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Recommended By
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Average Price
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Average Rating
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100% of reviewers
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None indicated
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9.0
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Description:
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5 string, 34inch scale, 21 frets.
Passive electronics: volume, tone, three way pick-up selector.
Alder body, maple neck, rosewood finger board.
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Author
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Coeball
Registered User
Registered: August 2007
Location: Bath Uk
Posts: 217
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Review Date: Fri July 31, 2009
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Excellent sound and playablility
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Cons:
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B string takes some getting used to
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Both the P and J style pick ups sound great, especially when blended together. When I got the bass it was set up well apart from the neck pick up needed a bit of raising to capture the B string better. The low B when attacked hard does produce some fret buzz, but this is only a minor gripe.
Overall an fantastic bass, especially for the price I paid. This bass proves that price and quality do not have to be linked.
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http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...ndid=335364056 Passive Club #91 BBC #39
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Breakerfall
Supporting Member
Registered: April 2006
Location: Gloucester, UK
Posts: 114
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Review Date: Thu September 9, 2010
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: None indicated
| Rating: 9
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Manufacturer: Yamaha
Model: BB415 (B-Stock)
Colour: Orange Metallic
Price: £249.00 (Delivered)
After selling Sid the Fender Precision back to Clarky I was in the market for an inexpensive P-type back up bass and for taking to work for playing at lunchtime and for general knocking about duties. I'd recently been impressed by the stupendous new Yamaha Super BB and also pleasantly surprised at a BB615 I tried the same day; Yamaha basses have never really been on my radar other than with a few aborted attempts at buying an old BB2000 on ebay. Bearing this in mind and with a maximum budget of £250 I went to ebay to see if I could find something that suited, a five-string would be a bonus. A search of Yamaha bass guitars brought up the usual suspects and amongst these were a few ex-demo, B-stock models. I ended up ordering a BB415 in Orange Metallic. It arrived the next day in the original box and was very well packed.
A quick run through of the specs tells us that this is a passive instrument with alder body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard, P and J pickups, a slightly odd looking vintage-type bridge, five strings, large open geared vintage style tuners. String spacing is 18mm and it's a 34" scale. The instrument is made in Taiwan.
First impressions
Wow! What a colour. It's much less garish than I thought it would be; I chose the Orange Metallic more for novelty value than anything else but it in the flesh it's really very nice and the matching headstock makes it look very snazzy indeed; the cataloge/website pictures seem very retouched and enhanced. Hopefully my photographs give a much better idea of the real colour.
It's relatively light, I'd guess around about 8lb, which for a large bodied alder bass is really good especially with my temperamental back.
Quality
Fit and finish on this bass is staggering for its price band and what struck me was that in many respects it reminds me of a MusicMan; the neck joint is well designed and seems to be a tight fit, the fingerboard/neck joint is flawless and the fretwork is way beyond what I'd expect in a low to middle market bass. The quality of the paint finish just cannot be faulted and it has that lovely glitter metallic sparkle that is similar to a Lakland metallic.
The tuners are OK and serviceable but will probably be getting an upgrade to Hipshots if this bass is still with me in six months time. The bridge has a bit of an extension on it for the low B string and though I'm not entirely sure, I'd guess that this serves two functions; to give a bit of extra length (a few millimeters) to assist with string tension and also to reduce the break angle of the thicker string meaning it's less likely to break. The pick ups are the classic BB type.
Feel
The body is quite large, I suppose but then again I'm used to playing Spectors and Lakland DJs, which are smaller than normal. Anyway, there's no issue with the body, it's very well sculpted and very comfortable both on the strap and sitting down.
The neck on this bass is a satin finish and is very smooth and reminiscent of a Lakland. It's a fairly slim neck for a five string and very comfortable with easy access to all 21 frets. The bass had been set up very well indeed and I'm guessing this was because it's an ex-demo instrument from a music show and was originally on a Yamaha exhibition stand and I would think someone makes sure that they play pretty well before Joe Public gets his potentially money-spending mitts on the them. I was a little bit apprensive about a cheaper 34" scale 5-string but there was nothing to worry about, the B string is very nice, no floppiness and easily as good as the Stingray 5 I used to have and is a bit better than the Ibanez DWB35 I used to have.
Sounds
I plugged this bass into my Mesa Boogie M6 Carbine with the EQ flat and the gain at 12 O'clock. The cab is a Bergantino AE210. The first thing that hits you when you start to play is that the sound this instrument puts out is absolutely immense, the pickups are really hot, very full and rich and have a throatyness that I just love. Using the P pickup solo gives everything you might expect from a P bass but with a lot more oomph and weight. The tone knob is very useful and proportional, it's gives a great variation and lets you access some very useable middy rock tones and some really nice deep dub and soul thump.
Flicking the three-way switch back to the J pickup at the bridge was a real revelation. As a long-time fan of the P/J configuration (my Spector NS5 has a P/J set) I've always been of the mindset that the J is there to complement the P and to get some good variations depending on how much it's dialled in with mid-way being my favourite generally. This bridge pickup is a going concern all of its own and is a funk monster and let me tell you, it's as loud and honking as the P, there must be a lot of magnets and windings under that cover!
Bringing the switch to the mid position gives you the classic throaty passive P/J punch and gurgle typically associated with the BB. It just makes you want to grab a pick and play all your favourite Duff McKagan riffs.
I'm going to be gigging this bass over the weekend so I'll expand this review once the instrument has been through a real world situation...
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LOG #9, Spector NS-5, Lakland DJ"AC"CS '08, Yamaha BB2024x & BB2025x, M6 Carbine, 2 x Berg AE210, Mesa Walkabout Scout 12"
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