Sean

[quote name='JamesBass' timestamp='1393882554' post='2385518'] Valve amps always seem alive to me too, there's so much more tone and definition to a valve amp in my opinion! As a user of the CTM300, I cannot recommended it highly enough! It's got a dead easy EQ, a great DI as most Ashdown's do. The fact it has a home biasing is amazing as well! The ability to bias at home has saved me some money already! Plus the tone is just spot on! It's a perfect workhorse and is used by many great bass players already! [/quote] So, who uses it it then? Who are these great bass players? I need to justify my purchase :-)

Macca played many a Yamaha BB as well as Ricks. It's all about the tone :-)

I spent years trying to find the sound, as many of us do and it wasn't until I heard and played through the 400+ that I found it. I tried Ashdown ABM, Trace SS, GK, Markbass, Laney, Hartke, Genz, TC, EBS, Aguilar and others but until I got that thump in the chest from the 400+ everything else was like alcohol-free beer. I have since tried a Matamp GT200 and that is like a very different flavour of what I like. I'd like to try a VBA400, CTM300, the big Laney and some others before I decide on a second head but the heft of a big valve power section is just an unbeatable experience for me and the 400+ has more personality than all the other amps I've ever had put together. Sure, it's got weird EQ and the DI is the usual Mesa impractical nonsense until you get used to it but the ownership experience is fabulous, it's so much more than a tool to do a job, it's a thing that's almost alive.

Mike's a top bloke as all those above have testified. Good comms, easy transaction. Another Basschat winner!

[quote name='mcnach' timestamp='1393417133' post='2379908'] I just got an email that my BB2 is in production and I paid the balance... can't wait! [/quote] I had the exact same experience today!

Great to see Marco here. Nothing better than going straight to the customer for feedback. Thanks for the insight into MB :-)

All good. Really nice guy to deal with. Another Basschat winner!

Sold some Berg cabs to Nick. Again this was a very easy deal both ways. Highly recommended.

Nick bought a rack tuner from me. Great guy to deal with, all positive. Another fabulous Basschatter.

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1391892286' post='2362427'] I'm quite sure Joe Public can't tell the difference between a bass of any sort and a banjo. Great, now I've got GAS for a BB. Edit: Looks like there's no maple fretboard option, is this the case? [/quote] You'll have to ask Peter, he ordered it. I'm a big rosewood fan anyway so it's spot on for me.

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1391857124' post='2361998'] Funny, I just made exactly that comment in a thread about my new one, looks like a £500 bass, plays like a £2500 bass (or, to be honest, a lot of £5000 basses) [/quote] "Those Yamahas are great beginners basses and real value for money but you ought to get some money together and get yourself a Fender Precision..." - Some bloke in South Wales social club to me a few years back after seeing my BB2025x in action :-)

Oh, and I know exactly what Noel means about the old BB2000 however I prefer a bolt-on; it just feels a bit more like I'm in control and I know we're getting into magical mystical subjective nonsense but through-necks just aren't me, really even though I love my BB1300 (rare beast or what!). I do think that Yamaha ought to do more options on the Japanese models though, like reverse P or mudbucker.

[quote name='Beedster' timestamp='1391856788' post='2361988'] I've no doubt that this isn't 'the best' Precision Bass, or even the best Yamaha Precision Bass, but I can justify my enthusiasm in pretty clear terms. I have - as the pages of BC will testify - owned an awful lot of basses, mostly the work of, or derivatives of the work of, Leo Fender, and for a brief period some by Ric and Modulus. Whilst I've often gushed about nearly all of them, and whilst most of them were very good instruments for what they were, all had limitations if I looked beyond the 'what they were' argument. By this I mean that my c64 and v63 were outstanding Rics and outstanding instruments, they did the Ric thing incredibly well, but there are times at which the Ric thing isn't right. Likewise most of my Precisions did the Precision thing very well, but on occasions I needed a little bit more. My late '90s Modulus Flea was the most playable and powerful bass i've owned, but it's core tone was a little Jazz/Stingray, when the core tone I look for is more Precision/Ric. In short, for a long time I've been looking for a bass that is more than what it says on the label - Precision, Jazz, 4001, Ray or Flea. The obvious approach given my preference for the Precision tone has been to look for a good P/J. Probably the closest I got were Sadowsky P/Js but they just didn't quite do it, I found the J-PUP a bit tame and needing a lot of active grunt to make it work alongside the P-PUP, and to be honest, I prefer passive instruments. The Fender Roscoe Beck was amazingly versatile for a passive bass, but despite all that I read about it on here and Talkbass, I couldn't really get the Precision tone I wanted out of it. In fact I wanted this. 1. A core tone very close to that of a traditional Precision (like most - but not all - of my Precisions) 2. Versatile (like my Bongo, my Wals and my RBIV) 3. Simple controls and circuit (like most of my Precisions and my Rics, unlike my two Wals) 4. High build quality, structurally and functionally 100% reliable (like my Wals and Sadowskys) 4. High playability (like my Modulus Flea), 5. Passive (as were most of my Fenders, and my Rics, I just don't really like active instruments as much as passive) 6. Classic looking (like most of the above, unlike the Bongo) Now the Yamaha ticks all of those boxes, and it's the first bass I've owned that does. Moreover, unlike any P/J I've owned, not only is the J-PUP powerful and sweet soloed, but it works incredibly well with the P-PUP, producing a tone that is unique yet highly useable. I think it's fair to say that with pretty much every P/J I'd owned previously, I'd use the P-PUP for some songs, the J-PUP for others, but rarely the two combined, in fact on many P/Js the combined tone is weak to the point of being unusable, or with some active basses, too synthetic for my tastes. On this bass - as was the case with my c64 - I start with both PUPs on full all of the time with the tone fully open, and make small changes from there. In fact, a huge amount of the versatility of this bass comes from the power of the PUPs, which really respond to what my hands are doing, and the sheer playability of the thing, meaning that I can get the hands in question to be a whole lot more expressive and versatile than on many other basses. And over and above all of this, it's built like a tank. Furthermore, and interestingly to my mind, whilst it feels and plays like a £2500 bass, it looks like a £500 bass. This is the opposite of a few Fender Custom Shop basses I've played which looked like £2500 instruments but felt and played like a £500 model. I don't like gigging with basses that look really valuable, so I find this an asset. All in all, as basses and me go, this is as good a pairing as I've had to date. Of course I'm not naive enough to say it's 'the one', and even if it was, things change. I am however bloody happy with it C [/quote] I'm really glad you got there and I'm glad you understand it the same way I do :-D

Alister bought a pickup from me, great comms and a pleasure to deal with.

Great to meet you today, Paul. Top bloke to deal with. Another great Basschat deal.

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1391195233' post='2354536'] I've heard you'd had the same underpants for years, and it's about time you changed them too! Mate, Herco's are cheap and plakky, while Uncle Jim's Torties are lush and sumptuous. [/quote] Our Uncle Jim will never be pulled in by the Yewtree boys.

Two BBs is not enough for you to get a real handle on this. :-)