The Yamaha BB mega-thread

[gobasserk]

I like the older shape better than the new one and most important... the new line lacks the presence of the pick up rings! THE symbol of the BB line.

Gone. Like a Mercedes without a star 😉 

Maybe to appear more Fender-ish.  How easy the construction of some new pu rings (fitting std size pus) would have been. To just leave them out was easier and cheaper. To leave out the iconic fretmarks on the cheaper models... just sad. The new line has one positive effect- customers of a new BB are selling their old ones. 

Well, it is what it is. 

 

Edit: Concerning colours - just buy a second hand BB and choose a colour you want and refinish it. You'll get your dream bass with a totally mint appearance. No reason to wait for new catalogue colors - including a fitting headstock finish (!). 

Edited Saturday at 22:10 by gobasserk

[Tjhooker]

Yeah is it the 414 and 415 and the active models too even though bolt on still had the right look / vibe

[Tjhooker]

Stil🤞 for a revstar bass

[AndyTravis]

40 minutes ago, Tjhooker said:

Yeah is it the 414 and 415 and the active models too even though bolt on still had the right look / vibe

I had a bb1600 and aside from a little fairy dust (hard to explain) I couldn’t pick between that and the bb414 I still have…in a mix at least.

 

The 1600 felt more special.

 

 

[neepheid]

2 hours ago, gobasserk said:

I like the older shape better than the new one and most important... the new line lacks the presence of the pick up rings! THE symbol of the BB line.

Gone. Like a Mercedes without a star 😉 

Maybe to appear more Fender-ish.  How easy the construction of some new pu rings (fitting std size pus) would have been. To just leave them out was easier and cheaper. To leave out the iconic fretmarks on the cheaper models... just sad. The new line has one positive effect- customers of a new BB are selling their old ones. 

Well, it is what it is. 

 

Edit: Concerning colours - just buy a second hand BB and choose a colour you want and refinish it. You'll get your dream bass with a totally mint appearance. No reason to wait for new catalogue colors - including a fitting headstock finish (!). 

 

They always did that though - look at a BB300, 450, 800, even mid tier products like the 1100s.  Your ire is misdirected in this case.

[AndyTravis]

41 minutes ago, Tjhooker said:

Stil🤞 for a revstar bass

Yeah, but if they do it’ll be a short scale…maybe?

 

I hope not…

[gobasserk]

11 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

They always did that though - look at a BB300, 450, 800, even mid tier products like the 1100s.  Your ire is misdirected in this case.

It is not ire 🙂 More disappointment. To do some inlays with todays technology is not an issue of a hundred Dollars. 

[neepheid]

5 minutes ago, gobasserk said:

It is not ire 🙂 More disappointment. To do some inlays with todays technology is not an issue of a hundred Dollars. 

 

So, you're just going to sidestep the main point of what I was saying - that it's nothing new under the sun for Yamaha to put the simple dot inlays on some BBs?

[gobasserk]

First of all, I don't want to get into a personal dispute, I just expressed my opinion. What I wanted to say fits the topic of what's new in BBs. With today's technology, an inlay doesn't cost a fortune to mass produce. And it would have been nice ( and even nicer than before when Yamaha used to do so ) and an incentive to buy. That's all. Let's not forget that I still love and play BBs! Well, the older ones 🙂 

[neepheid]

5 minutes ago, gobasserk said:

First of all, I don't want to get into a personal dispute, I just expressed my opinion. What I wanted to say fits the topic of what's new in BBs. With today's technology, an inlay doesn't cost a fortune to mass produce. And it would have been nice ( and even nicer than before when Yamaha used to do so ) and an incentive to buy. That's all. Let's not forget that I still love and play BBs! Well, the older ones 🙂 

 

I'm not getting personal, I'm making a comment on your opinion, not you personally!  I broadly agree with you - I prefer old school BBs too and it's not some knee jerk reaction - I tried to like the BB434 I had but just couldn't get into it.  I've owned a BB300, 350F, 450, 614 and 434, and I currently have a BB1200, so you can see that I tack very much in the old school direction.

 

I'm merely pointing out that the use of dot inlays versus the ovals (or their modern reworking) to differentiate product tiers has been going on pretty much since the BB was created.  That a BB234 has dot inlays is not in the least bit surprising to me.  But your post has given me some pause for thought and having thought about it, I *am* a little surprised that the 434 has dots whereas previous 4 tier instruments had the ovals (424/414).  I'll give you that - that's a disappointing shift of the tipping point where Yamaha sees the lines between their BB basses.

Fancy (well, fancier) inlays won't make me like the new BBs any more though - they feel like they've gone on a diet, been streamlined or something I can't quite put my finger on.  Some people might love that and think that old school BBs are obese, blobby and clunky, each to their own and all that.

[gobasserk]

I think (but don't know) everything new was done to make it even more attractive to Fender orientated bass payers. The downsizing, the std size pus, the body without pu rings. In my opinion, you'll get the best Fender tone when playing a Fender. It's so simple 🙂  The new line does not amaze me that much. Played an incredible BBP35 at Guitar Summit two years ago, no 4 string could match that sadly. 

I started with a 300 back in the 80s. Went up from 1600 to 3000 then came the Hifi years with active basses. When the BB series started new with the 414 I fell in love again with the series. My main bass is 1000MA for nearly 25 years now (this bass even smashed my 3000MA) and last year I found some 424s in mint condition that are just wonderfull. I remember putting a pu ring on a beautiful 300 in candy apple red, I should have kept that (heavy) bass 🙂 

 

[Maude]

9 minutes ago, gobasserk said:

 

All with the 'correct' P pickup orientation. 

Superb! 

[Maude]

Just to add to the chrome pickup rings and dots or oval inlay comments, my BB1100S has none of these but is absolutely wonderful. 😉

 

OK ok, it's just an excuse to post some BB porn 😁

 

[gobasserk]

Beautiful bass !!!! 😍

I think the black 1000MA is going to get a silver sparkle finish this year. This is my first 1000MA and it had to go through so many amateur-ish optical operations in the last 20 years.. 😱 Foils, stickers, gold harware (including the transformation of the pu rings to gold) Maybe I can find some pics of the most cruel things done to this piece of wood somewhere 😉 

[hookys6stringbass]

30 minutes ago, Maude said:

All with the 'correct' P pickup orientation. 

Superb! 

Another correct pick up lover...like myself.... I salute you sir... 

Great collection!!!

[Maude]

The quoting makes it look like they're mine, they're not. That's all @gobasserk's reverse P loveliness. 

 

 

I had to take drastic action to get my first reverse P in my life. 

As the old saying goes, "If the reverse P doesn't fit in the bass, the bass must be made to fit the reverse P."

Whadyamean that's not a saying? Well it should be then. 

 

[Paddy777]

I’m finally joining the Yamaha BB club this week - waiting on delivery of my new (to me) 1984 BB3000s so I can get my Jonathan Maron-on! Was looking at a BBP34 tbh, just fancied a decent passive PJ 4 string but I’m not massively clued up about the old Japanese ones, however this looked like a good decent deal and I think just going from YouTube videos etc it sounds like it has a bit more mojo than the BBP, I’ve always liked the pickups in these older Yamaha's too

[Jaybeevee]

Be sure to drop some pics 👍

[gobasserk]

As mentioned before, my black 1000MA had to go through some weird times... 😛 

 

[Maude]

42 minutes ago, gobasserk said:

As mentioned before, my black 1000MA had to go through some weird times... 😛 

 

Wow! A BBC3PO 😁

Looks cool though 😎👌

[Paddy777]

On 05/01/2025 at 21:03, Jaybeevee said:

Be sure to drop some pics 👍

I’ll take some better ones later on, these are the sellers pics. Not perfect condition but it’s 40 years old, so taking that into account it’s pretty good - it’s been bought as a working bass anyway, so a few chips don’t matter, came in the original Yamaha hard case, which is a bit battered but always nice to have it

 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 00:45 by Paddy777

[LowB_FTW]

Hello there!

 

I joined the BB owners club in November last year …

 

 

 

 

Mark

[Paddy777]

Well my BB3000s arrived today and

i have to say I’m absolutely blown away by the quality of it! 🤩 I had obviously read/heard how good they were but I guess I’m still taken aback somewhat at how nice it is to play, and also how great it sounds - I don’t quite know how to explain it, but the tone is absolutely perfect, it’s like it’s hard to sound bad playing it (but I’m sure I’ll manage to give it a good shot 😂).

 

It has a really lovely neck - it’s not particularly wide but it’s a bit thicker than a jazz front to back, it feels like you just glide your hand where it needs to go and you get this lovely even tone all over the fretboard. I do have a bit of a tendency to get carried away with new basses and then a month or two later after a few gigs I’ll find there’s one or two niggly things I don’t like, the only with this I can see at the mo is that the tuners don’t hold their tune very well at all, in fact the A string is so bad it actually turned back the other way a quarter turn after I’d tuned it, but I just put it down to being 40 years old. I’ll have to sort something out - see if I can find

some replacement gold Yamaha ones the same otherwise I may stick some Gotoh’s or something on for now. Anyway, suffice to say I am more than impressed with it - it’s really got some mojo, decent weight too - a few grams over 9lbs 
 

Couple more pix 👇 

 

 

 

 

[neepheid]

13 minutes ago, Paddy777 said:

Well my BB3000s arrived today and

i have to say I’m absolutely blown away by the quality of it! 🤩 I had obviously read/heard how good they were but I guess I’m still taken aback somewhat at how nice it is to play, and also how great it sounds - I don’t quite know how to explain it, but the tone is absolutely perfect, it’s like it’s hard to sound bad playing it (but I’m sure I’ll manage to give it a good shot 😂).

 

It has a really lovely neck - it’s not particularly wide but it’s a bit thicker than a jazz front to back, it feels like you just glide your hand where it needs to go and you get this lovely even tone all over the fretboard. I do have a bit of a tendency to get carried away with new basses and then a month or two later after a few gigs I’ll find there’s one or two niggly things I don’t like, the only with this I can see at the mo is that the tuners don’t hold their tune very well at all, in fact the A string is so bad it actually turned back the other way a quarter turn after I’d tuned it, but I just put it down to being 40 years old. I’ll have to sort something out - see if I can find

some replacement gold Yamaha ones the same otherwise I may stick some Gotoh’s or something on for now. Anyway, suffice to say I am more than impressed with it - it’s really got some mojo, decent weight too - a few grams over 9lbs 
 

Couple more pix 👇 

 

 

 

 

 

The tuners' tensions can be adjusted - see those little holes just below the buttons?  I'd be amazed if you got the proper tool lumped in with the bass because they always seem to get lost.  I'm sure it's been discussed here, but I can't find it so here's a TB thread all about it (as well as ideas for what to do if you don't have the official tool) - https://www.talkbass.com/threads/yamaha-bb-tuner-wrench-anyone-know-where-to-buy.718816/

EDIT - had another search and found it - https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/470267-old-adjustable-machine-heads-tuners/

 

Edited 17 hours ago by neepheid

[Maude]

The tuners are adjustable and it's possible yours just need a little tighten. 

Although quite rare to come by there is a little 'c' spanner that fits in the hole in the tuner shaft to nip them up. 

I would imagine there's non Yamaha tools that would also do the job.