Yamaha Peter Hook Signature Bass

[Sanshiro]

I did not realize there was no BB600--you're probably right, Hooky was probably talking about the 1200.

All the results for a "Yamaha BB600" funnily enough are all the interviews done with Hooky. I don't know why he's never been corrected on it, even Yamaha themselves report his first Yamaha as having been a BB600.

 

[hypercarrots]

Wasn't the stolen gear incident in late 1980? Or were there two separate stolen gear incidents?

This is from the first US visit, September of 1980. Hooky can be seen playing a Fender P here, which is definitely not his bass of choice.

he had to use that fender p because their gear got stolen

 

[Sanshiro]

he had to use that fender p because their gear got stolen

Yeah that's what I was trying to get at. It was definitely 1980 they had their gear jacked.

 

[hypercarrots]

Over what time period was this? I'm the lucky owner of a 9lb 10oz one from Sweetwater, so my bass might have been in your survey. It's still under 10lb so it's not that bad.

HNK = april 2017
HOL = may 2018

 

[hypercarrots]

All the results for a "Yamaha BB600" funnily enough are all the interviews done with Hooky. I don't know why he's never been corrected on it, even Yamaha themselves report his first Yamaha as having been a BB600.

yamaha also thinks the bb1200s came out in 1977 because they are confusing it with the bb1200. misinformation spreads...

 

[Sanshiro]

at the very beginning of this video from april 16, 1984 you can see the bb1200 still with them live

View attachment 4074694

this video from july 7, 1984 is the oldest reference i can find of him using the bb1200s

View attachment 4074695

Hold on a second, is the semi hollow bass Hooky is playing in the Thieves Like Us video the Eccleshall custom, or is it just another semihollow? Isn't the Eccleshall bass made with BB1200S electronics? If so he had to have had a BB1200S prior to that date.

 

[Sanshiro]

Actually on second thought, that semihollow has a different headstock than the Chris Eccleshall one.

 

[hypercarrots]

Hold on a second, is the semi hollow bass Hooky is playing in the Thieves Like Us video the Eccleshall custom, or is it just another semihollow? Isn't the Eccleshall bass made with BB1200S electronics? If so he had to have had a BB1200S prior to that date.

i edited my post with the answers to those questions before seeing this post.

 

[Sanshiro]

i edited my post with the answers to those questions before seeing this post.

Yeah I just caught the differences while watching the video again.

 

[hypercarrots]

Hold on a second, is the semi hollow bass Hooky is playing in the Thieves Like Us video the Eccleshall custom, or is it just another semihollow? Isn't the Eccleshall bass made with BB1200S electronics? If so he had to have had a BB1200S prior to that date.

the oldest instance i can find of him using the eccleshall "hot" is august 4 1985 in toronto. video is on youtube too.

 

[SunByrne]

HNK = april 2017
HOL = may 2018

OK, nevermind. Mine was Feb 2019.

 

[hypercarrots]

There's no such thing as a BB600 though, and the BB1200 can be seen in the LWTUA music video, so he definitely owned one prior to coming to America. I think it's just a case of mistaken identity on his part. It's possible that when he talks about the BB600 he means the BB800, which does exist and was the budget model of the BB1200.

there's a picture of him with a bb800 in netherlands, december 1980.

 

[Sanshiro]

the oldest instance i can find of him using the eccleshall "hot" is august 4 1985 in toronto. video is on youtube too.

I believe I know what show you're talking about. I went through a big search a few months back trying to find the earliest appearance of the BB1200S with New Order.

On a semi-unrelated note, I did come across a concert where he used some kind of Yamaha BB with a PJ config, it wasn't the custom BB1200 that he sold at auction, it had a config similar to the BB2000 (tone and volume, a pickup selector switch) but I believe it had a non-reverse P. Might've been a BB450(?). I can't remember which concert but it was post Low-Life if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Sanshiro]

there's a picture of him with a bb800 in netherlands, december 1980.

Is it possible that was the one stolen in New York then? Or the BB1200 from LWTUA with the pickguard? Or both? I don't know why he says the one he lost was a BB600. The similarity in names makes me think he means the BB800, but who knows. I've never seen the pickguard BB1200 in the New Order era.

 

[hellboy]

It was actually a BB600 that was stolen in New York. Hooky talks about it pretty extensively in the PMT interview.

You're right, he does say that, but his memory for numbers isn't great and I think he's got his models mixed up. There was AFAICT no BB600 (maybe he meant a BB800?), and he's playing what appears to be a sunburst BB1200 with clear pickguard in the Love Will Tear Us Apart video which was recorded in April 1980 before Curtis killed himself and before they ever went to NY. I believe the 1200 was the only model which came with that clear pickguard, but I could be mistaken. The 800 and 1000 had pickguards, but they didn't look like that, they had that swoopy three-ply black design.

 

[Sanshiro]

You're right, he does say that, but his memory for numbers isn't great and I think he's got his models mixed up. There was AFAICT no BB600 (maybe he meant a BB800?), and he's playing what appears to be a sunburst BB1200 with clear pickguard in the Love Will Tear Us Apart video which was recorded in April 1980 before Curtis killed himself and before they ever went to NY. I believe the 1200 was the only model which came with that clear pickguard, but I could be mistaken. The 800 and 1000 had pickguards, but they didn't look like that, they had that swoopy three-ply black design.

That's what I'm thinking. I know he's said before that he traded in (paraphrasing here) "from the 600 to the 1000 to the 1200" so I'm thinking he must mean the 800 in place of the 600.

 

[hypercarrots]

I believe I know what show you're talking about. I went through a big search a few months back trying to find the earliest appearance of the BB1200S with New Order.

On a semi-unrelated note, I did come across a concert where he used some kind of Yamaha BB with a PJ config, it wasn't the custom BB1200 that he sold at auction, it had a config similar to the BB2000 (tone and volume, a pickup selector switch) but I believe it had a non-reverse P. Might've been a BB450(?). I can't remember which concert but it was post Low-Life if I'm not mistaken.

pumped full of drugs in japan, he used a bb2000 and bb3000 probably because yamaha reps were there with instruments for them to use.

 

[Sanshiro]

pumped full of drugs in japan, he used a bb2000 and bb3000 probably because yamaha reps were there with instruments for them to use.

Yeah actually that was it. Must have been a BB3000 I was seeing at that point in the video, unless I misremembered the regular P config.

 

[hypercarrots]

Yeah actually that was it. Must have been a BB3000 I was seeing at that point in the video, unless I misremembered the regular P config.

confusion, bernard played one, peter played the other.
face up, sunrise was the bb3000

 

[TNCreature]

OK, so last night I binge-watched the new videos about it, including the hour-long PMT interview. PH did work with one of the Yamaha luthiers on it and they described that process a little. Mostly what they talked about is how it's not a neck-through but Hooky was ultimately OK with that.

There are, as far as I can tell, three functional differences between the PH signature and a BB734a with a red paint job:

[1] The neck pickup on the PH is a reverse P; on the BB734a it's a traditional P. In principle this definitely should matter, and Hooky maintains this is critical to the sound.

[2] Different preamp. Apparently the PH model uses something more like the original 1200 preamp than the modern one. Again, this is one of the things mentioned in one of the videos is PH working with Yamaha on the voicing of the preamp.

[3] No J pickup, because the 1200S didn't have one.

I will say that Hooky playing the thing in the PMT interview using the original Clone Theory pedal... it definitely sounds like the real deal. And if you've watched any of the PH & the Light videos they've put up on YouTube over the last six months, he's playing the BBPH and not the BB1200S, and it sounds and looks so close I did not realize that was the case (yes, I went back and checked).

The BBPH definitely does not sound the same as my BB734a. Similar? Yes. But you can't quite get the right sound out of a 734a (I certainly can't, but I also noticed a change in sound when I saw PH & the Light live and he was playing a 734a), where the signature seems to nail it. So it's really not "just" a BB734a with red paint on it.

Now, having said that, as someone who already owns a BB734a, I'm not sure the PH model is worth $1200. I mean, as a huge PH fan, sure, I'd love to have one, but as a bass player I'm not sure it's really a good value vs. a 734a. If all you want to do is get that last ounce of the PH sound, great. But otherwise it's not radically different and definitely less versatile.

The PH signature is prettier, for whatever that's worth. Yamaha definitely either has some of the original red paint from the 1200S still around, or they found a perfect match for it. It's a looker, for sure.

Thank you for breaking it down.