Yeah, Yamaha really needs to get their act together, huh? They only make every type of musical instrument in the world plus a million other things and it's all quality stuff.
I never said Yamaha doesn't make great gear. My primary axe since the mid 90s has been a TRB6P, and before that I played a BB5000. But even back when the TRB6P was still in production it was hard to get OEM parts for it. I have heard of others having trouble getting support in the Yamaha musical instrument division as well, so they don't do everything well. Here's my sad little story
. I bought my TRB6P used and it was missing a tone control knob. I went to several Yamaha dealers in Germany and the US, and they each made a few calls and told me the part was not available. Eventually I made a contact with someone who knew the right person fairly high in the US distribution network. He was kind of irritated that I called him directly and tried to tell me to call some other people. I told him I had already called those people and was told they couldn't get the part. So he finally listened and said he would look into it. It took a few months and a few polite follow ups, but I finally got what I needed. IMHO it should not have been that hard, especially when they were still slapping the knobs on new basses.
I like Yamaha and Ampeg and I hope they knock it out of the park. AFAIK, all they have done with Ampeg so far is continue to sell down existing stock.
