MattiZ

Flats on both my BB1200S’s and BB235. One BB1200S has EMG PJ set installed (but that is about to change, now that I got an original BB1100S PJ set). That one has EB Cobalt flats. The other one, all original, has Rotosound Monel flats. The BB235 has Dunlop flats. Only my BB300 has roundwounds, Pyramids or Rotosounds, can’t really remember. With the BB1200S preamps, flats are just fantastic. I can dial in any tone I want, with no finger squeaks, but as much treble and high mids I could ever need. Deep, clean, clear, bright, scooped, mushy, distorted with massive lows, anything. The Dunlop 5-string set on the BB235 is also quite nice: slightly lower tension than EBs or Rotos, but smooth and well balanced. All sets are 45-105 (+ 125).

The double O’s are not numbers, they are letters. Your bass was made in 1988. Try this site, with your serial written this way: OO11134. https://www.guitardaterproject.org/yamaha.aspx

Something happened yesterday.

Thanks, it’s good to know there are options. That is a nice-looking bridge by the way, what is it?

This is exciting! Can’t wait!

Yes, so it seems. But there is a difference between, say, a vintage Fender with a weathered and cracked, nicely aged nitro finish, and a more modern Yamaha with polysomething on it. The poly finish looks like cracked and scratched plastic - well, because that is pretty much what it is. There is little ”mojo” in it. Great indeed! I’m very happy I joined in here!

Now, this is really getting very interesting! Pm’d.

@Al Krow, as it seems, I guess I’ll find out quite soon how the Yamaha pickups sound! I will probably only need a new reverse P pickup frame made, and new (preferably old) volume and tone pot knobs (those chickenheads are terrible in use), that’s all. I’d already asked a luthier friend for an estimate for full refinish (with necessary woodwork, if I decide to remove the J pickup) and, well, let’s say it would become quite an expensive looker if I did that. The job would cost about 2x the price I paid for the bass itself. Plus the decal, plus cost of any surprises. Probably a partial refinish then, if I decide to go with just the P. Anyway, green it is, and will be, I really like the deep and dark colour that often looks almost black. Somehow I feel that those scratches and marks are a part of the instrument’s personality and history, better let it show than hide it. But we’ll see. It is not time for decisions yet.

@Al Krow took some photos of my BB1200S for you to... enjoy. I hope. Not much of a looker. But it plays well and sounds just fine with the active EMG P pickup. The EMG J does not seem to do much - broken, or incorrectly wired? I don’t know. I’d really like to know how the bass would sound with just an original passive Yamaha P. Or, since it already has been routed for a bridge J, maybe install a Yamaha J (from a BB1000S for example, if I can ever find one, or basically any J pickup that would cover the hideous routing). Then, on the other hand, I’ve been thinking of getting the J hole filled and having a partial refinish. Oh well. Anybody have a reverse Yamaha P pickup for sale? Or a rev P/J pair? The machine heads have been changed to an old set of Schallers (of West Germany? Probably). They work just fine, but I still prefer the original heart-shaped ones. Luckily, a fine member of this Forum agreed to sell me a set, so I’m already a bit closer to getting the bass restored to its original glory!

Thanks! More on the BB235 coming soon. I’m no photographer (and my BB1200S is hardly the prettiest one there is), but I’ll take some more pics. My BBs at the moment: ’82 BB1200S (Japan) ’84 BB300 (Taiwan) ’20 BB235 (Indonesia) ... and it seems now that next week, there may be one more. We’ll see!

Yamaha BB235 review Not a lot of reviews around, decided to write one. I am new here, don’t know if there is a better sub-forum for this. This is my first 5-string bass. Never even played one before, so can only compare to 4-string ones. Took a risk, ordered it unseen, but I trust Yamaha - have played and liked their basses, guitars, synths, amps and so on. Chose the cheaper model instead of BB435 because didn’t feel like paying almost double the price for an instrument I might not find any use for (and liked the BB235 finish options more). No used basses available where I live either. Also considered an even cheaper Ibanez TMB105 as an alternative but decided to go with Yamaha. Ordered from Thomann, arrived in 5 days. First impressions: very well packaged. Vintage White with black headstock & pickguard looks much better than in pics (it is my first white bass ever). Maple neck has nice flames, extremely thin matte finish, rosewood fingerboard looks good, it’s dark (maybe dyed?) with even grain. Neck seems almost perfectly flatsawn, don’t expect it to be warping easily. Very good! Surprisingly light weight, less than my BB1200S. Construction seems fine. Very comfortable neck profile: similar C-shape to BB1200S, not as thick and slightly flatter radius. Close enough to feel familiar immediately. Set-up is adequate: strings had been loosened for transit, after tuning up neck stayed straight with minimal relief (0.3 mm or so). Excellent! String height quite optimal, intonation good enough, nut seems cut just right. There was no need for retuning in the first half an hour of playing. Tightened the neck, bridge and tuner screws before tuning up, a few were slightly loose. How does it sound? Played at home (Zoom MS-100BT SVT model to home stereo with cheap subwoofer, some AKG headphones) I’m surprised. It sounds perfectly usable as is. Pickup balance seems well adjusted, so is string-to-string balance. No need to adjust anything. The factory strings sound clear, deep and balanced, they hold their tuning quite well. Negatives? Of course. After half an hour of so, the smell of the strings started bothering me. Hard to describe, but I can’t stand it. They also coloured my fingertips black. Anyway, those strings performed better than I was expecting, as I was prepared to change them right away. Got an evening of play time off them, fair enough. Scratchy pots, all of them. They work smoothly, but all three have scratchy noise when adjusted. Poor quality? Probably. But what to expect, I’ve changed pots on instruments costing three times more. Might try cleaning them first, see if it helps. Might be dust or something in the control cavity. Or, maybe the cavity shielding leaves something to be desired. I’ll find out later. Close inspection of the body, its countours and finish reveals little surprises. The contouring is functional, if not exceptionally pretty. The paintjob is fine until very close inspection, which reveals some imperfections. Jackplate is plastic, so not the most durable. The output jack nut was slightly loose out of the box. Nothing serious. The 235 is new and shiny and I’ve owned it for less than 24 hours now. I’m quite happy with it. String change next, some more playing at home, then in a few days I’ll take the bass to my studio to test it with a Darkglass/Ampeg rig. More to follow. Btw, sorry for the autocorrect. There may be some inexplicable mistakes because my IPad insists on translating everything to Finnish as i type. Part two: new strings & findings I had a 5-string set of D’Addario Chromes ready. What happened: the .132 low B string end wrappings did not fit through the bridge! Not happy to do any major modifications on the bridge, yet. Four local music shops later no 5-string flatwound sets anywhere. Returned home with Dunlop Nickel Wound 45-125s. They are fine, much better than factory strings. No smell, no dirty fingers. Intonation needed adjustment - the bridge works and seems stable enough. Still want them flatwounds, though! Control cavity has no shielding whatsoever, I doubt the pickup cavities are any better. Pots are made by Alpha, so the quality is ok. Pot noise must be a grounding/shielding thing. Some Copper Tape Magic needed. More to follow in a few days, after some testing at proper volume levels. Part three: more volume & finally flats So, took the BB235 to my studio to play it through Darkglass M900 & Ampeg 1x15. Everything seems ok: it holds its tuning and sounds perfectly usable as is. With 45-125 Dunlop Nickel Rounds at a loud level, the imbalance of non-reverse P pickup feels a bit irritating: G and D strings sound unnecessarily bright, the lower strings slightly out of focus. Nothing wrong with that, just one of the reasons why I prefer reverse P configuration. No surprises, the BB235 really is a solid instrument and performs quite well. As noticed earlier, the finish on the back of the neck feels extremely thin, almost non-existent, and either it isn’t perfectly sanded or, playing the neck makes moisture off my hands lift the wood grain just very slightly. Whichever it is, I think the feel could get better with some extremely fine grade steel wool and suitable oil or polish. Yesterday I finally got a set of Dunlop Stainless Flats (45-125). Did not have much time to play the bass after changing strings, but I liked the feel and sound already much better than the roundwounds. Minimal adjustments were needed, trussrod was fine with 1/8 of a turn, couple strings needed their intonation checked. More analysis and final verdict to follow, in a week or two. Maybe better pics too.

Terve! Nice! You must be familiar with Pekko Käppi, and Joose Keskitalo, then? What about more experimental stuff, like Paavoharju? Have you heard of a very promising new artist/band called Eerolan Reetta ja Eroottiset? My current favourite new band is Vulvarutto - folk plus something I can hardly describe. I think you can find them all on Spotify. Cheers from Tampere!

BB1200S it is. With some issues: missing original tuners, P pickup & pot knobs, new cavity for bridge PU seems routed with a chainsaw, tone pot swapped for bridge PU volume, P pickup frame ruined, ugliest thumb rest ever bolted on, body scratched & dented all over. It has an old EMG P/J set installed. The P sounds ok, the J doesn’t really bring much extra with it, thinking of removing it. Would also like to locate an original Yamaha P pickup with its frame, just to find out how the bass is supposed to sound. Very heavy, on the other hand it feels extremely solid. Thick neck, great sustain, biting attack, balanced sound, plays nicely with Rotosound Monel Flats.

Hi! Found the Forum while looking for information on Yamaha BB series basses, read lots of discussions, decided to join. First started playing bass at 14, joined my first real band at 22. Left the band and sold my bass after the first European tour. Played guitar and did songwriting for the next 15 years, with no success whatsoever. Joined a band as bass player again in 2008 or so, then in a couple years got bored and sold my bass again. Next I got deeply into analog synthesis, collected lots of broken old synths and learned how to repair them. Played keyboards (and samplers, and fx) with some bands, still do. For a long time, Fender Bass VI was my dream instrument. A former bandmate had three of them, after years of begging she agreed to sell me one. ’95 MIJ with better trem, handwound PU’s, StayTrem bridge and so on. Love it! A couple years ago saw an old, badly treated Yamaha BB300, just had to rescue it. It did not make me a bass player again, but another BB, a BB1200S I found this May, did. Formed a new band with an old bandmate, been writing new material the whole summer. Before lockdown I worked as sound technician at a club, also did some festivals. None of it now, been out of work since march. Which means lots of time for my own projects! Sorry for my English. Writing on IPad, autocorrect keeps trying to translate everything to Finglish.

Hello all, I just finished reading this thread (yes, all of it) and decided to join the Forum just to say Hi! Reason for reading it all? Well, I think you know. It started when I found a glossy catalogue, 30 years ago... fell in love with BB’s, all of them, but never even saw one for sale. Played Ibanez, later Fender, quit bass completely for a decade for guitar and synth stuff. Then 3 years ago found an ’84 BB300 in very poor shape: body cracked near control cavity, bent neck, badly treated frets, non-functional tuners, broken output jack, you get the picture. I just had to get it back in shape. That one didn’t make me a bass player again, though. It took another BB, in quite interesting condition. Just one more pic for now.