Al Krow

I was going to pick your brains on that very subject! So the Yammy BBNE2 has got the most versatile active preamp for tone shaping of any of the basses I've had so far, and I've had fifteen or so pretty decent basses now. It does lack the passive by-pass available on my the rest of my current active / passive herd. Do you prefer the Sadowsky pre to the Nathan East? Please feel free to be honest and brutal!

Nah that's not a "pedal board". That's a compressor 😀

So are you now going just passive bass to amp & cab "simples" with nothing between, Paul? Tell me more TJ, in particular what else have you tried to arrive at your "three" 😁 recommendations?

I disagree. The reason is actually simple as to why. BRX plays in an originals band, where (I'm guessing) folk are there as much to listen to the music as to dance, and 'dead air time' is much less of an issue. Whereas playing in a covers band I want to be able link numbers without a gap and if I want to switch from vintage 50s / 60s sound to punchy modern it's nice to be able to do that from my bass and not have to go back to my amp for every change. I suspect I should be able to get the same result from using pedals with presets. I also take @krispn's point about a great preamp pedal being applicable across your whole herd and not limited to just one bass. But if you can get a bass with a quality and versatile preamp, why not? And I do still enjoy the simplicity of bass - - > amp / cab with nothing in between. And frankly my Yammy BB735A does a very good passive vintage sound <- - > punchy modern tone a lot more quickly and easily than any amp I've come across. But I'm betting there are better preamps around than the one Yamaha have fitted in an, albeit excellent, £725 bass?

If you want to sell me yours at an appropriate discount, to reflect wear and tear, on your cost price, please let me know? 😂

That's exactly how I've got mine set up on my board. And it makes a really +ve difference (perhaps more so) to the 'quackiness' / responsiveness of my filters. Put a Thumpinator before the Spectracomp to remove the low end 'crud' that the comp is having to deal with, so that it can just focus on the part of the f-spectrum you want to use and you have IMO a hard to beat 'always-on' hpf / comp set up at the start of your signal chain. And at a combined cost of less than many of the posher compressors by themselves. @lee650 as a fellow BB1025 lover, definitely happy to recommend the above set up to you, buddy; your ears will love you for it!

Works really well for me too. Except, following, dB's recommendation I didn't try them all, I just went straight to the 'right' answer 😁

You and my guitarist would bond instantaneously. You'll be telling me you like "Gold" next.... nooooooo! 😁😃 🤣

Listening through headphones the bass sounds really good! +1 to Cuzzie's comments - I actually prefer your guitar based cover to the original Toto keys version

Really good comment relating to the reversed saddle on the B string (from a TBer who doesn't actually own the bass). If this guy is correct, I may need to put mine back to reversed factory setting for the B string! "If I may suggest, I do think the B saddle is a way to improve the tone of the B string. That sharp angle moves the witness point back a little, so the saddle sits a little further forward than it would otherwise. This, along with the angled string-through-body feature, reduces the break angle of the string quite a bit. IME, when a B string has a really sharp break angle due to traditional string-through design, once the bend causes the winding to separate, even a new B string can sound dead and lifeless compared to the other strings. I avoid stringing the B through the body (if I have a choice) for this very reason. To my eye, Yamaha may have solved this problem with a couple fairly simple improvements."

Our drummer also commented that he felt that that my Yammy PJ 'sat' better in the mix than my Jazz Ibbys with what he calls 'aggressive' (and I refer to as 'throaty') Nord big singles. I kinda feel that a purely passive P can get a little lost in the mix though and it's sometimes useful to add at least a sprinkling of J and a touch of active EQ mid boost.

Yup we could have had a poll with every variation of pup that was ever made...I'll leave you to start that one if you're desperate to find out 😁 I'm happy with sticking with the broad strokes (and leaving the minutiae and variations to each of us to sort for ourselves). At the end of the day, as @krispn has implied no one is really going to notice (and I'd add: apart from our good selves). What has surprised and interested me, both over here and amongst the nearly 200 bass players on TB who have also responded over the weekend, is just how consistently Ps and P/Js seem to outstrip Js and J/Js in popularity. I guess I wasn't expecting that, but maybe should have been.

"Hi, I'm Jack Bates of the Smashing Pumpkins and my dad was Peter Hook of Joy Division (and we all love Yamahas)". Sometimes the dice are just loaded, right?! 😂

Kinda feels 'worth it' for that moment when you hear it sounding great. Out of interest, did your band mates notice or comment, or just a not-to-be-knocked moment of personal satisfaction?

That's really not correct or fair. It's been nearly two weeks since the bass in my earlier post above arrived. And a whole six hours since getting a mixing desk for the band with 8 (instead of 4) mono inputs - our drummer has decided he's a backing vocalist and also wants to start putting his kick drum through the PA... Now that is very fine advice indeed for LIFE not just bass gear! Amen to that brother. I've been banging on about most gear related things** not being noticed by anyone (apart from our good selves) for aeons. Glad we have that ALL agreed! ...Can we go back to talking about gear now please? 😁 **apart from having a great cab, of course. After all our cabs are our direct and only physical link with the air that connects our bass playing and our audience's ears.

Euros 2,450 and that's with standard pups and 2 band EQ... So another Euros 450 for Black Label pups and 3 band EQ (??) => Euros 2,900 = £2,500 Some would say bargain for a great bass (with a 35" scale)! Others might, very sensibly, say stick with the £500 to £600 (albeit used - £725 new) you've spent on this one

@CameronJ very helpful, thanks. Given that P + MM (with a single / dual coil option) seems to me where I could be heading, the fact that Hölger feels that a reverse P blends better with the MM is very useful intel. You got a rough idea what would a Sandberg VM 5er (reverse P + MM with a single / dual coil option) plus Black Label pups and a 3 band EQ set an aspiring bass player back? I suspect there are a couple of us that may be interested in the answer to that Q

P vs reverse-P? As John Bercow might say: (so far anyway) "the P's have it, the P's have it! Unlock!" Speaking about P's...folk who have experienced both P and reverse-P what's your preferred flavour?

@Kev is the bass at the bottom an Ibby SRMS805? Not seen in that finish before. Bit of a head turner! If it had Nords instead of the standard Barts I'd be very tempted to trade in my SR 1825 at Wunjos...

Can't work out whether that should be posted in 'Off Topic' or 'General Discussion' though, or perhaps more accurately... 'Accessories...' ?? 😂

Go on, I dare you. General discussion with poll options 😂🤣😁

Nooooo.....😂🤣😂 I feel a poll coming on (Just kidding!)

So is there a first album somewhere you'd be happy for us to have a listen to?

Size 12 Bristol Cowboy I think we need keep that in reserve for your next band or album name. That is a real shame!