# Which pickups will make my bass guitar YAMAHA TRBX 505 sound better?



## Williamm (Jul 28, 2020)

Hello!
I have used YAMAHA TRBX 505 for years but decided recently to replace the original pickups to make it sound better. It says YGD designed H5 pickups are installed and my bass is 5 string active type guitar working with battery. Please refer to the features below and any kind recommendations are welcomed. 
1. Neck Pickup:H5 Alnico V Humbucker
2. Bridge Pickup:H5 Alnico V Humbucker


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## couverdure (Jul 28, 2020)

Perhaps try a Darkglass Tone Capsule? You can replace the stock pots with it and use it with the stock pickups.


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## A-Branger (Jul 31, 2020)

^nope.

bass pre-amps are not actual "pre-amps" as you guys are used to for guitars. They are EQs. Think about a bass on-board pre-amps as a 2/3 band EQ pedal. They all have different frequencies and bell curves, and the circuit might add some coloration to it, but they are an EQ, they wont magically change your bass tone. It would help to shape it, but it wont change the source sound

as for pickups, its a hard one. Sadly in the bass world theres no a big industry standard.

Nordstrand, Bartolini, and Aguilar are some of the best names for bass pickups. Nordstrand would only do two sizes for soapbars, Bartolini would build almost every size out there.

Send an email to them, they would know if their pickups would fit your bass. And every company usually has a diagram with their pickup dimensions too.

Also you bass has an active EQ pre-amp, your pickups are passive. Only EMG makes active pickups, every other bass pickup is passive. The on-board pre-amp is the active part that requires a battery


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## Adieu (Jul 31, 2020)

If it's a standard active pickup size, go with Seymour Duncan Blackouts for Bass in the appropriate size

Don't need a preamp, just use the typical active pickup pot values



PS the poster above me is mistaken, SDs are also full-active. They're all basically "enhanced knockoffs" of their EMG equivalents, but tend to bring extra oomph.


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## A-Branger (Aug 1, 2020)

EMG and SD for actives then(and maybe another model Im not aware off)..... honestly I didnt knew about SD, its not a name I associate with bass pickups, and if I do its more for the MusicMan style humbuckers

but yeah, my point is, there are very very few active pickups for basses, most are passive, its the active pre-amp that requires the batery.

also, SD wont fit his bass. Those pickups not only seem wider but got the wrong mounting screws. Thats what I mean about the bass world, everyone makes their own thing and theres not much "standard" as in guitar (single coil/humbucker/p90)

best bet is grab a ruler and check your size and compare it to bass pickup diagrams. And if you are still too lazy for it, then send an email to the pickup brands and ask which pickup would fit your bass


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## Beheroth (Aug 1, 2020)

guys no need to argue, op is a bot : https://www.harmonycentral.com/foru...-my-bass-guitar-yamaha-trbx-505-sound-better/


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## LordCashew (Aug 1, 2020)

...and here I was ready to say that Fishmans and VFLs are active, and that a preamp _can _affect the response of pickups by loading them with a different impedance...

Darn zeros and ones are trolling us sentient types hard these days.


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## A-Branger (Aug 1, 2020)

never heard of VFL, only thing I can find is a pickup that came on a Peavy bass?.

I know there are active stuff out there, Im talking about popular brands and off-the shelf replacement stuff. Trying to educate people that the vast majority of bass pickups are actually passive. People think(and I used too) because the bass got a battery it means the pickups are active, when the battery is for the pre-amp only. Im not saying one is better than the other, Im trying to point that because your bass actually got passives, then you got more choices for pickups, as you dont have to stick to finding an active one

Also Fishman still a bit new into the game of bass. And they are designed (I think) to replace EMGs, so it wont work for a yamaha. Havent heard much of them yet, but due to the extra hype of the guitar pickups we are living atm, Im not really buying the "they are the best option for bass" (yet)

(yes I know the OP is fake, but still a good chat here. Plus jsut in case someone else got this bass as they are fairly popular, my work mate got one and I have played a few times, they do sound preeeety meh)

an on-board pre-amp of course can affect the sound, they arent true-bypass (if you have the EQ values on 0db), same way some people prefer some pedals or some studios preffer some brands of gear or channel strip of consoles ect ect, because it adds some coloration to it. But again, an on-board preamp (EQ) helps to shape the sound, not to create it. Meaning, if you have shitty pickups, then your signal would still be shitty no matter how amazing your EQ would be, you might be able to improve it, but the source is the source. You cant make a soapbar sound like a single coil jazz for example, you need a singlecoil pickup on a soapbar size for that, not a darkglass pre-amp

a cheap karaoke mic is not going to sound like a SM7 no matter how much you process the signal. And specially if by "signal processing" we are talking about a 3 band EQ only

changing the on-board pre-amp is going to improve the sound?... yes..... would changing the pickups would make a better improvement?... x100 yes

also change your strings


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## LordCashew (Aug 2, 2020)

A-Branger said:


> never heard of VFL, only thing I can find is a pickup that came on a Peavy bass?.
> 
> I know there are active stuff out there, Im talking about popular brands and off-the shelf replacement stuff. Trying to educate people that the vast majority of bass pickups are actually passive. People think(and I used too) because the bass got a battery it means the pickups are active, when the battery is for the pre-amp only. Im not saying one is better than the other, Im trying to point that because your bass actually got passives, then you got more choices for pickups, as you dont have to stick to finding an active one
> 
> ...



Well generally I agree with you. But given that this thread was started by a digital entity, I decided to be intentionally obtuse with my hair-splitting in an effort to make some humorous commentary on the value of our efforts here. Glad to hear you’re enjoying the discussion though.


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## Adieu (Aug 2, 2020)

Oh yeah, oddball pickup size

Maybe if you can find pickup rings to fit over Bartolinis?

Either that or route for EMG/SD soapbars (same size as 7 string active pups btw)


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