I've owned Yamaha BB1200's, a 2000, a 3000, and all three versions of the 5000 (5000, 5000A, and the 5000A2), and like all 80's Japanese basses, you can see the Alembic influence in so many of them. The 80's BB's were special for off-the-rack instruments, but I never had any inclination to think Alembic had anything to do with them save for influencing their design, which actually came from a group of Yamaha staffers in Cali including John Carruthers. These brainstorms also yielded the mighty SG range, and the SA semi hollow guitars, the best 335-style guitar you've never played. We stocked SG2000's, which would come out of their case when we received them with the action low enough to check with rolling papers.
Evidently I was right.
