The Yamaha BB mega-thread

[matbard]

57 minutes ago, 2elliot said:

Forgot to say... I was watching a Hooky & Jack Bates live Q&A last week and the question regarding his new signature bass was asked several times. Jack said it was supposed to be released now ish but had to be put back due to the current pandemic.  Soooooo.... new Yamaha Hooky  bass (BB1200S) later in the year.  Excellent! 

Hooooorayyyyyyyy!!!!

[TRBboy]

12 hours ago, krispn said:

I’ll check these guys out for paint if I decide to redo my ‘tweaker’ bass!

I really enjoyed working with it, easy to apply evenly and dries really quickly. 

I got it from Graff-City, you can see the other colours in the range here too. https://www.graff-city.com/spray-cans-c128/spray-paint-cans-c76/montana-spray-paint-c90/montana-black-spray-paint-p58

Edited April 17, 2020 by TRBboy

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, 2elliot said:

Forgot to say... I was watching a Hooky & Jack Bates live Q&A last week and the question regarding his new signature bass was asked several times. Jack said it was supposed to be released now ish but had to be put back due to the current pandemic.  Soooooo.... new Yamaha Hooky  bass (BB1200S) later in the year.  Excellent! 

Ooooh that is exciting. I hope they remember to release a BB1205S whilst they're at it!

[krispn]

9 hours ago, TRBboy said:

I really enjoyed working with it, easy to apply evenly and dries really quickly. 

I got it from Graff-City, you can we eye other colours in the range here too. https://www.graff-city.com/spray-cans-c128/spray-paint-cans-c76/montana-spray-paint-c90/montana-black-spray-paint-p58

That’s quite the range!! Some great colours in there!

[Kiwi]

Can I ask for a show of hands - who owns a BBNE2 here apart from you @Al Krow?  

[Al Krow]

26 minutes ago, Kiwi said:

Can I ask for a show of hands - who owns a BBNE2 here apart from you @Al Krow?  

You thinking of getting one? 

[pete.young]

2 hours ago, Kiwi said:

Can I ask for a show of hands - who owns a BBNE2 here apart from you @Al Krow?  

I do. I'll PM you.

Edited April 17, 2020 by pete.young

[Kiwi]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

You thinking of getting one? 

I've always been thinking of getting one, they're fabulous basses.  But the Spector NS5CR (which has been with Jon Shuker since 2016) has tended to fill the gap that would have otherwise been filled by a BBNE2.   However I'm curious about why people want to own them and whether they think it is worth the asking price.  Compared to other basses in the same price range, they aren't flashy.

[Al Krow]

What's the story behind Jon S having your Spector since 2016, is he doing a repair?

Interesting that you have landed on the NE2 and a high end Spector - for me the NE2 makes more than passing design & tonal reference to Spector with its sculpted body shape, neck through design, and outrageously meaty low end. In fact, I feel that my Euro LX5 and NE2 have more in common with each other than the NE2 has to any of the other Yammy BBs that have passed through my hands.

FWIW - I think the new price of the NE2 is exorbitant but a vgc used one, on the other hand, justifies being in its price bracket when compared to similarly spec'd basses.

Edited April 17, 2020 by Al Krow

[Kiwi]

Yeah BBNE2, Spector NS5, Smith BSR/BT, maybe Tobias, Vigier, they're all sort of in the same ball park of timbre, aren't they?

The neck on the Spector has a slight S curve on it which prevents me from getting the action as low as I'd like.  He suggested steaming the neck straight but I was happy to just replace the rosewood with richlite and be done with the faff.  He's also got my Pangborn as well which was being refinished but the original finish was so tough on it that it feels like he's just written the whole thing off until there is a good enough reason to get back to it.  I'll probably end up doing it myself during my next visit to the UK.

If Spector or Tobias or even Schecter were to offer their take on the BBNE2, same neck woods and body (Spector already do alder with maple cap) how much would you be willing to pay to tempt you away from the BBNE2?  Is it all just about the woods or are the electronics part of the appeal?  I'd be happy with a passive bass if it felt and sounded right.

[Al Krow]

Hmmm...can't comment on Tobias / MTD or Vigier. But I wouldn't put Smith in the same tonal ball park as the NE2 or Spector. It's very much more its own sound - but you've owned a couple yourself so you're in as good a position as anyone to comment on that. The craftsmanship and attention to design and build detail on a Smith is in a league above the NE2 or Spector IMO, which is saying something given the quality of the latter two.

[Al Krow]

16 minutes ago, Kiwi said:

If Spector or Tobias or even Schecter were to offer their take on the BBNE2, same neck woods and body (Spector already do alder with maple cap) how much would you be willing to pay to tempt you away from the BBNE2?  Is it all just about the woods or are the electronics part of the appeal?  I'd be happy with a passive bass if it felt and sounded right.

Given that the NE2 is purely active, the electronics are definitely a very big part of the appeal and its USP, for me, is the Nathan East pre-amp with semi para mid cut.

Tbf you can get the 'Nathan East' sound in a relatively inexpensive pedal format and I'm guessing you could add to your bass to get a pretty close approximation - I'm basing that on comments from Sadowsky pre-amp pedal owners who feel that their pedal gives them a big slice of the Sad sound when added to to their P or J basses. I'm guessing you'll need a pretty uncoloured set of pups and EQ for that to be the case, though. 

[javi_bassist]

Hey guys, a quick question. How do you set up the 5th string on the BB735 (I guess it works for every model)? I have the strings throught the body but I cannot get the B properly adjusted on the 12th fret. The other ones are perfect (and even on my 734), but the 5th string is a pain in the donkey. I cannot get it right. When I had the strings throught the bridge, I ultimately could putting the saddle all the way back. I cannot do that with the strings throught the body (which I much prefer). It's a Dunlop Regular nickel 125

 

 

[jrixn1]

5 minutes ago, javi_bassist said:

How do you set up the 5th string on the BB735 (I guess it works for every model)? I have the strings throught the body but I cannot get the B properly adjusted on the 12th fret. The other ones are perfect (and even on my 734), but the 5th string is a pain in the donkey. I cannot get it right. When I had the strings throught the bridge, I ultimately could putting the saddle all the way back. I cannot do that with the strings throught the body (which I much prefer).

Why do you prefer through-body?

Being pragmatic, it sounds like your only option is to string through the bridge.

[javi_bassist]

3 minutes ago, jrixn1 said:

Why do you prefer through-body?

Being pragmatic, it sounds like your only option is to string through the bridge.

I just prefer the tension and the sound. 

if there's no other way, then I just put the 5th through the bridge

[Kiwi]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Hmmm...can't comment on Tobias / MTD or Vigier. But I wouldn't put Smith in the same tonal ball park as the NE2 or Spector. It's very much more its own sound - but you've owned a couple yourself so you're in as good a position as anyone to comment on that. The craftsmanship and attention to design and build detail on a Smith is in a league above the NE2 or Spector IMO, which is saying something given the quality of the latter two.

I actually replaced the Smiths with the Spector.  But I ripped out the EMG's as I don't like them in basses and put some custom Wizards in instead, wiring the coils in each pickup in parallel. So now the Spector sounds more like a Smith but with a bit more midrange. (Although now I know the bloke who makes Smith pickups so could go back to him for an OEM set if I thought that might make much of a difference.)

Do you use the mid cut much?  I have to admit that I didn't find mid cut very helpful on stage when I was gigging.

[Al Krow]

50 minutes ago, Kiwi said:

Do you use the mid cut much?  I have to admit that I didn't find mid cut very helpful on stage when I was gigging.

Agreed I would generally mid boost rather than cut when gigging. The point about the NE EQ is that it overlays a trad 3 band EQ. So you can mid boost the mids using the 3 band EQ, but then layer a boost / cut to different mid frequencies to get your "sound". That's the NE2 USP in a nutshell. 

We've just been discussing the lack of EQ centre freq info (on the Sire P7 thread) and this is certainly true for the NE2, but I've been advised that we can use a DAW to glean this info. 

But it seems to me that before diving in to get an NE2, you could very usefully get a Nathan East pedal (they have come up in the FS from time to time) and see if it gives you anything extra on the sound. If it does then you'll know much more what you're getting with the bass itself. 

[Kiwi]

I actually tried the NE pedal 15 years ago,  maybe it was just me but I didn't understand the point of it outside a recording studio.  I think I also saw a freq chart for the pedal somewhere online too since then. 

What about comparisons with the Wal high pass+boost@ shelving point? 

[AndyTravis]

5 minutes ago, Kiwi said:

I actually tried the NE pedal 15 years ago,  maybe it was just me but I didn't understand the point of it outside a recording studio.  I think I also saw a freq chart for the pedal somewhere online too since then. 

What about comparisons with the Wal high pass+boost@ shelving point? 

I have owned 3 of them. I “need” one every now and again. And then remember I want it to have an on/off switch and a PSU in.

So I sell them.

Probably due a revisit in 18 months or so 🙄😂

[Kiwi]

8 hours ago, Al Krow said:

But it seems to me that before diving in to get an NE2, you could very usefully get a Nathan East pedal (they have come up in the FS from time to time) and see if it gives you anything extra on the sound. If it does then you'll know much more what you're getting with the bass itself. 

Have you tried the BB2005 at all?  Same electronics and identical woods apart from no maple cap on the wings, chrome hardware and rosewood fingerboard instead of ebony.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-BB-2005-5-String-Bass-Guitar-with-Hiscox-Case/202967944175?hash=item2f41d50bef:g:ovEAAOSw~wZejjOQ

[TRBboy]

Unpopular opinion probably, but I'll say it again; I really didn't like the NE1 preamp! That mid freq selector is hugely versatile but hugely annoying! A fractional turn of the knob changes the tone completely, and in a live scenario it's very hard to hear what's going on. You can spend a while playing with it to find that 'sweet spot' you were looking for, but then if you accidentally knock it it takes ages to find it again.... 

It just didn't feel very intuitive to me, on a lot of basses I've used, the mid frequency knob basically boosts high mids and cuts low mids clockwise of the center detent, and vice versa the other way. That feels logical. There didn't seem to be any logic to the NE1 to me, it was more like a random filter generator where you had no idea what sound rotating the knob would produce. 

I get that it's versatile, it just might have been a good idea to have some way to gauge what the different positions on the knob mean, markings perhaps, and maybe multiple detents to help you keep it set on the tone you like. 

Just my 2p

[Al Krow]

2 hours ago, Kiwi said:

Have you tried the BB2005 at all?  Same electronics and identical woods apart from no maple cap on the wings, chrome hardware and rosewood fingerboard instead of ebony.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-BB-2005-5-String-Bass-Guitar-with-Hiscox-Case/202967944175?hash=item2f41d50bef:g:ovEAAOSw~wZejjOQ

I haven't, but this chap is selling one (and for a fair bit less than the one eBay, albeit it's a 4 strings) - and he, or the chap he brought it from 10 years back, would be able to speak from experience about the bass.

The electronics aren't quite the same though: it looks like it doesn't have the NE sweepable mids i.e. it has the same EQ config as that on current BB734/5A.

[krispn]

57 minutes ago, TRBboy said:

Unpopular opinion probably, but I'll say it again; I really didn't like the NE1 preamp! That mid freq selector is hugely versatile but hugely annoying! A fractional turn of the knob changes the tone completely, and in a live scenario it's very hard to hear what's going on. You can spend a while playing with it to find that 'sweet spot' you were looking for, but then if you accidentally knock it it takes ages to find it again.... 

It just didn't feel very intuitive to me, on a lot of basses I've used, the mid frequency knob basically boosts high mids and cuts low mids clockwise of the center detent, and vice versa the other way. That feels logical. There didn't seem to be any logic to the NE1 to me, it was more like a random filter generator where you had no idea what sound rotating the knob would produce. 

I get that it's versatile, it just might have been a good idea to have some way to gauge what the different positions on the knob mean, markings perhaps, and maybe multiple detents to help you keep it set on the tone you like. 

Just my 2p

I’d have to agree that some, well most, on board EQ’s are simply too much especially in terms of amount of boost. Who needs 15dB of boost or cut especially on a bass frequency? I often wondered if an on board EQ could be made with a maximum of 4 or 5dB boost/cut across the taper of the pot. I know we don’t have to wind every control to ten but having a limited range of boost cut across the taper makes sense to me. On a sweepable mid control it would be good to have numbers such as those on a vol or tone control showing the region being boosted or cut. Putting some mid frequency points onto a knob shouldn’t be any more challenging than adding 1-10 or certainly not difficult to add some information in a subtle way. Some companies offer a three way mid select switch which is handy. A reason I like the tone styler pot is it’s very easy to recall a setting and it’s passive! 
The TC BH amps have a clever eq but I don’t think we’ll see that in an on board eq just yet. 

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, TRBboy said:

Unpopular opinion probably, but I'll say it again; I really didn't like the NE1 preamp! That mid freq selector is hugely versatile but hugely annoying! A fractional turn of the knob changes the tone completely, and in a live scenario it's very hard to hear what's going on. You can spend a while playing with it to find that 'sweet spot' you were looking for, but then if you accidentally knock it it takes ages to find it again.... 

It just didn't feel very intuitive to me, on a lot of basses I've used, the mid frequency knob basically boosts high mids and cuts low mids clockwise of the center detent, and vice versa the other way. That feels logical. There didn't seem to be any logic to the NE1 to me, it was more like a random filter generator where you had no idea what sound rotating the knob would produce. 

I get that it's versatile, it just might have been a good idea to have some way to gauge what the different positions on the knob mean, markings perhaps, and maybe multiple detents to help you keep it set on the tone you like. 

Just my 2p

I think that's very fair and a great way of deciding whether the BB NE2 is going to be worth spending some serious coin on or not.

The issue of remembering what the sweet spot settings on analogue pedals (without presets available on digital pedals) is an age old one and plenty of folk deal with this by putting some markers on their pedals. If you thought the NE1 was tricksy, I would wager the VT Bass DI is even more so - really liked what ead has done with some simple markers on his: 

Edited April 18, 2020 by Al Krow

[Al Krow]

Oh and if you think the NE2 EQ gives you too much choice, then definitely steer clear of Status S3 parametrix! 😁