Years after their heyday, I collected all three iterations of the BB5000: the OG, the second version 5000A (same bass with active EQ), then a totally different axe with the 5000A2 (that crazy wide fingerboard Yamaha adopted across their range, no doubt from guys moaning about slapping on those skinny necks), made in their then-new (and now gone) Taiwan facility, much bigger axe with TRB pickups and electronics minus the piezo bridge.
They were originally the BB3000 subdivided for five instead of four strings (TIGHT spacing like a Ric down at the nut), with an added fifth key on a bigger head, and the first real 3+2 Precision style pickup and a five-string bridge.
The 80's BB's (along with the SG2000 solid body guitar and SA2000 semi-hollow) were actually designed in America by Yamaha staffers and John Carruthers. They are Alembic-influenced into a Fender-Shaped-Object format. The oval fret markers, the multi-ply neckthrough, the Japanese were hugely influenced by Alembic in those days. Yamaha always used Macassar ebony fingerboards which they did not dye spy-plane-black, so they always had these delicious 'chocolate' grain stripes running down the fingerboard. 24 frets and cut away up to HERE.
For several years, I owned all three plus the Spoiler Five and the Elan Five, and while the BB's were a long time fave, it was simply not a fair comparison to the Alembics.
They were really nice basses for what they were, but like most things Yamaha in those days, unless you were a Jimmy Haslip or Nate East, for mere mortals, they were perpetually back-ordered, which modern day Yamaha seems to have finally outgrown.
For several years, I owned all three plus the Spoiler Five and the Elan Five, and while I really liked the BB's, it was not a fair comparison to the Alembics, as off-the-rack axes rarely approach an Alembic.
