Yamaha BBT-500H Head

This amp is the one to pick if you want to make kick *** music

Out of this world sound quality

Never gone down

Did not need it

i have had this amp for 3 years and no problems. i wish i had bought it sooner

I THINK I got it in 2004, the year it was introduced. I play in a praise and worship setting, both uptempo and hymnal styles. Solid state, digital amp. Five preset programmable preset buttons. Two speaker outputs. Input gain, preamp gain, master volume AND output volume knobs on front (I set the preamp and master knobs to 3 O'clock) and one headphone output with separate volume knob on the rear. The output volume must be turned up past 1 for the headphone volume knob to work. I set the parametric EQ for a narrow notch at 2000Hz (easy to do) and adjust the EQ knobs to taste. There are 11 bass amp voicings to choose from, I have yet to settle on the one I want with this bass. I'm gravitating between the Tube, Modern and R&B settings. I'm using two non-bass specific PA speakers, 8 Ohms each. The inputs are paralleled inside the amp head, so that's a 4 Ohm load. It sounds better to my ears with my original 2.6 Ohm load, which included a Carvin BRX 10.2 Neo 4 Ohm 2X10 speaker and Mirage 8 Ohm two-way monitor speaker. Facing the front of the amp, the right side gets warm on top, but that doesn't appear to effect the sound quality or output level. This is a 2 Ohm am, a fact which surprises everyone I explain this to (see explanation in "Overall Rating" section.

I use a Peavey-GV graphite-necked 5-string bass with an alder, Fury-styled body and Cirrus electronics. This bass barks the fundamental of each note, regardless of the string played, and the BBT-500H reproduces each note with no problem.
There is less hiss in the 2 Ohm hookup, so I'm looking for one or two 4 Ohm speakers, maybe another Carvin BRX 10.2 Neo. The hiss is determined by the speakers and bass used; a quick, slight twist of the treble knob and it's gone. I've noticed the same thing with an Eden WT800 and a Markbass Little Mark II, so it must be something we all have to deal with. When set clean it stays clean; you have to turn up the input gain OR use one of the distortion settings to make it turn mean.
My Carvin LB75, Lakland 55-2 and Hohner FB basses sound good through the BBT-500H, too. The Peavey is how I'm rolling for now.

I don't have a backup. Bought it within a year of its debut, had it in storage for a year (TWICE!) and it still plays without a problem. I keep it in the trunk of my car, if that's any indication of its reliability. I only give it an 8 since I don't know what a 9 or 10 would be in this category, but I don't want to be misleading, either. I am considering getting one or two more of these.

Never dealt with customer support. The amp has been discontinued and I have an opinion why that happened, but no proof.
See my explanation in the "Overall Rating" section.

Most bass amps I have seen warn the player NOT to play below a 4 Ohm setup, but the BBT-500H suggested the bass player should hook up TWO 4 Ohm speakers for optimum performance. I think bass players perceived that to be a typo or bad translation on Yamaha's part, but I can verify it IS a 2 Ohm amp and should be played that way or as a 2.6 Ohm amp with one 8 Ohm speaker in Jack 2 and one 4 Ohm speaker in Jack 1. Use the 8 Ohm speaker as the band monitor and point the 4 Ohm speaker toward everyone else. Perfect. Jack 1 is also used as the bridge jack for two 4 Ohm speakers, but leave Jack 2 empty in bridge mode so you don't see the magic 1 Ohm smoke!

This is a follow-up to a review I posted over a year ago.

I'm using the 500H with either one or two of the Yamaha 210 cabs.
I have used it on many gigs and I am giving it a big thumbs up.
It is a Swiss Army Knife Amp.
It does many things very well.

On some very loud gigs, I wish it had a little more headroom.
Another 200 watts or so would make this a 10.

Usually it is enough juice, and I like the way the punch matches the drummer's kick.

I'm using it with several basses and sometimes nylon string electric guitar.
With tweaking, it sounds beautiful with all of these axes.
There is so much depth to the tweaking, that you really need to learn the features.
It is not noisy, but if you have a noisy source, it will let you know.

I have used this thing on countless gigs and it has always worked great.

I'm a long time player and I'm really happy with this head.
I'd buy it again.

If you are really needing heavy slam, get something more powerful.

For normal gigs, this thing works great.

Features have been well documented so no need to comment on that.

I use this at church with the worship team and with friends in a jam band setting.

Using a Peavey Cirrus 5 string. Using this with 2 x 2x10 Yamaha matching cabs. Tons of volume and punch. You've probably read about the "hiss" and it is easily worked with. This amp is very very versatile. I love the ability to switch settings with the presets. Going to a deep bass with Modern setting to punchy with the Tube setting allows me to quickly customize sound for the song. I don;t use the distortion settings so no comment there.

This does everything I need it to do and then some.

No concerns whatsoever about durability of this product. Happy to have gotten one before the supply was exhausted since it is now discontinued.

no comment here

Been playing for 25+ years. Own lots of gear, Taylor acoustic electric, Larrivee acoustic electric, Godin Artisan signature, Fender Prosonic, tons of effects, Peavey Cirrus, Fender Precision lawsuit copy from 70's, piano etc... the list goes on.

I would definitely replace it in a heart beat. I tried lots of combos, heads and cabs and this one was the best bang for the $. Hands down.

Got this amp about 4 months ago at a great price of $349.00 including shipping from Musician's Friend. It has a ton of features that are fun to play with but I personally don't use most of them. I currently play mostly 60's and 70's rock in nightclubs just for fun. I have been playing for 40 years (since I was twelve) so NOW, the weight of this amp was one of the features that my old back was looking for. In the past I have owned just about every bass amp imaginable. Sunn 2000s, Sunn Concerts and Coliseums, Kustom K-200's,Gallien Kreuger 800RB's, Acoustic 360's,371's and 471's,Fender 400PS, 300PS,Bassmans and Dual Showmans,Ampeg V4B's, B15N's and more than 6 Vintage SVT's (the heads weigh almost 100 lbs alone!) When I was playing professionally in an original rock band in the 80's I always used two complete Ampeg SVTs which I still consider to be the best bass amp bar none. I've had alot of experience with Hartke's, and SWRs but don't like either one of them. They break down alot and sound bad-artificial- to me). So I guess you could say that I actually prefer the punch powerful tube amps. After trying out this Yamaha, my first impression was "It'll do for now".

The Yamaha's sound quality is actually pretty good (surprisingly!) I would have never thought that I would say that about a modern solid state amp, let alone a digital one. Older solid state amps like my 1967 Vox Westminster and 1969 Kustom K-200 sound as good or better, but don't have quite as much power and weigh alot more for taking to and from gigs. I use the BBT500 with two Hartke 210TP cabinets, but I swapped out the Hartke speakers with some Eminence aluminum-coned Neodymn 10's that are 8 ohms and rated at 150 watts ea. This make each of my two Hartke cabs rated at 300 watts RMS at 4 ohms, giving me the much needed 600 watts RMS, 2 ohm load for the Yamaha. I usually use the Heavy Classic setting and tweak the parametric and standard eq to simulate an SVT, of which is does an okay job. It just doesn't have as much power or punch, but is still respectable. The compressor is always defeated since I think this amp sounds a bit too compressed as it is. I have 14 basses, ranging from 7 vintage Fenders, a Ricky 4001, two Hofners, an Alembic Series One, a Gibson EB0 and EB3 and a Vox Cougar. I mostly just use my old original '62 Precision though. The amp seems to have plenty of power and plays fairly cleanly at high levels. From funk to Jazz to hard rock and ballads, It seems to cover all of these genres well.

So far (knock on wood) there haven't been any problems, and I have run it as long as 7 hours at a time at fairly loud levels. I always take a backup, no matter what amp I'm using, which seems to guarantee that it won't be needed.

Haven't had to deal with this yet.

I think that I've covered this in the previous sections. If there were something that I didn't like about it, it would be that it lacks the smoothness in frequency response and punch of a good basic tube amp, but all in all, it's a great portable amp for the money ($350.00!)And it weighs almost nothing!

already described by other reviewers

Easy to use: if you want to use it like a normal amp, go ahead. If you want to dig deeper, go ahead.

I like the build-in compressor.

I checked the amp with my Lefay Herr Schwarz, a Yamaha BB Std. and a Yamaha BB5000. Used in a jazzy setting with a 1x10" Yamaha cabinet and in a very loud punkrockband where I only used the preamp section.

First you notice, that all sound setting are a bit compressed. This is typical to modelling amps. The build-in compressor works very good and good slap sounds are easy to achieve.

There is a noticeable hiss, when using tweeter equipped cabinets.

Several sound presets offer a very disturbing noise at 3000 Hz or more. This noise depends on treble boost, use of cabinets with tweeter and the impedance of the input load. With passiv basses it is there, with active basses, a CD player or a buffer preamp between bass and amp, it vanishes. The noise is present at the line out, which is a really knock out criterium.

I gave the BBT back.

I won't let it fall down, because it is build very cheap.

n.a.

The sounds are interesting, it seems to be very versatile.

The compressor works good.

There is too much noise, I won't use it on stage.

Bought it March 2006, 5 months ago (a few weeks before the price went down ! Aaarrgh...).

I play many styles inside cover bands (rock, funk,country, etc.). I bought it because it's versatile. In fact, I just use 3 or 4 of the 11 amp types: Classic, Modern, Tube and Solid.

There's an accurate parametric equalizer, an efficient compressor which can be set from subtle to hard) and an effect loop (but I don't use any effect). There's also a very usefull speaker simulator and 5 user's memories I love.

It's so cheap, light and small you can carry it in a laptop rucksack.

I use it with two 4x10 Yamaha cabinets and a Variax bass.

I admit, I took a long time to find the sounds I need (it's not plug&play for me). The head has 5 factory presets but I erased them to store mine. And that's one of the best things with the BBT500: once you've got the right sound, just press a button and bim! stored! Plus, if 5 memories aren't enough, you can use the Midi connection and store your parameters into your computer (almost limitless).

To give substance to the sound -even with 8x10"- I must switch on the cabinet simulator.

There's an evident hiss that you can stop by cutting the tweeter (on the Yamaha's cabinets).

A bit more than 20 years ago, many of my friends refused to buy Compact Disc: "too many very high and very low frequencies (inaudible to human ears) are missing!", they said.
Today, most of them have a huge CD collection; and they appreciate that it's more durable than vinyl records or cassettes, very easy to manipulate, store and carry.
Many musicians hate "digital". Artificial and cold, they say. For my part, I don't see any dramatic difference compared to tube or transistor amps. With this full digital head and the two cabinets, I get a rich powerfull and indisputable great sound.

The head is noiseless and doesn't become hot.

I'm ready to concede that isolated, in an acoustic room, you could notice a difference but I don't believe this can be true when mixed with other instruments.
I'm ready to concede that it's a great feeling to play a vintage bass plugged into an Ampeg or Eden set, it looks and feels better but I don't believe these reasons are enough to spend so much money.

After two months one led (a memory led) stopped to work, but the memory still works. It's annoying but not too bad. I first got upset but, in fact, I can live with a non-working led. No amplifier is above breaking down.

The knobs look cheap and unreliable.
I have the feeling this head isn't durable but I hope I'm misled by its weight and its cheap knobs.

I always prefer to gig with a backup. It has nothing to do with the equipment. In fact, I plan to buy the same head as a backup as it is so cheap now (366? !).

I have never dealt with the Yamaha's customer support.

I've been playing for 25 years, using many basses: Aria, Yamaha, Fender, Musicman and mainly a Variax at the moment.

If it were stolen or lost I would buy it again and cheaper (the price went down).
I love the sound(s), the 5 memories, the measurements, and the compressor.
The knobs and the undurable feeling.
I tried many equipements before to choose it: Eden Nemesis combo, Markbass, Ashdown, Hartke. They all sounded great (except the Hartke and the Markbass) but they were to expensive. I'm not playing with world famous stars, I have a family, I don't aim to become a star since I turned 35, so why should I pay so much to hear my bass?

I don't like the fact that you take time to set the sound but I guess this is in compensation for versatility.

Mostly covered already...

I use it with 2 ofthe matching 210 cabs.

The speaker simulation be switched to just go to the line out, which is quite useful. I've used it live and for recording with the line out.

Wattage is quite low at 4ohms, you have to use 2 4ohm cabs to get all the power, so that limits your choices quite a bit. If this had 500w at 4ohms, it'd be a 10.

I use it mainly with passive Fenders. Live, I use it for an indie rock band that I'm in, but I use it for my own side-project stuff as well. The EQ and compression make it really versatile. I also like that you can blend the FX loop in with the clean signal. Live, it sounds great, and it's got loads of power. I use it with one of the matching 2x10 cabs in a rock band with a loud drummer and a 2x12 valve guitar amp, and it sounds great.

Now, for the downside. It's a class D power amp, so it's quite noisy at high frequencies. It goes away if you roll back the tone on your bass, or if you turn down the treble onthe amp. It would only really be a problem if you were playing something treble-heavy, like punk. I've only noticed the hum using speakers with tweeters, tweeterless ones sound fine.

Line out sounds great(no hum, it comes from the poweramp). It's a pity about the HF hum out of the speaker, because otherwise this would be the perfect recording amp. As it is, though, it's still very good.

Once stopped working after a rehearsal session. Just wouldn't switch on. I had been running it flat-out for 4 hours solid though, and it works fine now.

These are being taken off the market soon, so lots of shops are selling them off for really cheap(and the cabs as well). At the price you can get them from thomann, they're a complete bargain, and I'd highly recommend them to anyone.

Made in 2006, digital preamp and digital poweramp.

Parametric Equalizer, 5 Band EQ, Compressor, effects loop.

Has 11 different sound types (Flat, Tube, Solid, R&B, Vintage, Modern, Classic, Heavy, Drive, Distortion, Fuzz)

500W at 2Ohms, MIDI-switchable (5 User presets), noiseless fan (in case it gets too warm), line-out (XLR and 6.35mm)

Very light, weighs something like 6 pounds or so, much lighter than any amp I ever owned (except the Marshall MS-2)

I used it with a passive Yamaha BB-300, sounded great. All the different sound styles really sounded different and makes playing a lot more versatile than with a simple one channel amp.

BUT...the best thing...

I'm using this amp with a Cheri Telecaster and an ESP-LTD VB400 Baritone Guitar. I play mainly country, blues and metal over this amp. And believe it or not, it sound awesome. The bridge pickup of the telecaster with the "Drive" style of the amp is probably one of the best crunch guitar sounds I've ever heard. The baritone sounds boneshaking over the distortion channel. Great thing about this amp is the "low-mid" poti. It allows you to dial in that special "makes-your-belly-hum" punch. Especially for metal rhythmn guitar this is great.

Amp is absolutely noiseless, no hiss,no hum, no buzz.

Got it for 3 months now, played 10 gigs, rehearsed a lot. Works fine all the time, would gig without backup.

Haven't had to deal with Yamaha with this amp. But when my DG Stomp broke down, they were quite helpful and replaced the unit within 12 days. Warranty is 24 months (might depend on the country you bought this amp)

I'd buy it again, even considered buying a second just to have one extra in case something happens to mine. If it was stolen I'd buy another one, thanks to the midi dump feature you can always make a backup of your settings....so I'd have enough time to chase the thief....

This one contains a LOT of features: 11 basic sounds (incl. 4 drive/fuzz sounds), possibility to store five different sound settings, a five-band semiparametric eq, a one-band fully parametric eq, a compressor/limiter/gate with possibility to set all necessary parameters, low-pass/high-pass filters if used in a bi-amp system, pre/post/bypass line out/DI out, speaker simulator, fx loop (with possibility to mix the dry/wet signals), etc etc etc...

So... everything you would possibly need except effects is there, which makes it very versatile. On the other hand, it is rather difficult to use if you start to mixture with the eq's and compressor. It's easy to use these functions but it's also easy to "get lost" in the various sounds this amp can produce. Actually, I would have preferred an amp with a little bit less possibilities to make it easier to use. This one was just so much cheaper than the other more simple amps I was interested in, so I thought it would be a good second choice, at least when virtually all reviews (not only here) says the sound is excellent. For only 900 euros I got this head, a 4x10" and a 2x10" cabinet (I bought two cabinets (both leightweight Yamaha BBT series) to get a versatile system and to be able to use all 500 watts this can produce).

Weighing only 5? kg, this head is also very portable. :-)

I give it a 9 because there is simply too many features in this head. That makes it rather hard to use. However, you don't need to use all features included... ;-)

I use a passive, unmodified Warwick Corvette Standard 4-string bass with this amp. The different sounds work mostly really well, but I think I'll use the "modern" and "tube" sounds the most. Some of the other sounds are really good too, including most of the drive sounds, but for my music styles (rock, pop, soul, funk, reggae, jazz etc..) these two sounds fits my playing the best I think. Thanks to the eq, it's possible to make very different sounds with the same "base" sound (like "tube").

The sound is quite noisy when using the tweeters in the cabinets (i.e. high frequencies over 3000Hz are a bit noisy), so the noise gate might be useful when not playing but I think it mutes the signal too early even at the lowest treshold settings. Or maybe I have set the input level too low to avoid ugly clipping sounds. The cabinets sound quite bad if the tweeters are off so you have to have them on at least a little if you like high frequencies.

I recommend to set the input volume, gain and master volumes as high as possible, because if you set these too low you won't be able to turn the main volume up high enough. But it's better to be a bit careful with the input volume, it might start to distort too early if set too high, especially if you afterwards boost the bass without lowering the master volume on the same time. It's important to know how the four different volume knobs work. It's easy to get along with these as long you understand the input and the output volumes aren't saved in the memory places and the sum of the gain and master knob values should be less or equal to 10.

Too new to say... I have to use it without backups, but in case it would break on a gig, it's almost always possible to connect the bass straight to the PA (or is this called a backup?). By the way... who carries an extra bass rig to the gigs just in case the other one brakes?? I mean except the professionals who don't have to carry their own equipment...

Seems to be quite poor.. sent an e-mail a while ago but haven't heard anything from them yet. Even on the yamaha websites, it's really hard to find any useful information on this amp except from the most basic features. Don't they want to market their products???

Great amp, but as said it's easy to get lost when experimenting with the different sound possibilities.. I don't know if I would buy it again if it were stolen. It depends on if I could afford a >1000 ? excellent-sounding and easy-to-use head, I would probably buy that instead. I generally play with only one sound anyway. This amp sounds very similar to way more expensive amps.

For people who likes to experiment with different sounds, or in general wants a great-sounding, versatile amp for little money, I warmly recommend this one. If you are "mentally allergic" to compressors, parametric eq's etc, there are other alternatives, but not for the same price if you want a sound of the same quality as this amp provides.

The features have already been described.
It is a pretty amazing little amp.
I just got it and have used it on a couple of gigs.
It feels good when I play through it.
So far it has plenty of power for my needs.
I'm not getting the weird sounds the previous reviewer was talking about.
It comes with clamp on filters that might be the cure for his problem.

I'm using it for jazz and funk.
Fretless and slapping sound very good.
The EQ is very versatile, the compressor is excellent.
It is a bit hissy, but in a normal live enviornment, I don't hear the hiss.

I can only guess about the reliability.
The knobs seem pretty cheesy.
I hope it will be a workhorse.
I like the light weight.

So far this thing is a keeper.
I have a couple of loud gigs coming up and that will be the test for me.
If it can hang in when things are pumping, I'll be very happy.

Features are already written...Though I have to admit it's very chinese, cheap looking knobs (and not just looking).

I've used it mainly with jazz basses, and several bass cabs (800 watt marshall4x10, peavey 4x10, cheap 1x12, its own 2x10, and 4x10 yamaha cabs...). It's a really great sounding amp, actually I've never heard one amp sounding so great...But then one problem appeared, at high volumes the tweeters started to distort, peak in an ugly way. It took a time we found out the problem is not with the speakers, but with the amp itself. Taken measurments, and found out, the amp distorts all the time at a very high frequency, which becomes audible on high volumes as well. I took it back to the shop, where they found, that ALL the amps has the same problem. The digital poweramp is not shielded properly...

Well it works, but how? I don't know how these amps passed the quality check...

I haven't dealed with them, I let the music shop do it.

I think this could be one of the best (if not the best) amps all around, but I just can't trust in them this way. It really sounds monster, and even feels good, punchy, not dead like line6, or the roland digital stuff. I don't know if others have experienced this problem...
Maybe yamaha should relelase its preamp alone as well-the poweramp problem would be solved.:)

Amp made in 2005. 500 watt solid state amp with very comprehensive range of pre-sets and sound combinations, including compressor, noise gate, five band tone controls, variable parametric EQ, all programmable (including volume by pre-set) and controllable by an external midi souce such as the Yamaha MFC10 midi foot controller. Also includes a balanced DI output, pre/post EQ options, headphone jack with volume and an effects loop with blend control. The amp is fan cooled but, being digital, runs very cool and consumes much less power than conventional amps. I use this amp at home and at gigs. Being small and light it is very easy to cart around. I use the amp with an Ashdown ABM mini 4x8 and an Ashdown MAG 250 deep cabinet. The amp is rated at 500 watts into 2 ohms, more than enough power for me, but it is important to realise that it will only operate at approx 125 watt into 8 ohms or 250 watts into 4 ohms. I play a range of styles including funk, pop, blues/rock and boogie. This amp is versatile enough to deal with any style of music. The features are so many and varied that it can take a while to understand and control everything that is possible, and you may only end up using a fraction of what it can do. No Speakon output but probably no room for one as it is so small!

I use a custom 4 string with MusicMan pickup and a Vigier Arpege 5 string with twin pickups. It provides way more than I need for all styles that I play. There is a slight hiss when not playing but this is insignificant and can, if required, be suppressed with the noise gate. The range of model presets includes tube, solid, R&B, vintage, modern, classic and four levels of overdrive. In addition any combination of model preset, comp, EQ, noise gate, effects blend and master volume can be programmed into five separate user-definable presets. I have not been able to take the amp up anywhere near full volume yet but I can say that the clean setting always remains very clean. The last of the four overdrive settings is evil!

I have had no problems with reliability at all and would definitely use on a gig without backup.

No need for any so far. I believe the warranty is one year but I'm not sure as I can't find it!

I have been playing regularly for 10 years. I would definitely buy another if it were stolen or lost. I love the small size and weight, very comprehensive spec, quality and value for money. There is nothing I dislike about this amp, although I would have liked a Speakon connector. The amp is very sensitive to input noise and distortion. If you get input distortion it is almost certainly NOT the amp. Most likely it is your bass pre amp or effects. DON'T use Nicads and try to use a full 9 volt dry cell or, better still, 18 volts for the bass pre amp. Similar advice for your effects or use a mains adaptor.

These amps just came out about a year ago,and are all digital,power amp and pre.This is the most versatile bass amp I've ever owned!It has 11 models that span all genres of music,a wonderful compressor(and I hate compressors)and 5 band e.q.,effects loop,headphone jack,midi in/out and 5 programmable channels.This amp weighs about 10 lbs and pushes 500w@2 ohms!My only gripe is that you have to use a midi controller to footswitch channels,a plain old footswitch would be nice!

I use a Rickenbacker 4003s5 five string with EMG jazz p/u's,a Ibanez SR505 w EMG jazz p/u's and a Hofner copy and this amp does it all,from deep,round John Paul Jones to Marcus Miller!SWR,Ampeg,you name it,it's there.I use it with a Carvin 2-10 and 1-15 at 2 ohms and it shakes the room!The overdrive is very good too,it can sustain,and get from mild to heavy without being harsh,I run my horn wide open for clean,modern sounds,but don't have to touch it when dirty.You have to be careful with the e.q.because low end can sometimes dominate!

I've used it several times at gigs without a backup,and it never breaks a sweat,when pushing it I've checked the fan in the rear and have yet to see it run!I've had her about a year with no problems

I've never dealt with them,but own other Yamaha equipment that's never failed

I've been playin'30 years plus and have owned SVT pro rack rigs,Sansamp RBI rack,Gallien Krueger 700rb's (2)and Peaveys of many types(peaveys are underrated!)and this is the best anp I've used,at 10lbs as opposed to 50lbs for heads/racks of this power, my 52 year old back likes it!Also it only draws 180 w of power,so you never have to worry about your rig tripping breakers when firing it up!I wish it had a plain old footswitch for channel switching though,but I'm using a rocktron midi exchange which does work nicely.All this for 599.00 is an outstanding value!

The Features are great. It's a digital Amp, and so it has 11 different modes, then the 5-band EQ, and the parametric 1-band EQ, genius!!!!
I use this amp in a rock band, called release. It HAS enough power for me! I use every feature, there is nothing yamaha could do better, maybe a speakon output, but for the bbt-boxes you needn't speakon outputs!

I'm using a 4string Ibanez, and a 5string Fender (precision)
it suits my music style (rock)
it isn't noisy, but if it is ever noise (what i dont believe) therefore there's a noise gate!
It has 11 different sounds, all great!
No, the clean channel isnt distortet at high volumes!
wich distortion? the special sound "distortion" as an effect, it is very soft to very brutal! ;)

No, the amp has never broken down.. no failure

Yamaha was very friendly!!
No repair!
Yes, i've found one easily
i think 2 or 3 years!

I've been playing since 3 years.
i would buy it again!
i love that it is small, and the power (500 watts!)
i dont hate my amp!
i compared it with the ampeg SVT, some SWR amps, with a Fender amp, and a Hughes&Kettner (quantum) amp, but no one was has so different modes like the yamaha!! i had to pay 854 ? (euros, i come from germany), i bought it with the YamahaBBT410S (4x10" box) as a YamahaBBT-Set!

It bought it just a week ago, so I guess it's made in 2005.
The versatility of this amp is incredible. It features 11 digital soundtype modelings, input level, a studio quality compressor (with ratio, threshold, attack, release, gain and knee controls), separate preamp gain and preamp master, a 5-band semi parametric tone control and one extra 1-band full parametric eq, master vomume. There's also an built in noisegate. There are 5 memory patches for storing own created sounds.
On the back, there are all the necessary connections. On the line out and phone jacks there's even a speaker simulation!
This amp may look a little bit too complicated for some inexperienced users. But eventualy it's quite easy once you get used to it.

This amp smokes! It really sounds good. It digitally emulates 11 different soundtypes, from clean solid state over tubedrive to extreme fuzz... and does that very well (to my ears anyway...).
There probably will be a difference between this tubedrive and the sound of a hard driven SVT classic, but hey... with this amp I can have a very close simulation at any volume and even through my headphone. I had all tube amps, so I can compare and believe me, you won't miss real tubes... I like this amp even more because it sounds tighter, more focused then most tube amps. The solid state type amps are also very good. The noisegate works very well and if you need to, you can always turn it off (which is no problem because the amp is not really noisy).
I play in cover band, so I need a lot of different sounds and this amp has got them all. I use Fender precision, Warwick Thumb and Fortress One Fretless, Hotwire Vintage Five basses, and for all these basses there's a suitable sound. I also use the Yamaha BBT 410S cabinet, which is great too.

Works fine, but haven't got it that long, so...

I always heard that Yamaha has a very good customer support.
But the manual came in Dutch, so that's already ok - it's the first time I got a manual for an amp in my own language... great!

It's a full digital amp, so some people it may find it horrible that there's a slight delay when turning the knobs to change the various functions... but that's something that doesn't bother me. I like this amp al lot.
I had various different amps (Ampeg SVT IIIpro and V4, SWR Workingman's 4004, Ashdown ABM Evo II) and I like this one the most.
It replaces all these amps in one time (it even does a lot more...)at a price you can't leave it for!
I didn't gave it tens, because that would mean that the amp would be perfect, and it probably is not :-)

New amp released November 2004. Has 16 different amp sounds (eleven preset amp sounds plus 5 user banks). I find this amp to be VERY versatile in the studio and live. Single input with adjustable input gain and overload LED. Has headphone jack with level that sounds fantastic (thick and tight). Has effects loop rear jacks. Midi pedal jacks for use with midi switching pedals and data saving -very cool. I use this amp with a very loud band and it has never crackled or shut down. A very quiet amp both onstage and in studio. Onboard noise gate is not needed as each model/amp sound is super high quality sounding. Unlike Pods and other makes which need a gate.

I use a 1966 P-Bass stock, 1965 Kay bass stock, and a James Tyler bass stock. They all sound great, particularly the passive basses. It seems like this amp loves high impedance pickups, though my active Tyler sounds fine, too. This amp sounds warm, thick, even, and VERY tubey, not like any other solid-state amp on the market. This amp is the best amp I've ever played, this includes my Glockenklang Heart Core and Bass Art rigs I just sold, and my vintage Ampeg and Fender amps. They just sit idle now since I got this the BBT 500H. It is also my recording rig now -replacing my Demeter compressor and Alembic F1X -yeah that's right. I'm able to change bass sounds with a turn of the knob- while never having to touch the tone knobs -engineers love this when they ask for a rocking or different sound I can give it to them with compression! The amp models are only affected by the EQ knobs when you turn them away from the 12 noon setting. Keep the Master volume wide open when using the 11 models, then adjust Master volume of the 5 user programmable models to match the level of the 11 models. This allows you to always keep the Master Volume wide open at all times for ease of use and consistency. Trust me on this. The Compressor is the most incredible sounding one ever offered by a bass amp manufacturer. I've played through the finest Comps made when recording, and this one does all of what the best do and is easier to set- becuase it is one knob. Yamaha obviously had a world-class mixing engineer set the workings of this compressor, as it sounds unbelievable at loud volumes. For example, set the amp model knob on the "Solid" setting then set the Comp knob at 10 o'clock, the Gain, bass, low mids at 12 o'clock, Master at wide open, then set the mids, high mids, and highs @ 3 o'clock. Turn the amp up loud and check out the sound and the big-time sustain and "radio station bass" comp sound. The EQ is great and hardly needs to be set away from 12 o'clock. The angrier models sound very SVT-like, and the "Vintage" setting is dry and heavenly sounding like the best Ampeg B15. I've recorded and played live with this head through my Glockenklang Take Five 4x10 cab wired with two 16-ohm 10's married to two 8-ohm 10's sharing the load creating a 2.6 ohm load for the cabinet. 2.6 ohms drives the Yamaha to almost the full 500 watts.

Very good package.

Yamaha has one of the better customer services

Get this amp at the ridiculous 600.00 price and sell all your other gear so you can spend your left over money on different basses not amp related items.