A flawlessly applied inky-black finish, perfectly dressed frets, marker-less fingerboard, and nicely finished hardware give an impression of quality, like a fine British automobile. I had a few attention-to-detail dings, like a bit of roughness on the clear rings around the knobs, but overall it exhibits excellent fit and finish. Plus, the pinstripes and model number on the body have a kind of Anime glamour.
Once I brought the RBX’s high action in line (delivery does wonders on a setup), it was a comfy play. Light as it is, I expected balance problems, but the long upper horn nullified neck dive. It didn’t balance quite as well when I was seated, due in part to the treble bout’s deep cutaway. The side dot markers were easy enough to see; I didn’t miss fingerboard dots at all.
Since it uses a battery, it’s logical to surmise that the RBX’s electronics package is active, but that’s not so. Without a battery, all you lose is the LED lighting. Here’s another way to look at it: if you consider the lighting a silly gimmick, just pull the battery and rock on without it. Sadly, minutes before a gig, while I was doing my due diligence putting fresh batteries into my tuner, compressor, and the bass, the bass’s battery clip broke as I struggled with its too-short lead.
Light Sounds
The single-coil blade pickups employed here offer roughly the same variety of tones and vibe as you’d expect from a J-style bass. The neck pickup was round, sweet, and even a touch upright-y with the tone control backed off. The bridge pickup was burpy and snarly, with much more prominent midrange. When combined, the two pickups gave me a fat, reasonably detailed sound well suited for rock and R&B. I don’t think the pickups particularly excel at bright Miller- or Patitucci-esque slap tones, but they get in the ballpark. For the four-sets-a-night Top 40 cover band crowd, this bass will cover a lot of ground.
On numerous gigs and session, I found the RBX to be alive up and down the neck, with nary a dead spot. One session was an alt-rock track with a lot of electronic elements, calling for a slightly aggressive sound with a strong fundamental. Running through IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube (a software plug-in) with a 70:30 mix of bridge/neck pickup, I got what was needed, but it was here I noticed that the volume pots do most of their work in the first part of rotation. Dialing in the perfect blend was a delicate operation, but the variable-intensity LEDs help provide visual reference. As I was preparing for a church gig, the tone that seemed to work best all the way through the set of up-tempo rock, slightly groovy faux R&B, and power ballads was both pickups wide open with a small amount of high-end roll-off.
Oh, yeah. The marquee feature—Yamaha’s Alternative Internal Resonance, or A.I.R? It’s not just some meaningless marketing buzzword. The technology delivers on the promise of a lively tone and impressive sustain from an instrument made mostly of lightweight woods. Sustain and fatness of tone were right up there with the 24-fret Fender Jazz Basses I reviewed in the last issue, and my own heavily modded Fernandes J, all of which are bricks compared to this bantamweight beauty.
Aside from that one little hassle with the battery, I found much to like here. For less than six hundred bucks, this is a peach. Don’t buy it because it has lights. Buy it because you play four hours a night all weekend long and this bass is light without sacrificing sustain or tone. Use your savings to have it set up by a professional and I think you’ll be quite happy with it.