# Enn Bee Dee Yamaha BB734a



## keto (May 23, 2006)

Sorry for the lousy photos. My P bass isn’t *quite* cutting it, wanted more bite, and prefer active basses. Traded the 80’s L-2000, I didn’t get along with the vintage radius, and it was a bit more of a beater than I thought. The Yamaha has a much flatter 10”, a Jazz nut width, but fuller in back. Intonation perfect from 1 to 12 right off the wall, so a well cut nut and it has good fretwork, smallish but not super low frets. All that and a nice painted but matte back of neck makes for a real nice playing piece.

The BB series has been around since at least the 80s, and are well liked. This one’s under 10 lbs, some or most of the older ones are supposed to be real heavy. They’ve redesigned it and used different wood and lightweight tuners. Build quality is great, and assembly was done right - I can’t turn a single screw tighter with firm hand pressure. I love that they use a string retainer that includes the A, yay no rattle on open notes.

All kinds of neat touches, the 6 bolt with 2 angled neck joint, and look at the bottom where the string thru ends - less angle & stress on the strings. Input jack is a nice thick metal plate too.

I haven’t had it plugged in a bunch, but passive front pup is very much P, but can roll in bite and a bit of scoop moving the balance towards the rear pup. People do complain the J pup is noisy, but I never use it solo anyways. The pre T-M-B has a nice usable range, and isn’t a huge output jump from passive.

I’m not much of a sunburst guy, but I do like how Yamaha has done it, subtle yet rich looking. Oh, and the bag is nicely padded, pocketed, and has a super soft ‘fur’ lining.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Slightly better crappy photo.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Wow. After rehearsal, that’s all you can say. We do from Eagle to AIC, Big Wreck, Foos. I put a bad battery in it so ran it passive. All I had to touch was balance from P to mid if I wanted more bite and scoop, and the treble down a fair bit on some but mostly flat. That and a couple overdrives, done deal, plays great sounds great. Didn’t even change strings, which I almost always do. XLs stock, no need to change tho ultimately I’ll experiment later.


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## Guest (Mar 15, 2019)

Cool bass. Pricey?


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## Guest (Mar 15, 2019)

Player99 said:


> Cool bass. Pricey?


The BB series are quite reasonable.
Kijiji Canada
I leave my gear at home and use one at my friends place when I go over to jam.


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## Guest (Mar 15, 2019)

keto said:


> People do complain the J pup is noisy


I shielded my J pups. Not completely quiet, but noticeably less noise.
Sorry, I didn't take any pics along the way.
Mod Garage: How to Shield Single-Coil Pickups | Premier Guitar


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## _Azrael (Nov 27, 2017)

The angled string through body thing is pretty cool.


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

Did you get it off the shelf somewhere or did you have to special-order it? I have a bb234. I like it. Price was good. Performance is great. Fit and finish is super. But there's only one music shop that I could find that carries them and they had to special-order the color I wanted and it was a two-month turn around to get it. I think it was worth the wait I wasn't in a rush but that kind of marketing isn't super.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Sketchy Jeff said:


> Did you get it off the shelf somewhere or did you have to special-order it? I have a bb234. I like it. Price was good. Performance is great. Fit and finish is super. But there's only one music shop that I could find that carries them and they had to special-order the color I wanted and it was a two-month turn around to get it. I think it was worth the wait I wasn't in a rush but that kind of marketing isn't super.


It was on the wall at L&M South here, I played it 2-3 weeks before I bought it. Went back looking for a backup/sketchy gig bass, and it was to my surprise still there, so I went straight to it, and plugged in. 2 months later, I LOVE this bass, and would have no problem gigging it as my #1. It’s super defined, with lottttsss of ass end, kicks butt with my GK amp. It gets used most band practices and will be gigged, kept in Eb for 4-5 tunes, all heavy/hard tunes. 

Super fast playing neck, good enough fretwork at it’s price point, tons of flexibility using front or mostly blended even, a more scooped punchy brighter sound. Excellent range all over the preamp, though mostly I just up and down treble. Superb fit, though I was having an issue where the G tuner wouldn’t hold tune. Got out the Phillips, yup it was loose, as were a few other screws elsewhere. I usually go over every screw and nut first thing I get a bass home, missed this one. Gave the rod a tweak after putting lighter 40-100 Lo Rider Nickel, plays great and a little easier on the fretting hand, and as I hoped sound just like same 45-105 with no loss of anything, it’s a LOUD bass with the pre on, works perfect for me. And it holds tune.

You could ask at L&M, or check online what they show stock.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

Here you go. Check provinces on the drop down below. You can have it shipped from any branch, and they’ll move it to Winnipeg if you can get in there. And they’ll take trade ins, any music gear.
Yamaha - BB Series 4-String Electric Bass Guitar - Dark Coffee Sunburst


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## Sketchy Jeff (Jan 12, 2019)

Long & McQuade has them on their website but neither one of the Winnipeg stores carried anything in the BB line when I was looking and I asked if they could get something in and he just said no flat out. It was on the website but not actually available. They weren't super interested in helping me.

So I did some checking around and Janzen Brothers Musical Instruments down in Winkler had a red one in stock which I went and played. I liked it a lot but not the color so ordered a natural finish one. It took a while to get there but they did a great job setting it up and checking it out after I came in and I was really happy with all the interactions I had with Andrew and his staff at the store. I like an independent store versus a chain anyway so that was an added bonus.

J


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## YammyV (Apr 23, 2019)

From what some bass players have told me, even the low end Yamaha basses are stellar. Of course, I am a little biased!


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