Al Krow

I think the consensus is that the Fender P solo'd is perhaps the more loved solo P sound, but what the Yammys bring to the party tonally is an excellent J pup and the combination P+J is killer. Plus the ability to dial the tone right off means you can go from rock to Motown effortlessly. Then add in Yammy's build quality and value for money and I guess you can see how it's managed to get such a loyal following. See if you can get your hands on (or a loan of) a decent condition used 1024, 434 or 734A - any of these will give you a very good feel for what the modern BB series is about.

Absolutely. They have carved out their own personality and aren't your average Fender clone. But then neither is Spector nor a Ken Smith nor a Status nor a Rickenbacker, nor an Alembic nor a Wal... That's a good thing right?

That just gets a "really?"

Good post Luke. Picking up on a couple of your points: Really like that description! "the best instruments at their price point, whatever the price point" Btw I suspect Yammy wouldn't consider that to be a "problem." 😁

There's one in the FS right now. Are you sure you need both kidneys?

There were a couple of chaps moaning on fBook Bassplayers' market place that they'd been waiting for a couple of years for a used BB NE2 to turn up, although we've had a few on BC. And I suspect some of the high end out of production basses eg TRB 5Pii and BB5000A are even rarer.

Actually, joshing aside, gonna be interesting if these do come for sale used in 6 months or so time. My guess is they won't as the folks buying them seem to be a pretty discerning lot. And if they do come up I suspect they will get snapped up like hot cakes.

Good to know. I'll down tools on a Leeds quest then, and be content with the VTDI on my board!

Bear in mind the Yammy gig bags (certainly the one I got with my 1025), whilst very good quality, was a half inch shorter than comfortable for the bass. Hopefully not an issue for the PH gig bags.

I'll just leave this off the peg on here then...

Blimey! I haven't seen this much interest in a new Yammy bass for several years! In fact, not since they launched their last new line-up of Yammy BB basses back in 2017...

It's not just a red Yammy P though is it? It's an active red Yammy reverse P with a knob missing. And Peter Hook likes it as much as his seven BB 1200S's.

Pics please gents! A new bass to your door for under £100?! How on earth do they manage that?!

Was the difference pretty much what krispn mentioned and what we would be expecting ie a tighter low B and E and warmer / mellower top strings? And I guess @marleaux62can also mow confirm as he has both the 1024X and PH models, which are even closer in design to each other than the 734A and 1200S, and I think the PH may have a passive mode to enable it to be compared directly with the passive 1024X.

But what a great sounding bass! I think it's a classic Yamaha BB 5000

Fantastic - congratulations! Was one of the earlier pics you posted of you with the man himself?

Haha - I'm not that curious and your confirmation from a "reliable" source is more than good enough for me. Take it as a compliment! I'm currently much more interested in getting a herd together that I'm really happy with. And for the first time in a long while I very much am: 3 Yammys, 3 Ibbys and 3 'S specials' (and a EUB for good measure) - plenty to keep me going 😊

Thanks - so it does exactly what you might expect / want from it and, as you say, in a way you can't quite get with EQ or preamp changes. I think a reverse P plus J combo could be just excellent. It's what the "MA" versions of the BB range had and is currently available on Spectors (4 strings as standard) and Sandbergs (both 4 and 5 strings) - but a "standard" Berg 5er is still pretty boutique pricing from a Yammy perspective and certainly I couldn't justify the 3x price difference between a 735A and a Berg in terms of the everything else that the basses delivered. There is one other more affordable bass that does a reverse P as a 5 string (and with 3 band EQ and 24 frets) and that is the Ibanez SR 655E. I almost picked one of these up used (went in 20 seconds flat to someone else, when I didn't!) But the consensus of opinion was that it wouldn't be noticeably different and possibly a bit of a downgrade from my Ibby SR 1825, which kinda made good sense given that the SR1825 is in Ibbys premium range whereas the 655 isn't.

@Chopthebass what's your ETA for your BB NE2? I've recently invested in a wider 11cm / 4.3" strap by Minotaur, which was recommended to me by Mark from Talking Bass, together with a 4.5" from Levy which was double the price but I couldn't get on with so I've swapped for a second Minotaur strap. Makes just enough of a difference to my two heaviest basses, BB NE2 and a Spector Euro LX5, in terms of spreading the shoulder load to make them that much more comfortable to play. As a result my NE2 has been getting played more in the past couple of weeks than it's done since I've owned it! I'm loving it - such a great bass! It occurs to me that the NE2 took quite a few design cues from Spector, which has been around a whole lot longer in its classic design form. Both are: neck throughs (vs bolt on for the BBs) sculpted backs, which makes them so comfortable to wear (vs the more normal flat BB bodies) JJs (vs P or PJs on the BBs) 24 frets (vs 21 on the modern BBs) both have 3+2 tuner layout on the headstocks (vs the 4-1 prevalent on the rest of the BB range) neither have body through stringing (present on the higher-end modern BBs) both are purely active with no passive option (vs active & passive on the 735A and purely passive on the rest of the BB range) Key differences are other than obviously different body shapes the NE2 has a 3 band + Nathan East mid cut EQ vs a 2 band EQ on the Spector. But it seems clear that the NE2 is actually much closer to the Spector than it is to the rest of the BB range.

What's your current full collection of BBs comprise in addition to your three 1200S? Do you have a 734A? If so, be interested if you can hear difference between a reverse P on the PH and a normal P config on the 734A when your PH arrives. Obviously there are going to be other factors impacting the tone from the different pre-amp and age of strings on both basses, so it may not be possible to precisely pin down the impact of the reversal of the P pup config.

Congrats from a fellow Ibby fan! Just seen your pic on the Ibby thread with the deposed rig sitting mournfully alongside the new king on the block 😁

Fishman Fission Or to give it its full name "Fishman Fission Bass Power Chord". Could also get pretty close with a decent multifx running pitch shifters in parallel paths.

I've COMPLETELY failed on gear abstinence - I bought approx. 20 bits of kit during the year!! But not all bad though... I did manage to move on even more bass gear (lots of pedals in particular) and I kinda feel a fair bit happier with the overall shape of what I've now got e.g. upgraded a BF SC for a BB2 and swapped out a Sire P7 PJ bass for a Yamaha BB735A PJ bass. And to my surprise, I also pretty much managed to break even which was a nice bonus. Normally my gear purchases are funded by gigs, but obviously that wasn't going to get me very far this year! Some little things can make a big difference e.g. a Minotaur 4.3" strap has made me pick up and love playing a couple of my heavier basses in a way that I've not really done before, or a Zoom B1-4 multifx as an incredible value-for-money swiss army knife of a pedal. Now what can I bung Santa's way to get me for Christmas? 😊

Agreed about electronic drum kits - makes all the difference in the world. You can literally tie your mother turn your drummer down. BTW that's EDK not EDM, but I do still prefer EAD @ead 😁 (soz couldn't resist).

Really liking the 11cm / 4.3" Minotaur! The Levy has been returned and swiftly refunded (well done Thomann - and the exact opposite of the experience a couple of us have had with Bax on returns) and a second Minotaur ordered to replace it. Can it give it a better 👍 than that!