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Anybody else notice the sharp increase in Yamaha popularity and value?

#21
Bongolation said:
Zero increase in popularity or value local to me. They're a hard sell in my market as anything but a beginner's instrument.

Yamaha quality is mostly myth ("Yeah, they're no-soul, but they're really well-made" is the standard bubba lore). They contract to the same mills as everyone else and those contractors screw up like they do with everyone else. There may be a little additional pre-ship re-inspection, as Ibanez and Schecter do with their product from the identical contractors, but in 2012 there's not anything to differentiate Yamaha quality from other brands.
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I'll have to respectfully disagree. I have owned five Yamaha basses over the years, and the quality has been exceptional for the price on all of them.

Did I just get lucky and get five good ones out of five tries? Doesn't seem likely. The only thing I can take from my experience is that they are well made instruments for the price.
 
#22
I think as a bass guitar producer Yamaha make great motorcycles... :D

Just kidding - I haven't seen them round much in recent years but the ones I played in the 90's were solid instruments...
 
#24
I've owned three at this point. Yamaha has always sounded awesome to my ears. The BB415 is great, and the BB405 & RBX-5 I owned have sounded awesome. The only reason why I sold the latter two are because of major truss rod issues (both, when strung up, were dead straight with the truss at it's loosest. VERY bad. Not to mention the tightening nut was missing on the RBX-5 when I got it used). My BB415 doesn't have this issue, and I played other great Yammys, so I'll leave this to getting two used lemons.

Value? You can still find MIJ BB300 bolt-on's for $200-300 on eBay from the 1980's. There's other values that are just as good on eBay. Buyer beware with truss rod issues on used instruments though :\
 
#26
Once again, if you have no experience with the 80's BB basses (like the 1600 -5000) or the 90's TRB basses.... you probably do not get this post. AND if you are not familiar with any players that play them I guess you are probably not familiar with Nathan East, John Patitucci, Abe Laboriel, Tony Kinal, Paul McCartney, Billy Sheehan, and Leeland Sklar. Just saying.....
 
#28
Well, if your in the "I love Yamaha basses" camp; or if you would like to try a really cherry example, PM me. I have a TRB-5 for sale. I'll be posting it in classifieds all proper and whatnot in a day or so. I just got a MM Stingray 5, and I can only keep one. House rules. Stingray wins.
 
#29
I'd say the latest BB102X series basses are very well made and really do bring something to the table. Those YASH pickups are quite aggressive which sound really good if you're a light-touch player like me.

Even the latest TRB1005J is an improvement over the previous version.

...yes I happen to own a BB1025x and a TRB1005J and while they're not up to the same quality as my Lakland Skyline fretless, they come pretty close. They certainly have a more aggressive sound to them compared to earlier, cheaper Yamaha basses I've tried.
 
#30
I can't comment on the TRBs cuz I don't know much about 'em and don't follow their sales and prices, but the mid and lower-level BB series basses don't seem to be any more in demand than before. Some of them are selling for stupid-cheap. I picked up a BB1000MA this week for $270 in fantastic condition.:D My local Guitar Center had one used several years ago for $450. From that same store I bought a BB614 for $199 a few years ago. In Indianapolis, they're not a hot commodity: no one stocks them and they rarely show up used.

The BB3000 and BB5000s still fetch a pretty penny as the upper-end BBs, but around here they don't really get any attention. About the only place I find clusters of Yamaha (or Peavey) lovers is here on TB. Makes sense, I suppose. Doesn't bother me though: between the BB1000MA and my Peavey Sarzo bass I've spent $700. That might get me a used MIA Precision at the moment.
 
#31
i recently purchased a Yamaha TRB1005j. I went to my local music store with the purpose of buying a 5 string bass and felt this was the most comfortable and playable bass within my price range! I cant really fault its aesthetics or its build without sounding overly fussy, but one thing i have an issue with is its preamp. When playing in the shop at a low level it wasnt as apparent to me but playing at practise/gigging volume i find it some what harsh and boomy. Im looking at switching out the preamp to either a Glockenklang 3 band or a Delano 3band. Will this be a straight forward job? I read somewhere that a buffer is needed between the Yamaha pickups and the new OBP in some cases?
 
#32
That's unusual. I find my TRB1005j is nearly as loud as my Lakland 55-02... Did you swap out the lousy battery it came with and put in a decent Duracel or Engergizer? If the battery is low, the preamp will sag and produce a whining noise between notes.

Be careful about using those pickups with another pre-amp. They are wired-dual coils. The noise-cancellation is happening in the preamp using a wire from each pickup to run the dummy coil into the pickup mixer. So if you use a third party unit, you'll have to run them as single-coils unless someone has a pre-amp that takes the dummy coil wiring into account.


Smit_Dogg said:
i recently purchased a Yamaha TRB1005j. I went to my local music store with the purpose of buying a 5 string bass and felt this was the most comfortable and playable bass within my price range! I cant really fault its aesthetics or its build without sounding overly fussy, but one thing i have an issue with is its preamp. When playing in the shop at a low level it wasnt as apparent to me but playing at practise/gigging volume i find it some what harsh and boomy. Im looking at switching out the preamp to either a Glockenklang 3 band or a Delano 3band. Will this be a straight forward job? I read somewhere that a buffer is needed between the Yamaha pickups and the new OBP in some cases?
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#33
Thanks Frankie,

I checked the 9v battery this morning and it was dead, (around 7.8v). I'm surprised at the short length of the battery life as I did put a new one in after I bought it. I'd say its lasted me around 12-15hours of playing. My main bass, a Lakland 4402 has had the same battery in for about a year and barely uses any power (its only just creeped under 9V on last check). Possibly looking at a full electronic and p'up overhaul on it in the future. Any idea what p'ups are compatible, dimension wise with the Yamaha TRB's?
 
#34
Dr. Cheese said:
I've got no problem with used Yamahas being inexpensive. I am more than happy to let others continue to spend big bank on Fenders, Rickenbackers, MTDs, Foderas, etc. I would happy if Yamaha and Peavey prices never catch up to what they are worth!:bassist:
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+1

I only use old Yamaha basses and Peavey sound systems. I only agree that old Yamaha pre-90s are getting more popularity. IMHO Yamaha no longer makes good basses outside of Japan.
 
#35
homey said:
+1

I only use old Yamaha basses and Peavey sound systems. I only agree that old Yamaha pre-90s are getting more popularity. IMHO Yamaha no longer makes good basses outside of Japan.
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I don't buy that at all. I have a BB1025x and a TRB1005j and they are fantastically built basses. They play well, set up and intonate well and have great tone. I take back the comment about them not being as well made as my Lakland 55-02... they are made just as well.

In the 90s there was some dicey stuff that came out of the Yamaha bass department. It almost seemed like as it got harder and harder to market/sell those Motion B basses, things got a little plain with them.
But the cheapest Yamaha 4 strings were actually quite serviceable instruments once you got them set up properly. Sometimes the necks were a little unstable though and it took a dozen back and forth truss-rod tweaks to get them to "sit" properly.

Most older Yamaha basses I used over the years were great. However I always had ergonomic/feel issues with their neck-through basses and the odd time I had electronics problems with them.

Regarding the battery issue... The first battery I had in the 1005j didn't last very long at all... The second battery (A Duracel) is doing much better. So far.

That aside, Yamaha has never been very good at marketing their basses. Their marketing pride and joy goes to their pianos, keyboards, and now guitars. Boo hoo... I'm not playing Yamaha basses for the marketing.

;-):hiding:
 
#37
I played some festival back in 2005. After the first part, guy (obviously full of 'knowledge' came to me full of excitement: "oh, man. That LAKLAND sounds incredible..., What's that amp you are playing on? I've never seen it before!"..
- It's YAMAHA BBG5S ($220) and Acoustic 330..

He was so disappointed....

Guys in the band always prefer Yamaha over any bass that I played with them.
 
#38
Tvrtko said:
I played some festival back in 2005. After the first part, guy (obviously full of 'knowledge' came to me full of excitement: "oh, man. That LAKLAND sounds incredible..., What's that amp you are playing on? I've never seen it before!"..
- It's YAMAHA BBG5S ($220) and Acoustic 330..

He was so disappointed....

Guys in the band always prefer Yamaha over any bass that I played with them.
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Yeah, those basses sound great. I have a BBG5A and a BBG4A and love them.
 
#39
I've noticed it on ebay. I'm always looking for a deal and pick up nearly everything I can get for less than $100 every time I get my paycheck. I used to find a lot of late '60s to early '80s Yamahas for next to nothing but now it's impossible to get a good deal on them.

I remember once I saw a '67 SB 5A go for like $40 shipped and was kicking myself for days for missing that deal.
 
#40
etechstan said:
Yamah[a], like many other companies are just marketing departments that contract outside manufacturers to do the production aspects of the business.
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That's pretty much true, and notice how people here are resistant to giving up the fanboy fallacy of Yamaha quality exceptionalism when brands A, B, C, D through WW are all off the identical production lines and made by the identical underpaid Asian workers. Maybe Yamaha pays for a little tighter QC, but I doubt it. There's a lot of crappy Yamaha product out there, same as everyone else's.

When people bray about quality, the first thing they have to do is convince me they objectively understand what good build is actually about, and fully 95%+ of those here are more or less in the dark about that. The second thing they have to do is convince me that they've seen and scrupulously, dispassionately analyzed enough examples to have a valid general viewpoint of the product.

Perhaps Yamaha produces designs that have some advantage, but other than that, they're in precisely the same boat as everyone else is who farms out their production to the same distant plants.

It's interesting -- or perhaps depressing -- to me to see how people desperately struggle to justify their pitiful loyalties to "brands" that are little more than marketing fictions, never mind how much bandwidth is burned here in those efforts. :rolleyes:
 

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