass down low, so I thought (in my newbiness) that flats would make it stay under their piano easier. As a side note, any recommendations for that situation? string-wise?
It sounds to me like the pups are too high on the Jazz. This can also affect tone and sustain.
I took my jazz to rehersal today, and funny enough, the pianist mentioned it sounded kind of sharp. With that and what you said, I suppose I did put them too high.
Try a set of GHS Pressurewounds. They’re a middle ground between rounds and flats. The outer wrap is rounded off in such a way that it both eliminates much of the finger noise you’ll get from rounds and also has a nice “touch” when playing. Don’t confuse them with ground wounds or half rounds. They’re very much their own thing.
Tonally they’re very dynamic and expressive like a round wound but mellower with a lot of clarity and punch. They’re hex core Alloy 52 strings and on the stiffer side but GHS does offer them in a lighter gauge set if you prefer less tension. They’ll start off fairly bright but mellow out quickly with just a few hours of play.
If I was limited to just one string type I’d need to use on all of my basses I would chose Pressurewounds.
If I was limited to just one string type I’d need to use on all of my basses I would chose Pressurewounds.
I tried to re-string it back to the original rounds and the E string bend weirdly at one place and broke. Sounds like I’m trying out Pressurewounds earlier than I expected
Thank you both for your input, I’m learning that I need to learn how to love my Yamaha beyond looks (sounds like a life lesson, lol).
I mostly play well worn rounds but when I go play flats I think “this sounds amazing, I should play this more” and then I go back to the pbass with the rounds
Whatever I haven’t played in a while always sounds “amazing!” just because it’s different… and then I go back to the pbass
