The Yamaha BBG4Sii dilemma.

[agoulding]

Hey guys!

 

I have had this Yamaha BBG4Sii for a number of year now. In fact, I think it was in a part ex deal from Basschat a looooong time ago. This bass was well used and my number 1 at one point. I loved how comfortable it was to play and enjoyed how it sounded. Always been a fan of these Yamaha instruments. Especially the later TRB models with the seemingly identical pick ups, one of which I also own.

 

I have been thinking about giving the bass a complete overhaul of electronics and hardware. It seems the electronics are corroding, the jack input is dead, it no longer has it's gold hardware - replaced by some cheap Aria hardware...it needs some serious TLC.

 

So my dilemma is this, spend time and money investing in this generally cheap instrument as a fun project or just wait until another comes along and buy it to replace it? I feel like the project would be a fun one, and it would be a shame to not bring it back to life, since I enjoyed playing it so much back in the day.

 

Where to start? The pick ups are famously large and difficult to replace....preamp not exactly difficult to figure out....anyone willing to make suggestions/give advice/abuse would be greatly appreciated 👍 😏

 

Not my bass, picture for reference:

 

 

 

[Sean]

If you think it sounded good then I’d question the need to replace the pickups and preamp. 

 

It depends on what you want from it. A keeper beater? As soon as you start spending money on it, it won’t add resale value unless it’s a general refresh and original hardware is replaced. 

 

If you want to see how far you can take the modding, then the world is your oyster.

[agoulding]

Its unlikely I would ever want to sell it because of the history I have with this bass.

Looking at the electronics, it be a great surprise to me if they work at all, which is easy to check once I replace the jack input. Classic barrel jack problems which led me to putting it down in the first place. Just never got round to replacing it. 

I was hoping someone here may have had experience with modding their Yamaha BBG4Sii or even the Korean TRB models that share the same pick ups. Im interested to hear their story. I probably should have mentioned this in the first place!

There's a nice Frank Itt video on YouTube with the same bass. He replaced the pick ups with some 5 or 6 string"bass-tec" pick ups which slotted in perfectly apparently. I am happy to keep existing ones if they prove to be ok, however I am not against the idea of overhauling everything and turning this bass into something different to what I already have. Would be potentially interested in installing true humbuckers.

[Sean]

 

A few questions to get started:

 

1. What’s the construction/config of the pickups? They look to me like each one could be a pair of J pickups in a humbucker wiring with a big cover over the both. This would be about 92Lx35W if it was. If that’s the case, there are some interesting possibilities.
2. Are they coil-tappable on push/pull pots as it stands? 
3. Can you take them out, take photos?
4. Can you put a multimeter on the tip and ring of a lead to get the various pickup resistances?

[agoulding]

On 28/03/2025 at 11:14, Sean said:

 

A few questions to get started:

 

1. What’s the construction/config of the pickups? They look to me like each one could be a pair of J pickups in a humbucker wiring with a big cover over the both. This would be about 92Lx35W if it was. If that’s the case, there are some interesting possibilities.
2. Are they coil-tappable on push/pull pots as it stands? 
3. Can you take them out, take photos?
4. Can you put a multimeter on the tip and ring of a lead to get the various pickup resistances?

 

1. I believe they are single coil pick ups with a hum cancelling dummy coil.

2. No coil tap 

3. I will get some photos for you on my day off.

4. I need to buy a multimeter!!

 

Thanks for your help!! Really appreciate it. I feel like I'm gonna learn something here ....

[songofthewind]

I have one of these. I think the pickups in these are P-style splits inside. I just tested this theory by using an Allen key on top of the pickups. Definitely more pull on one long edge than the other on the treble side, and reversed on the adjacent pair of bass strings.

hope this helps.