Billy Sheehan Bass?

[wishface]

That light green bass he plays with the white pickguard and the black frets. It's a retail model I think, does anyone know how much it sells for?

[Mattpt85]

There have been a few different models, ranging from a few hundred up to a couple of grand I think!
It's a Yamaha Attitude. Brilliant guitars

[Mattpt85]

Mine's the Attitude Special, one of the cheaper ones but with upgrades, awesome.

[RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE]

Yours looks great Matt
I believe new , the rrp was about £1600.
They can go for less than £1000.
I love the look of the green one (the blue and red ones before them are nice too).
Unfirtunately for me , I'm used to headless , so I won't get one .
Btw; I think the latest one looks horrible
(I was talking about the stereo / drop d basses;) )

Edited February 8, 2016 by RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE

[fretmeister]

There ahve been 3 proper ones - The Attitude; Attitude II; Attitude III

I've had them all at some stage. The neck shapes are a little different - in fact the III neck was far bigger than the previous ones I had. Didn't like that one. Sounded great though.

The RRP on the III was originally about £2500 but Yamaha couldn't sell them at that money so they reduced it to (I think) £1799, but looking at various sites like GAK and Bass Direct, the RRP is now back up to £2899 !!

The green one he was seen most with is the II model. They come up used at £1000 or less. TorVic on here was selling one.

Great basses, but IMHO the new III models are massively overpriced for what is essentially a Precision with a few extras.

Be wary of weights too - my Mk1 was about 9lb and comfy, but my Mk3 was a whopping 12 lb and it killed my back. They vary a lot.

[fretmeister]

oh year - there is the SPECIAL which has the neck pickup but only 1 output, and there is a cheaper still version too with just the P pickup. The neck is slimmer too.

And a Japan only model with a piezo as the P pickup. Never seen one in the flesh.

[fretmeister]

Special Offer at £2250

http://www.bassdirect.co.uk/bass_guitar_specialists/Yamaha_Billy_Sheen_LTD_3.html

[victor5string]

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1454935304' post='2974293']
oh year - there is the SPECIAL which has the neck pickup but only 1 output, and there is a cheaper still version too with just the P pickup. The neck is slimmer too.

And a Japan only model with a piezo as the P pickup. Never seen one in the flesh.
[/quote]

The one with the Piezo also had the woofer pickup, it's under the scratch plate. It was called the custom. Also had the cool neck joint

[fretmeister]

[quote name='victor5string' timestamp='1454936123' post='2974309']
The one with the Piezo also had the woofer pickup, it's under the scratch plate. It was called the custom. Also had the cool neck joint
[/quote]

ah! Thank you. Didn't know that.

Wasn't there a very limited 5 string with piezo at some point too?

[wishface]

I was under the (mis)impression they were a budget range. Nevermind.

[Mattpt85]

You can find the 'Special' second hand for around 300 - 350.
That's what I paid for mine if I remember rightly

[fretmeister]

There is also the BB series budget version

http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical-instruments/guitars-basses/el-basses/signature_models/bb714bs/

Could be easily modded for 2 outputs if that is needed. But it's not much like the proper one.

[LewisK1975]

I've had a 'special' and I own a LTD II in black as well - all of the above info is pretty much spot on. Great basses and the dimarzio pickups in them are insane. Negatives for me - They can be a bit difficult to find, second hand especially so. The LTD models are all quite neck heavy. And I agree with fretmeister above - the price of the current LTD III is way over the top..

There's a facebook page devoted to the bass too if you fancy it.

Edited February 8, 2016 by LewisK1975

[wishface]

thanks, but it's out of my league for now. Perhaps another time. No good window shopping

[Marvin]

You might find a second hand/older model, however, the only Attitude that Yamaha make now is Sheehan's signature model.

[wishface]

My bass isn't great, but it was cheap. I think i might have allowed myself to be fooled by sales rhetoric so I'll start a new thread to find something better and affordable.

[fretmeister]

Billy's own first one was just a modded Fender precision.

He's done plenty of vids about what he did to it. You could get a cheap & cheerful precision and do the same mods to it

[wishface]

how much?

[bartelby]

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1454948015' post='2974495']
Billy's own first one was just a modded Fender precision.

[/quote]


In 1988 I did the same mods to my Aria SB Elite...
Soon I'll be correcting some of those mods...

[Matt P]

there is a special for sale at the moment in the classifieds, 300 quid (I have no connection to the seller) [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/277218-billy-sheehan-attitude-special-signed-by-billy-new-strings-setup/page__p__2959573__hl__attitude%20special__fromsearch__1#entry2959573"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/277218-billy-sheehan-attitude-special-signed-by-billy-new-strings-setup/page__p__2959573__hl__attitude%20special__fromsearch__1#entry2959573[/url]

the pickups are about 140 quid for the pair, by the time you've bought a half decent p-bass (vm series squire or similar) and the pickups you'd be just as well to pick up the special on the secondhand market.

Matt

[fretmeister]

[quote name='wishface' timestamp='1454950584' post='2974537']
how much?
[/quote]

YOu could start with a cheap and cheerful Squier Precision and add the neck pickup with another output. If you don't want to spend money on the Dimarzio neck pickup you could use a humbucker from an Epiphone EB series - get one on ebay for £15

Then when you get some more money, change the P pickup to the Dimarzio Will Power.

Then save up a bit more and get a Hipshot D-Tuner for the E string

[Guest MoJo]

[quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1454941643' post='2974408']
There is also the BB series budget version

[url="http://usa.yamaha.com/products/musical-instruments/guitars-basses/el-basses/signature_models/bb714bs/"]http://usa.yamaha.co...models/bb714bs/[/url]

Could be easily modded for 2 outputs if that is needed. But it's not much like the proper one.
[/quote]

I was of the understanding that the BB714BS was a celebration of Billy's first Yamaha, the Pink BB he used when he retired the Precision

[JapanAxe]

PMT in Bristol have got this Yamaha BB714BS for £547:

[wishface]

Not really sure what I should do, probably at least find a P bass to try before buying online. I think I know someone that has one for sale, but he's hard to get hold of and iirc he wanted 400 quid.

I'm at the point where I'd like to invest in a decent bass. All i've owned are pretty cheap models and I feel they've restricted me in some ways. Of course money is a factor.

[Maude]

If you can afford it get the one Matt P posted a link to. I really don't think you'll regret it.
I had one as my first 'real' bass and loved it. Traded it in after a couple of years for a Yamaha 5 string as I fancied trying a five, gigged the 5 for years and still have it but really wished I could have afforded to keep the Attitude as well but at the time I had no money.
If I didn't have far too many basses that don't get played then I'd probably snap that Attitude up as I really fancy one again, just really can't justify it.

Go buy it, you know you want to.

I don't know the seller btw, just know it's a damn fine bass.