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The Yamaha BB mega-thread

Al Krow

By Al Krow,
in Bass Guitars

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gobasserk Community Regular

gobasserk

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I will get my candy apple red BB1000ma in two weeks. Meanwhile I just pulled the trigger on another BB1000ma in misty green. My plan is also a new green metallic finish on my other black 1000ma.... the red dots make a good contrast...
(picture of seller, did not revieve the bass yet) 

bb1000magreen1 (2).jpg

Edited by gobasserk
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such Rising Star

such

Posted
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2 hours ago, gobasserk said:

I will get my candy apple red BB1000ma in two weeks. Meanwhile I just pulled the trigger on another BB1000ma in misty green. My plan is also a new green metallic finish on my other black 1000ma.... the red dots make a good contrast...
(picture of seller, did not revieve the bass yet) 

bb1000magreen1 (2).jpg

What would be a good price (from a buyer's perspective) for one of those? That has to be the perfect pickup config. 

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gobasserk Community Regular

gobasserk

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I think it depends on the location... I noticed different values of this rather unknown model of the BB range  in the UK and Europe.Japan even more. In Europe (esp Germany for what I can speak in this issue) a very good price would be 300-350 Euros. 400,-  -450 Euros would be the usual price without case.  Im not interested in cases ('cause over the years...) but very often sellers sell with a case to rise the price a few bucks. Espacially this models are usually not owned by pros or real band players as the instruments often come in a mint condition. I wonder why ... I am playing the 1000ma since it came out and it stood the test of time. It overlived even two 3000ma's because in the end the bolt on neck sounds better to my ears. I highly recommend this model. On the other hand...now that I found a good lacquer guy....don't buy them! I'll take them all! 🙂 (sorry for my English if it sounds weird, I am not a native speaker) 

Edit: Concerning the pickups... for me it was perfect from the start and now I can't switch back to normal! I had beautiful other BB's but the normal pickup configuration did not sound right for me every time I played them... I just love the neck pickup not to be as boomy as the regular ones. In my eyes (or ears) this is kind of an advantage in the studio or live even more. And concerning studio work... I truely can tell that no other bass has ever gotten the job when the BB1000ma was in the collection of possible basses to record with. Something to rely on ! 

Maybe it is not a real alrounder. Of course you can play anything you want on it but I think, it's a perfect rock bass. I guess it was planed as a rocker for a bass player of a band like Van Halen 🙂  All the follow up's of Michael Anthony are "the same bass" from a different brand. 

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Al Krow Grand Master

Al Krow

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11 hours ago, such said:

What would be a good price (from a buyer's perspective) for one of those? That has to be the perfect pickup config. 

The reverse P + J does tick a lot of boxes as a pickup config.

The Yamaha MA versions seem to be pretty rare (in fact @gobasserk probably has all of them! 😁).

Spector, Warwick and Sandberg are some alternatives with the reverse P + J set up. The Spector Euro 4LX would get my vote if you're after a 4 string but they're not cheap, even used, and there's plenty of love for the other brands on BC too.

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gobasserk Community Regular

gobasserk

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A Spector is indeed a totally different kind of beast ! That's another sound universe.... Yamaha BB...passive, oldschool...Spector...90s high end / hifi sound. I love the Specor 5 string basses. 
Owned a few back then but I try to avoid 5 string basses whenever I can 🙂 There was a Rex 5 that I will never stop missing. That bass had the best B string I ever heard. 

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gobasserk Community Regular

gobasserk

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4 minutes ago, krispn said:

If a MA came up used for €300-400 I’d certainly take a punt on one. I really like the colour above!

The green is a rare colour on 1000ma's most of them were made in black. A 3000ma in green ( it is a different green on the 3000ma) ...would be on my wall forever! 

Black BB1000ma's are on the market over here from time to time! 

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Al Krow Grand Master

Al Krow

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37 minutes ago, gobasserk said:

A Spector is indeed a totally different kind of beast ! That's another sound universe.... Yamaha BB...passive, oldschool...Spector...90s high end / hifi sound. I love the Spector 5 string basses. 
Owned a few back then but I try to avoid 5 string basses whenever I can 🙂 There was a Rex 5 that I will never stop missing. That bass had the best B string I ever heard. 

Agreed - 5 string Spectors are awesome! 

In fact a lot of design cues on the Yamaha BB NE2 have been taken from the Spector 5 string basses (and reflected in their Euro 5LX model which I have): I posted a detailed comparison of feature sets a while back and they have a lot in common! I guess, like Warwick, even Yamaha have discovered a trick or two from Ned Steinberger worth incorporating into their flagship models!

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such Rising Star

such

Posted
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1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

The reverse P + J does tick a lot of boxes as a pickup config.

The Yamaha MA versions seem to be pretty rare (in fact @gobasserk probably has all of them! 😁).

Spector, Warwick and Sandberg are some alternatives with the reverse P + J set up. The Spector Euro 4LX would get my vote if you're after a 4 string but they're not cheap, even used, and there's plenty of love for the other brands on BC too.

Yeah, I've had a couple of Warwicks and a BB350F that's being sent to Andy shortly 👌🏼

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krispn Veteran

krispn

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50 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Agreed - 5 string Spectors are awesome! 

In fact a lot of design cues on the Yamaha BB NE2 have been taken from the Spector 5 string basses (and reflected in their Euro 5LX model which I have): I posted a detailed comparison of feature sets a while back and they have a lot in common! I guess, like Warwick, even Yamaha have discovered a trick or two from Ned Steinberger worth incorporating into their flagship models!

Did NE or Yamaha ever discuss the influence of the NE design or are these similarities more 'where you've landed'  based on similarities you've noticed between the two. I think others have said it's not as blatant a ripas the Warwick/ Spector look.

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Al Krow Grand Master

Al Krow

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18 minutes ago, krispn said:

Did NE or Yamaha ever discuss the influence of the NE design or are these similarities more 'where you've landed'  based on similarities you've noticed between the two. I think others have said it's not as blatant a ripas the Warwick/ Spector look.

I doubt very much that Yamaha, or any other manufacturer, would willingly ever make such a confession to filching design ideas. So, yup, it's just where I've landed based on observation. Here's a cut and paste of my earlier post for ease of reference:

It occurs to me that the NE2 took quite a few design cues from Spector, which has been around a whole lot longer in its classic design form. Both are:

  • neck throughs (vs bolt on for the BBs)
  • sculpted backs, which makes them so comfortable to wear (vs the more normal flat BB bodies)
  • JJs (vs P or PJs on the BBs)
  • 24 frets (vs 21 on the modern BBs)
  • both have 3+2 tuner layout on the headstocks (vs the 4-1 prevalent on the rest of the BB range)
  • neither have body through stringing (present on the higher-end modern BBs)
  • both are purely active with no passive option (vs active & passive on the 735A and purely passive on the rest of the BB range)

Key differences are other than obviously different body shapes the NE2 has a 3 band + Nathan East mid cut EQ vs a 2 band EQ on the Spector.

But it seems clear that the NE2 is actually much closer to the Spector than it is to the rest of the BB range.

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krispn Veteran

krispn

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Maybe a more pertinent question would be was NE ever a big fan of Spector basses for live and studio work and when he designed his own bass did he  😉😉 'borrow heavily/be inspired by Spector on some design cues'?

It's neither here nor there I suppose but I never associate NE with Spector basses and things like 3+1 3+2 headstock were a thing to mitigate Fenders notorious dead spots on the G string etc. which EBMM was doing in the late 70's too.

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Al Krow Grand Master

Al Krow

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I actually think the 2+3 headstock might be the "right" answer in terms of balancing string weight / tension on each side of the headstock from an engineering perspective. Used by a Mr Ken Smith and actually also by Ibanez.

Yup I wonder if Mr NE ever managed to lay hands on a Spector during his many years of playing bass and sneakily plays it at home when no one's looking? 😁

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Cuzzie Veteran

Cuzzie

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1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

I actually think the 2+3 headstock might be the "right" answer in terms of balancing string weight / tension on each side of the headstock from an engineering perspective. Used by a Mr Ken Smith and actually also by Ibanez.

Yup I wonder if Mr NE ever managed to lay hands on a Spector during his many years of playing bass and sneakily plays it at home when no one's looking? 😁

Dingwall, Status, Sandberg all have 3+2, some have 24 frets, some neck through, purely active 2 pickups and a pre-amp.

Maybe some other makes too

I reckon Nathan has been pimping himself around.....::

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AndyTravis Grand Master

AndyTravis

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3 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

Dingwall, Status, Sandberg all have 3+2, some have 24 frets, some neck through, purely active 2 pickups and a pre-amp.

Maybe some other makes too

I reckon Nathan has been pimping himself around.....::

He deffo has an Epi Jack Casady, I do know that 

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