The Yamaha BB mega-thread

[AndyTravis]

1 minute ago, Cuzzie said:

It’s why we love him long time

Not always long time

[CameronJ]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Besides it's nice to have a purely passive bass that I can just leave plugged in and never need to worry about having a flat battery for my troubles!  

This is the joy I’ve just rediscovered with my Dingwall P.

Didn’t realise how much I missed the convenience of passive!

[Al Krow]

4 minutes ago, CameronJ said:

This is the joy I’ve just rediscovered with my Dingwall P.

Didn’t realise how much I missed the convenience of passive!

Yeh the trouble with active basses is well they just need you to be that bit more active with them: messing around on the EQ when you're playing them, making sure you unplug them before you say g'nite, checking that their battery is ok...and they can't even be bothered to get themselves painted white.

Soooo attention seeking!  😁

Edited March 29, 2019 by Al Krow

[CameronJ]

Just now, Al Krow said:

Yeh the trouble with active basses is well they just need you to be that bit more active with them: messing around on the EQ when you're playing them, making sure you unplug them before you say g'nite, checking that their battery is ok.

Soooo attention seeking!  😁

Far too needy!

[AndyTravis]

22 years playing and 1000’s of basses owned...passive works for me.

Active...I’m always...looking for something which doesn’t need to be found.

[Cuzzie]

There are actives and actives.....

[Al Krow]

38 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

22 years playing and 1000’s of basses owned...passive works for me.

Active...I’m always...looking for something which doesn’t need to be found.

Yup and with passives too, in your case, it would seem 🤣 ... or after 1000's of basses are you getting somewhere close to finding 'the one' or at least nearing the 'one Trav'? 😁

[gobasserk]

Does anybody know why Yamaha changed the inlays on the fretboard? They used to start on the first fret, know they start from the 3 fret. 

[AndyTravis]

35 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Yup and with passives too, in your case, it would seem 🤣 ... or after 1000's of basses are you getting somewhere close to finding 'the one' or at least nearing the 'one Trav'? 😁

Nah. It’s all just trying to achieve a dream I was close to 10 years ago. And now I’m nearly 35, married, career and kids...

if buying basses meant you’d make it...I’d be the equivalent of Elvis Presley. 

As it stands I’m a fat Sir Richard Head III who’s owned a lot of basses.

[Al Krow]

1 minute ago, AndyTravis said:

Nah. It’s all just trying to achieve a dream I was close to 10 years ago. And now I’m nearly 35, married, career and kids...

if buying basses meant you’d make it...I’d be the equivalent of Elvis Presley. 

As it stands I’m a fat Sir Richard Head III who’s owned a lot of basses.

Ignore me, I'm just jealous that at 35 

a) you've tried more basses than I will in my lifetime

b) you've already been playing bass for 22 years!

[AndyTravis]

I meant to put ‘career’ in inverted commas. 

Hahah.

I suppose I could still “make it”.

The record industry is booming, right...

[AndyTravis]

And I’m not that fat actually. 13.5 stone which is 3 stone lighter than 2010.

[Al Krow]

30 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

And I’m not that fat actually. 13.5 stone which is 3 stone lighter than 2010.

Bloody hell - losing and keeping 3 stones off!! Wish I could manage to do that. Respect

Although you're clearly no longer the heavyweight bass player you once were 😀

[Al Krow]

Ok 'fess up, who else besides me finds twiddling their gun metal knobs on a black body bass and a poorly lit stage mid gig, tricky?

I've had to resort to taking drastic action ahead of tomorrow night's gig...

[Al Krow]

1 hour ago, gobasserk said:

Does anybody know why Yamaha changed the inlays on the fretboard? They used to start on the first fret, know they start from the 3 fret. 

Head of Inlay-Design at Yamaha bass fancied a 'creative change' following an instruction from Head of Marketing, Maketingu-san, who was under a bit of pressure regarding his bonus that year.

[AndyTravis]

14 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Bloody hell - losing and keeping 3 stones off!! Wish I could manage to do that. Respect

Although you're clearly no longer the heavyweight bass player you once were 😀

Hasn’t always been kept off. Always hit 14/14.5 and sort myself out. Need to be 12.5 but...beer.

[Cuzzie]

Whipper snapper

[AndyTravis]

2 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

Whipper snapper

Cor...whips and snaps 🤐😈

[Al Krow]

On 28/03/2019 at 17:31, jrixn1 said:

Love my BB735A!  Mainly as a P bass i.e. passive, 100% neck pickup.  Occasionally if I need more bite then active, 75% bridge, slightly boosted mids and highs.  Strings are Dunlop flats.

Favourite tone settings on the BB 735A

Been experimenting with and loving your two alternative settings, John. My strings are (I presume) the ones they came loaded with so likely to be brighter than your Dunlop flats. 

For anyone whose interested, I seem to settling on:

1) Passive Pups - full P EQ bass & mid by-passed; treble rolled off to 2/10 for general and possibly lower for a vintage sound

2) Active Pups - 3/4 J EQ: bass - flat,  mids - boosted,  treble flat

Unlike the BB 1025 having the P + J at 50:50 on the 735A gives the most mid-scooped tone , whereas with the selector switch you seem to be getting literally half of each on the BB 1025

3) Switching between active and passive:

Really easy to swap between the two: bass EQ and mids EQ are left permanently on preferred setting for active (as they are by-passed in passive mode) and then it's just two quick turns of the pup selector dial from P <--> 3/4 J and rolling the treble from 2/10 <--> 5/10

To avoid needing to switch the amp from active <--> passive, I just give a little volume knob on passive and cut a touch on active

=> can do that very easily all from the bass itself which keeps the convenience-junky / avoiding dead-air time part of me happy!

The passive tone is great for much of our covers material (vintage & general) and then switch to active where I need to cut through / more rocky material.

Edited March 29, 2019 by Al Krow

[bigsmokebass]

1 hour ago, AndyTravis said:

If buying basses meant you’d make it...I’d be the equivalent of Elvis Presley. 

Fat? Dead? Talentless? All? 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Al Krow]

1 minute ago, bigsmokebass said:

Fat? Dead? Talentless? All? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Keep up(!) we have already established he's not fat and he's also definitely alive (unless he's actually a computer generated algorithm 😂)

[Cuzzie]

I think we decided he is fat, just not that fat

[AndyTravis]

Talentless is fecking rich from you @bigsmokebass, I had talent before you were a d*ckhead. And that’s been a long, long time.

[bigsmokebass]

2 hours ago, gobasserk said:

Does anybody know why Yamaha changed the inlays on the fretboard? They used to start on the first fret, know they start from the 3 fret. 

Something to do with the number 1 being rather unlucky in Japanese. I'm not entirely sure but I'm sure someone will jump on this. 

@AndyTravis? 

[CameronJ]

Personally I prefer the first inlay being at the 3rd fret, but maybe I’m a weirdo 🤷🏾‍♂️