After ALEMBIC, the BB Yamahas are my utterly favorite 'off-the-rack' basses.
I owned two BB1200's in that amber to cherry sunburst (like Adriaan's 1000S), a peanut brittle-colored BB400 (the ONLY one I wish I had back), a BB2000, a BB1600, and a BB3000. Somehow I could never score a BB5000 in its day.
So . . . . over the last several years I bought all three versions!
Three years ago, I found a very clean BB5000A2 in a pawn shop not 5 miles from my home. That vintage white (I jokingly call it 'TV White'), no case, $600. The A2 was the last of three models of 5000: Slightly different body, WIDE fingerboard like all current Yammie 5's and 6's, and the P/J setup used in the first TRB's. Built by Yamaha in Taiwan. Features a monstrous Gotoh bridge that is adjustable in EVERY direction and lockable once it's set. Amazing engineering and if I ever had to do a full setup and change my settings on it again, I'd take several valiums first! It's a nice axe, but a little cold sounding.
I found the original, passive 5000 at a bass store in Austin, mint with the original brown case and the little wrench for adjusting the tuning key tension. Mint. This was the axe you saw Nathan East wearing out in all those early MTV videos. Actually belonged to a friend from the EDEN forum. Amazing shape, cutaway all the way up to the 22nd fret, oval inlays like all of them (wonder where they got THAT idea?) and the first P-pickup for a five: Three strings wide on the low side, two strings wide on the high. Same vintage white with gold parts. Japanese production, as was the A-model. This was one of the very first production five strings, vintage mid-80's. $800 delivered. Easy to play, and the most neutral, useable tone I ever heard in something NOT from Santa Rosa. Engineers all over Nashville STILL talk about how well these things recorded.
I found the VERY rare BB5000A (just like the one Adriaan pictured) in Knoxville on EBay. This was an update of the original with active pickups in the same size shells, brass pickup rings. Yamaha was prompted by lots of people carving the originals to put in EMG's. $600, I went and picked it up in person. This one and the first featured the same neck: Basically a four string neck subdivided to make a five. It's the Achilles Heel for some folks, they think the neck is too narrow, but it's fine for me. Spacing about like a Ric or Jazz. Different tone from the 5000 or the A2, but still very good and quiet, EMG-like.
The BB's (Broad Bass) were part of an 80's explosion that saw Yamaha release the BB basses, the SG guitars (think neckthru Les Paul, even a brass sustain block under the bridge, a speed demon), the SA guitars (don't EVER try an SA2200 if you're in the market for a 335, consider yourself warned), and in Japan the AE guitars (L5-ish). This was an explosion of fabulous instruments that are treasured by their owners, but given short-shrift by most as 'Jap guitars'. Idiots. The good news is that used they are REALLY reasonably priced for what you get. PLEASE keep paying $20k for clapped out 60's Fenders and keep my vintage rice-burners cheap! I happily collected all three for 2 grand, total, for extremely well-built, great-sounding and playing neckthru five-strings.
All three are built the same: Rock maple neckthru with two mahogany lams, 24 fret macassar ebony fingerboard (the black with the chocolate stripes running thru it), bone nut, and Yamaha oval-ish inlays in MOP. Truss rod adjustment at the body end of the neck. Alder body wings. Average to light weight. Elbow-over, tummy cut, deep cutaway. Gold parts, brass pickup rings on the first two, adjustable-tension elephant ear keys, 4+1 headstock.
3+2 P/J pickups: Passive with that big blade J on the first, active with v-f-b-t controls on the A and A2. Believe me, P/J on a five is fabulous, MUCH better than a double-J set.
And, while I'm not too fond of the Michael Anthony models (hot peppers for fingerboard markers just ain't me, you know?), the re-issue, bolt-neck BBs they are selling now are WONDERFUL. A re-issue done right, and easily the best under-$500 bass out there, either 4 or 5-string. Well done.
(Incidentally, TRB's are a piss-poor follow-on to the BB's in my opinion: Indifferent styling, pickups/electronics that have gotten progressively thinner and noisier as the TRB's have evolved. That's why dealers are dumping TRB's and the Nathan East 2's at cost in lots of cases. I've begun to think TRB stands for totally-reeks-bass.)
It was like popcorn . . . I couldn't stop! They AREN'T Alembics, but my-T-fine for 'off the rack', and not something you see every day. They always get compliments, and they're very sentimental favorites to me.
For a review of these axes and more, go to the Yamaha Guitar DataBase at
www.yamaha.co.jp/product/guitar/eg/database J o e y
