Yamaha BB735A Review

Unimpressive

Having waited for over four months to receive my bass after I ordered it (no fault of Sweetwater), I was excited to finally get my hands on it. What a disappointment! No punch, no drive, very thin sounding. And when switching from active to passive, almost no volume. This is not what I expected from Yamaha since having played my RBX 800A for years.

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Excellent Tribute

I bought this sight unseen after spending years regretting the sale of my old BB2000. Did not disappoint. I had it fitted with a higher C instead of a lower B and Sweetwater fixed it up right, even hand making and replacing the nut. The tone is awesome and so is the sustain. It gets a lot of questions during set breaks. I have zero complaints about this and is now my go-to instrument.

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Excellent instrument, some setup required to reach full potential

The overall build quality of this bass is fantastic. The neck is smooth and straight without being sticky, no sharp edges on the frets or uneven fretwork. I had to do a little set-up after getting it as there wasn't any relief in the neck, and found that I was only able to loosen the truss rod a bit before the nut started spinning loose. I have just enough relief in the neck with… read more GHS Pressurewound strings on it. These have about the same amount of tension as the strings that came on the bass (D'Addario Nickel Roundwound), but players who like more neck relief or lighter tension strings might run into problems here. I did notice one slightly rough edge where the body meets the neck in the lower cutout, but I don't run into this while playing so I don't expect it to be a problem. The hardware on this bass is great – knobs feel sturdy and turn very smoothly, with a nice detent in the center for the blend and EQ knobs. One thing that isn't well advertised or explained on the EQ knobs is that in passive mode, the tone control is only affected by the bottom half of the knob's turn – so from all the way off up to the center detent. In active mode, the bass uses the full sweep. The passive/active switch seems well built and the position and spacing of the knobs are all very well designed. I wasn't expecting to use the preamp as I have not liked other active basses, but this one is actually growing on me to my surprise and delight. The bass also has a nice balance, I don't notice any significant neck dive, and it's just a hair over 9 pounds with a hefty leather strap on it. The weight, balance and contours make this extremely comfortable to play, even for a long stretch. The option to string through the body at an oblique angle is a nice touch, and the reversible bridge saddles are a cool feature as well. I appreciate easy battery access on the back of the body and the LED indicator that lights up when the battery power is low. These are small touches but they set this instrument slightly above other similar models in terms of design innovation. My one gripe with the build quality is that the pickups don't feel like they're set in very tightly. They rock back and forth and make an audible clacking noise when I hit them with my fingers. I believe this is easily and inexpensively fixed with some better foam under the pickups, but of all the places for Yamaha to cut corners, this seems like an odd one. I really shouldn't have to do this on a high-mid tier instrument. The pickups are slightly noisy as well, but that's expected in single coil pickups. These are standard sized P/J pickups, unlike previous BB models, so they're easier to swap out if one is so inclined. I think the stock pickups sound fine, so I'm not champing at the bit to change them right away, but maybe someday I'll feel differently. Appearance wise, I am a fan of the design of the body and pickguard. The bottom of the pickguard intersects with the middle of the pickups in a visually appealing way; I often feel like the unbalanced split single coil pickups look weird on a 5 string bass, but the pickguard helps mitigate this. The pickguard is smaller and only covers some space between the neck and the upper half of the neck pickup, however, so I'm not sure how effective it is at protecting the body from aggressive pick playing. I do wish Yamaha had not decided to go with a black stain on the back of the neck – it completely covers up the lovely maple/mahogany 5 piece. The 434/435 and P34/P35 models don't have the stain, so I'm not sure why the 700 tier got it. It's a shame to have to cover up that lovely wood work! I really like the look of the headstock, it's clearly influenced by the shape of the classic Fender headstock but just slightly different. The metal Yamaha logo on the end is a classy touch (I really like the look of the three intersecting tuning forks). Looks are subjective but aside from the stain on the neck (seriously, why?) this bass knocks it out of the park for me. Overall, I'm very happy with this bass despite the minor and easy adjustments I had to make. I do wish Yamaha would put some better foam under the pickups, and if and when this model gets redesigned, please lose the black stain on the neck. I also didn't care for the stock strings – they were much too zingy for my personal taste. But these are minor gripes; overall the instrument plays and sounds fantastic. I've been unable to keep my hands off it since buying it, and my other basses have been relegated to backup status. This is now my main instrument and I'm looking forward to many more years of playing it.

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Amazing bass!

I loved the looks of this bass and heard a lot of good things about Yamaha, so I decided to take a chance... Very glad I did. This is an amazing, versatile bass. Played great iut of the box and the finish is absolutely beautiful...

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AWESOME BASS!

This bass is an excellent buy. I can"t say enough good things about this bass. I have been wanting for a while now a 5-string P/J bass and I believe I have found the one. I bought a sire p7 earlier this year and thought it played great but I had a hard time finding the right tones and I spent more time messing with the knobs than enjoying playing it. I sold it because I have other… read more basses that I like more and thought I would give up on the 5-string P/J bass for a while. Then I saw this Yamaha bb735a and thought I would give it a go and I am so glad did. I had never played a Yamaha bass before but I figured that because of their reputation and the high-level players that endorse them that it will be worth the try. Right out of the box I could tell that this is a quality instrument and it was already set up to play. It was in pretty good tune, the action was about right, and the neck was straight. The playability is great, the mids, lows, and highs are all awesome, and the bass is not very heavy. The thing I like the most is that the passive tone is great and it does not have a significant volume cut when you switch it from active. The p-bass sound is nice and low and can give you old school tones or more modern tones. The jazz pickup adds a nice high end for enhancing slap tones, jazz, or funk. This bass is a keeper and I look forward to playing it for many years to come. I never thought I would be a Yamaha guy but know I can say that I am.

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