The Yamaha BB mega-thread

[dave_bass5]

Damn, I got my 425 out this evening and i too want a P35 now. Such an easy instrument to play, and all the notes seem so even. This certainly rivals my old Lakland as far as playability and all round workhorse goes.

I know there is one for sale on here, but I'd need to sell my P34 first and, well I'd miss it if i did, 

[dave_bass5]

On 02/12/2019 at 20:28, AndyTravis said:

Get the 435 in teal if you’re getting one 😉

Its getting to a point where i genuinely do want a 435 now, and yes, if it matches the P34 the GF will never know we have  new addition (plus i have an empty bass case that needs filling).

[Al Krow]

...finally found a (pretty big!) use for the solo'd J pup

Had a slightly weird week trying to work out why my BB 1025 wasn't cutting through at rehearsal on the low B string on the D and C notes on e.g. Uptown Funk, which we were doing for the first time yesterday. Ended up taking my Ibby to the gig last night and had comments from bandmates along the lines of the "your bass line sounded great on Uptown Funk" and "whatever pedal setting you were using to fill out the sound please continue". Obviously, not being bass players, they didn't notice what bass I had or even that there was no pedal board in sight! 😂 The only thing that had changed was the bass - I'd gone from PJ to a JJ (with different pups).

Was wondering whether it was possibly down to old strings, but actually they don't sound 'dead' - just played in, or whether I'd got the amp on wrong active / passive switch setting, or was it simply down to the pup height at the low end.

Investigated further today and checked out all the above. Turns out that the Yammy can sound just great on the low B notes and will cut through...using the solo'd bridge J pup. Never thought I'd find a situation where I was going to prefer the Yammy J over the P or PJ. Well I just have - it's now going to be my default on anything requiring a meaty full throat low B and E string, and I've gone from 😒 to 😊 in the course of the week.

Kinda makes sense - the P is all about that 'P mid-bump' and P basses were all originally 4 string so perhaps inherently less focused on the low B string?

The other key point for the J pup is if you ever need to thumb slap (e.g. on Uptown Funk!) you'll get speaker pop from the P or PJ, given that the thumb is coming down pretty close to the P pup, whereas I don't find that to be the case with the J.

Two years in (okay I'm a slow learner) I'm still finding out great things about the versatility of this bass.

Any of you guys also using the solo'd J in any of your numbers?

Edited December 8, 2019 by Al Krow

[dave_bass5]

Just remember, if this was done at home level you may well find things are different with the band. 

Might be my imagination but most of the 5 sting bases i see on TV are Jazz type basses. Maybe this is the reason why you dont see a lot of 5 string P's. 

I dont use my P34 bridge pup much, let alone solo'ed, but i do with my 425. I use it solo'ed all the way through All Right now and My Sharona. 

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Al Krow said:

...finally found a (pretty big!) use for the solo'd J pup

Any of you guys also using the solo'd J in any of your numbers?

I'm playing a few Led Zeppelin tunes in the band rehearsals right now and I find the solo'd J pickup on my 734 sounds pretty good. I use roundwounds so it's not gonna nail the JPJ tone but with the bass boosted slightly, a big mid boost, and a treble cut, it sounds pretty tasty regardless.

[krispn]

Solo j has its place

So just a question did you use the solo’d bridge j pick up when playing Uptown Funk with the Ibanez? 

Did you have the active eq engaged on the Ibanez and did that result in you bass being easier to hear?

I know the BB can be quite aggressive but going from a passive BB pj to an active Ibanez JJ are two very different sounding basses I’d suspect.

Hopefully your experiment will translate to the gig. I know having recently gone back to using a Jazz bass you hear some basses stand out more on certain songs or just became more aware of their sonic footprint especially if you’re more familiar with one bass over another. In my experience my mustang still works better than my jazz in my other band.

 

Edited December 9, 2019 by krispn

[Al Krow]

Congrats on getting yourself a BBNE1! Pics please.

I suspect a big part of the reason that there haven't been a bunch of replies to your post is that the BBNE1 are as rare as hen's teeth, so there's a bit of collective 'black hole' in our knowledge of this particular bass, and you've managed to get yourself a bit of gem there! 

Just based on the following clip of Nathan East playing his NE1, it seems to me that the key difference with the NE2 is that the latter has a sweepable mid cut ('SMC') and a selector switch to engage the SMC and the NE1 doesn't. @pete.young  is a bit of a guru on the BBNE basses and hopefully he'll be along shortly to confirm / correct what I've just said.

 

[crabman]

We had the Stereophonics at our Christmas bash, and it was good to see Richard Jones sporting a burst BBP34. Pretty damn punchy with the pair of 8x10s he had behind him. 

[dave_bass5]

6 hours ago, crabman said:

We had the Stereophonics at our Christmas bash, and it was good to see Richard Jones sporting a burst BBP34. Pretty damn punchy with the pair of 8x10s he had behind him. 

We've just started playing Bartender and the Thief. What a great song, 

[pete.young]

16 hours ago, Al Krow said:

 

I suspect a big part of the reason that there haven't been a bunch of replies to your post is that the BBNE1 are as rare as hen's teeth, so there's a bit of collective 'black hole' in our knowledge of this particular bass, and you've managed to get yourself a bit of gem there! 

Just based on the following clip of Nathan East playing his NE1, it seems to me that the key difference with the NE2 is that the latter has a sweepable mid cut ('SMC') and a selector switch to engage the SMC and the NE1 doesn't. @pete.young  is a bit of a guru on the BBNE basses and hopefully he'll be along shortly to confirm / correct what I've just said.

 

Oh no he isn't! I don't know that much about the BBNE2 and virtually nothing about the original BBE. I suspect the preamps are completely different circuits and there's much more difference than just a missing knob and switch. All I can do is read manuals.

SPeaking of which there's a service manual for the BBNE available for download here: https://elektrotanya.com/yamaha_bbne_nathan_east_model_guitar.pdf/download.html#dl

 

Sorry but I can't figure out how to use the rubbish post editor to delete the rubbish included files!

[javi_bassist]

Hey guys. I am on the quest for strings for my BB735. I have been using Ernie Ball Slinky and I hate them. I don't like the 5th. I would like to use the Dunlop Super Brights (because I use them in my 4 string basses and I love them) but they are hard to find in Spain. I was trying a bass in a Yamaha store (RBXA2 which I loved) and I like the strings. It has the Daddario nickels but the super long version. Do you know if the BB735 would need the Super long version? They come with the super long out of the factory. I wanted to put them on through the body. The Ernie Balls Super Slinky were normal but I don't know about D'addario

[dave_bass5]

17 minutes ago, javi_bassist said:

Hey guys. I am on the quest for strings for my BB735. I have been using Ernie Ball Slinky and I hate them. I don't like the 5th. I would like to use the Dunlop Super Brights (because I use them in my 4 string basses and I love them) but they are hard to find in Spain. I was trying a bass in a Yamaha store (RBXA2 which I loved) and I like the strings. It has the Daddario nickels but the super long version. Do you know if the BB735 would need the Super long version? They come with the super long out of the factory. I wanted to put them on through the body. The Ernie Balls Super Slinky were normal but I don't know about D'addario

Standard 'Long' is fine. I use D'addario XL's and they work really well on my basses.

I had a set of Ernie Ball Slinky's on my P34 and took them off after a couple of days. Not sure why i didn't like them, but i didn't.

Edited December 12, 2019 by dave_bass5

[javi_bassist]

15 minutes ago, dave_bass5 said:

Standard 'Long' is fine. I use D'addario XL's and they work really well on my basses.

I had a set of Ernie Ball Slinky's on my P34 and took them off after a couple of days. Not sure why i didn't like them, but i didn't.

How are the XLs? I have been always curious. They are brighter than regular nickels right?

[dave_bass5]

1 hour ago, javi_bassist said:

How are the XLs? I have been always curious. They are brighter than regular nickels right?

Ive been using these for years. Ive never noticed them being brighter than other nicks, like Fenders, but im so used to these now that i cant really remember what the others sounded like. I would also say these sound pretty much the same as the Slinky's.

Edited December 12, 2019 by dave_bass5

[JD1]

Thanks Al / Pete. I’ll sort out pics. She’s a beaut. I’ve had a look in the control cavity and there are a couple of trim pots and dip switches etc. but hard to make out from the manual what’s what. I’ll just leave it since it sounds canny the way it is. Not sure how to upload pics on here - been a member from the start but not been on much in years.

[JD1]

[AndyTravis]

That’s bloody marvellous 

[JD1]

Couple of other pics. The “Slap contour”, recessed jack and interestingly carved back. And the control cavity. Any help welcome! 😀

[pete.young]

@JD1 I think it works like this.

The 'mid' switch, the middle one in the row of 3 switches on the front of the guitar, has 3 positions: Off, EQ1 and EQ2 . I don't know if the 'Off' position is clockwise or anti clockwise - I suspect the latter.

One of the little white trim pots selects the central frequency for EQ1. The other trim pot selects the central frequency for EQ2.  The third pot controls the amount of cut or boost for EQ2. I think the cut/boost only works on EQ2 setting and I can't tell from the picture which white trim wheel is which.

If it sounds great where it is, probably best left alone 🙂

 

[Al Krow]

36 minutes ago, pete.young said:

@JD1 I think it works like this.

The 'mid' switch, the middle one in the row of 3 switches on the front of the guitar, has 3 positions: Off, EQ1 and EQ2 . I don't know if the 'Off' position is clockwise or anti clockwise - I suspect the latter.

One of the little white trim pots selects the central frequency for EQ1. The other trim pot selects the central frequency for EQ2.  The third pot controls the amount of cut or boost for EQ2. I think the cut/boost only works on EQ2 setting and I can't tell from the picture which white trim wheel is which.

If it sounds great where it is, probably best left alone 🙂

Told you he was our resident expert 😁

[JD1]

Thanks Pete. Not sure tbh. The mid pot doesn’t have a distinct 2/3 position feel - just a centre detent like the cut and boost on the treble and bass pots. I may have a tweak one day when I have time and report back!

[Guest MoJo]

A festive Phil Lynnott on a Yamaha BB. Merry Christmas BC'ers

 

Edited December 25, 2019 by MoJo

[dannybuoy]

A Christmassy BB pic!

 

[javi_bassist]

I tried to set my BB735 through the body from the 1st to the 4th and the 5th through the bridge, and I don't like it much. I preferred all through the body. However, I cannot find a 5th string that I really like. I have to go back to Dunlop, since I think it's the one I liked the most. I've been using Ernie Balll Hybrid Slinky and I hate that 5th. Now, I switched back to D'addario since I tried one in a store and I liked it, but I'm not convinced. Do you guys have any recommendation? I'd like to try DR (the nickel ones) and I have to try the Super Bright by Dunlop

[dannybuoy]

Dunlop Super Brights had a very floppy low B, I've tried a few different sets but keep coming back to D'Addario nickels. Although I'll be trying their NYXLs next.