Sean

Well, I'm back from tonight's gig. It was in a huge upstairs hall at Nantyffllon Library near Maesteg in South Wales. I took my NS5 with me and wasn't going to use the Yam until we were well into the first set but I thought, what the heck and strapped it for the first song; Let Me Entertain You. I played this fingerstyle, EQ frowning on the Boogie, tweeters rolled off on the Bergs, switch in mid position on the Yam with the pots rolled full up and by gawd, it's immense in its punch but this bass does lack a bit of sustain. That lack of sustain is my only real bugbear; it's not a huge let down, though and the sustain that the instrument has compares to other bolt-on alder and basswood bodied instruments. I usually play this song on my NS5 so maybe it's not a fair comparison between a £4k solid maple, neck-thru and a budget-ish alder bolt-on. Still, I can't believe this cost me only two and a half hundred quid, it's so much more bass than that We did a few songs where I just grabbed a pick and thumped away; Holding Out For a Hero (P + J), Walking on Sunshine (J) and Losing My Religion (P) - the BB415 is a damn fine instrument when played with the fingers but when you attack it with a medium/heavy pick it barks and growls like big bad drooling nasty dog. Our drummer kept pulling faces and nodding approvingly toward my amp; he had no idea it was the change of bass that had made such a difference. It's a very versatile bass, there are loads of sounds in there, roll off the tone and throw the switch to the P setting and it gives wonderful vintage thick rich thump and I utilised this tone on Heatwave, Take Me to the River, Midnight Hour and some others, very nice. The BB415 is very comfortable and pretty light for gigging and another very pleasing aesthetic is the way that the first fret or nut seems quite close to you; I think is due to the fact that the bridge is mounted quite far back on the body. The low B stands up really well to gigging and it's not until now that I gave the B any thought at all, it just does its job very well, no concerns at all. I love the simplicity of the controls too and how responsive the tone knob is.

[b]Manufacturer:[/b] Yamaha [b]Model:[/b] BB415 (B-Stock) [b]Colour:[/b] Orange Metallic After selling Sid the Fender Precision back to Clarky I was in the market for an inexpensive P-type back up bass and for taking to work for playing at lunchtime and for general knocking about duties. I'd recently been impressed by the stupendous new Yamaha Super BB and also pleasantly surprised at a BB615 I tried the same day; Yamaha basses have never really been on my radar other than with a few aborted attempts at buying an old BB2000 on ebay. Bearing this in mind and with a maximum budget of £250 I went to ebay to see if I could find something that suited, a five-string would be a bonus. A search of Yamaha bass guitars brought up the usual suspects and amongst these were a few ex-demo, B-stock models. I ended up ordering a BB415 in Orange Metallic. It arrived the next day in the original box and was very well packed. A quick run through of the specs tells us that this is a passive instrument with alder body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, P and J pickups, a slightly odd looking vintage-type bridge, five strings, large open geared vintage style tuners. String spacing is 18mm and it's a 34" scale. The instrument is made in Taiwan. [b]First impressions[/b] Wow! What a colour. It's much less garish than I thought it would be; I chose the Orange Metallic more for novelty value than anything else but it in the flesh it's really very nice and the matching headstock makes it look very snazzy indeed; the cataloge/website pictures seem very retouched and enhanced. Hopefully my photographs give a much better idea of the real colour. It's relatively light, I'd guess around about 8lb, which for a large bodied alder bass is really good especially with my temperamental back. [b]Quality[/b] Fit and finish on this bass is staggering for its price band and what struck me was that in many respects it reminds me of a MusicMan; the neck joint is well designed and seems to be a tight fit, the fingerboard/neck joint is flawless and the fretwork is way beyond what I'd expect in a low to middle market bass. The quality of the paint finish just cannot be faulted and it has that lovely glitter metallic sparkle that is similar to a Lakland metallic. The tuners are OK and serviceable but will probably be getting an upgrade to Hipshots if this bass is still with me in six months time. The bridge has a bit of an extension on it for the low B string and though I'm not entirely sure, I'd guess that this serves two functions; to give a bit of extra length (a few millimeters) to assist with string tension and also to reduce the break angle of the thicker string meaning it's less likely to break. The pick ups are the classic BB type. [b]Feel[/b] The body is quite large, I suppose but then again I'm used to playing Spectors and Lakland DJs, which are smaller than normal. Anyway, there's no issue with the body, it's very well sculpted and very comfortable both on the strap and sitting down. The neck on this bass is a satin finish and is very smooth and reminiscent of a Lakland. It's a fairly slim neck for a five string and very comfortable with easy access to all 21 frets. The bass had been set up very well indeed and I'm guessing this was because it's an ex-demo instrument from a music show and was originally on a Yamaha exhibition stand and I would think someone makes sure that they play pretty well before Joe Public gets his potentially money-spending mitts on the them. I was a little bit apprensive about a cheaper 34" scale 5-string but there was nothing to worry about, the B string is very nice, no floppiness and easily as good as the Stingray 5 I used to have and is a bit better than the Ibanez DWB35 I used to have. [b]Sounds[/b] I plugged this bass into my Mesa Boogie M6 Carbine with the EQ flat and the gain at 12 O'clock. The cab is a Bergantino AE210. The first thing that hits you when you start to play is that the sound this instrument puts out is absolutely immense, the pickups are really hot, very full and rich and have a throatyness that I just love. Using the P pickup solo gives everything you might expect from a P bass but with a lot more oomph and weight. The tone knob is very useful and proportional, it's gives a great variation and lets you access some very useable middy rock tones and some really nice deep dub and soul thump. Flicking the three-way switch back to the J pickup at the bridge was a real revelation. As a long-time fan of the P/J configuration (my Spector NS5 has a P/J set) I've always been of the mindset that the J is there to complement the P and to get some good variations depending on how much it's dialled in with mid-way being my favourite generally. This bridge pickup is a going concern all of its own and is a funk monster and let me tell you, it's as loud and honking as the P, there must be a lot of magnets and windings under that cover! Bringing the switch to the mid position gives you the classic throaty passive P/J punch and gurgle typically associated with the BB. It just makes you want to grab a pick and play all your favourite Duff McKagan riffs. I'm going to be gigging this bass over the weekend so I'll expand this review once the instrument has been through a real world situation...

I sold an EBS MultiComp to Trev last week. Absolutely no issues whatsoever. A very smooth transaction and no issues with communication.

These are two very different flavours of good. I thought that the LM Tube 800 lacked everything that I was looking for in a tube preamped head but it has a great sound of its own nonetheless just don't expect valve grunt and heft. Having had that exact GK rig in the past my experiences are that it sounds fantastic and has [i]that[/i] GK tone but it is heavy. Go with your ears. BTW: I didn't vote.

I play it with the bridge J pup of my NS5 soloed, some upper mid boost, a touch of compression and a bit of drive from the amps gain.

Did I mention that I like these? :wub:

Bass Direct is the place but these basses are few and far between. The production numbers are low as you might expect for a hand built high end instrument. I'm not a Yamaha fan or anything (and at £2.5k I didn't think I ever would be), I don't dislike Yam , I have had a couple of their guitars and been really happy with them but this model is so ass kickingly brilliant it has to be played to be believed. I miss this bass and I only played it for an hour or so. Nothing is quite the same now. If it had another string it would be perfect. Don't worry, they're doing 5-stringers by the summer. I remember watching a video of James Lomenzo demoing some bass riffs somewhere and he was playing a lovely black BB custom shop thing that I thought was quite nice so it looks like all that YASH (Yamaha Artist Services Hollywood) stuff has made it into a (albeit limited) production model. I'd love to blindfold a real bass snob and get them to play this instrument.

[quote name='chris_b' post='733386' date='Feb 2 2010, 07:57 PM']Also I've seen good reviews of the Carbine M6 and M9 being paired with Bergantino cabs. You might be able to hear both at Bass Direct.[/quote] [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/showthread.php?t=502435"]Here's the talkbass link[/url] I spent all afternoon today playing an M6 :wub: through my 2 x Berg AE210 cabs. It's amazing. Louder than you'll ever need and it really punches like a runaway train hitting a cliff wall. The tone is not typical Boogie per se but it is very Boogie in many respects. If you want distortion then you'll need an outboard pedal of some sort; this doesn't really distort, just overdrives nicely. Despite it simple control layout, it has an endless palette of sounds. Build quality is typical Boogie. I seriously recommend separates if you gig a lot. The rack version is 23lb and a Berg AE210 is 40 lb. Boogie cabs and combos are built like cathedrals (Liverpool excepted ) and are consequently very heavy and for me that gets tiresome. Try one, you will fall in love.

[quote name='mashup' post='732729' date='Feb 2 2010, 11:43 AM']And also, does anyone know where in Surrey/South London i can take my Aerodyne to be fully cavity shielded/Grounded by a professional?[/quote] Go to [url="http://guitar-xperience.com/onlinestore/"]Charlie Chandler[/url], he's an absolute gent and does all the stars. Tell him I sent you.

[quote name='Sean' post='696758' date='Dec 30 2009, 09:26 PM']I think they're over priced; I reckon around £1500 - £1600 street would be more realistic and more into Sadowsky Metro territory however... The white one with the black plate is bite-the-back-of-your-hand gorgeous though and I love the 3D shaped shoulder on it - I could certainly use that with flats on as my working P bass [/quote] I played a white one today and it is the best passive bolt on bass I have ever played. Absolute killer and kicks every Lakland, Fender, Sadowsky, Nordy, Roscoe or whatever I have played into touch. It was light, the neck was incredible and the tone was as good as tone can be for my ears. It's not polite, it's not subtle, it just rocks with such massive heft that it's impossible to put down and walk away from. I had zero expectation and am still floored by it. Build quality is perfect; why it had just 4/5 for build in BGM is beyond me. It's not often I go completely bonkers for an instrument that's not a Spector but this bass is beyond special and I take back what I said above. I've seen the light Jake Blues style!

7lb basses are few and far between. Keep it. Chuck some Wizards or Fralins in the Aero and it'll rock on forever. I had an Aero with Fralins and it was fantastic, I only got rid of it because it was uncomfortable with that weird shape body and bound edge.