Yamaha BB404F

* Stamped "Made in Taiwan under the strict supervision of Yamaha"
* 4-string lined fretless, 24 fret neck
* Solid body
* Volume/Volume/Tone
* Dual passive Yamaha jazz single coils
* Not sure about the body wood, looks like alder with a nice tung oil finish. Neck appears to be maple with a rosewood fretboard
* Nathan East body style, P-ish with some nice contours
* Solid bridge
* The tuners, 2x2, seem to be of Gotoh make
* Thin neck with a string spacing similar to a Jazz bass. Fast and easy to play

Sounds pretty good through my Trace/Eden rig, and even through my computer speakers(with a subwoofer). Pretty warm tone that opens up really nicely when the tone is set to full. As they are single coils, they will hum, but it isn't really noticeable at all. I've strung it with Labella Deep Talkin' Flats, so it gets a nice vintage thump out of the neck pickup, and a thick and funky growl when both pickups are engaged, especially with the tone rolled off.

Bought it used, so I can't comment on how it came from the factory.
Seemed nicely setup and pretty solid when it came my way, however.

The bass seems pretty solid, and I don't see why it wouldn't stand up to live playing. The body is nice and light, so there wouldn't be much weight induced stress when playing for long sets. The hardware seems to be outstanding for what these things sold for new; the tuners, bridge, pickups, and strap buttons don't seem to have any inherent weaknesses at all.

Haven't had cause to deal with Yamaha.

I've been playing for going on 4 years now, and I think this bass would make a perfect choice for anyone who is looking for a good workhorse fretless. Good tone, solid construction and light weight make it a winner in my book.
If it were ever damaged beyond repair or stolen, I would try and pick up another one if I could get it for a similar price.

As mentioned before

It sounds great. It cries like a fretless should. I use it for jazz and slow sensitive songs we play with the band and it really sets the right mood for the songs. I use the bass with A SWR workingman's 2*10c combo amp, Its a solid combination worthy of on stage playing. It never looses any depth or clarity. you can really hear the bass and not a just a humm that provides the base for the song. I never experience any noise when I'm playing, if you turn the tone knob open it dus have a buzz but in my experience every bass has that. the bass makes a very nice jazzy sound wich can be used for a great variety of styles. I like that it's also not very heavy. I tried some other basses and they pretty much broke my neck.

the bass was set up just fine but that can also be because the guy at the store always checks the basses that come in and adjusts them if needed. The pickups are adjusted the way they should be, no problems there. I can't find any flaws.

I wouldn't play catch with it but it's sturdy enough for live playing, I performed with it a couple of times and I had no problems. The finish looks like it will last but I only have had this bass for about a year so that would be way to soon to see wear marks. I put straplocks on it so I don't know about the strap buttons that were put on originally. I have never had to adjust the neck so far.
I would have no problems gigging with it without a backup because it can handle what I do with it and my budget doesn't allow for a backup.

I've been playing for four years now. I own a Lakland 55-02 and a peavey milestone III.
If it were stolen I think I would buy it again unless my budget allows me to expand my searchfield, not ruling out I would buy this one again. I actually compared this bass to a mexico fender jazz, but that one had a very hollow tone that lacked depth an as mentioned before it broke my neck because it was heavy.

The bass is walnut neck, alder body, fretless, 4-string, bolt-on, lined rosewood fingerboard. Pickups are two J-style single-coils. There is volume for each pickup and a single tone control (passive electronics). Finish is natural satin, with a bit of yellow. It is very warm and woody-looking. parts are unbranded, but I have no complaints. Somebody put lines where the frets aren't but this illness seems to be an epidemic. The headstock is 2+2, which is my preference. The body is a bit smaller than a standard J-bass, but bigger than a Warwick. So it's a Fender fretless J-bass, right? Nope. Been there, tried that. This bass is punchier and more versatile.

The other reviews put this bass in the fretless box - good for jazz, period. It certainly isn't a slap-monster, but it is the most versatile passive 4-string fretless I've played. It has punch. You don't pluck a string and wait a few minutes for the note to start. You can slap it and pop it, and it doesn't sound like you made a mistake. Roll off the tone and switch to the brige pickup, and you can do the bass player's job, establishing the downbeat, the root of the chord, and signal the chord changes. Switch to the bridge pickup, and turn up the highs, and slaps, pops, harmonics, multi-string chords, etc. come into play. The tone sound woody. Sustain is average at best, but what fretless couldn't use a little more punch? This one has it. The pickups are as noisy as a US Fender Jazz. If you match them, they humbuck, and the noise goes away. Running one pickup leaves you succeptible to CRTs, flourescents, TVs, etc. There's no problem here. It's the single coils. Les Paul invented humbuckers in the 50's. As far as I'm concerned, he made single coil pickups obsolete. I'm going to try some humbuckers in this bass, but if they compromise the tone, I'll put the single coils back. I like to run both pickups anyway.

I believe that a fretless bass needs less neck relief than a fretted bass or guitar. Relief on a fretless causes the "mwah" to become pronounced high on the neck, and disappear on lower frets. This tonal mis-match could be taken advantage of, but I prefer a more uniform tone. This bass came with perhaps too much relief for a fretted instrument. It was a simple matter to dial out the relief with the neck adjustment. I think action is personal preference influenced by what you are playing. Raise the strings and you get closer to an upright, with more punch. Lower the action, and you get that "mwah" that people worship (whether you want it or not). The factory set-up was fairly high for a fretless, even after I fixed the relief. The bass came with round-wound strings. I've always gone with flat-wounds, but I do like the round-wounds, and this is more a matter of preference than correctness. I might keep them. The tone control can take out their brightness, so the strings basically increase the range of the tone control. I think that Yamaha uses the same set-up for fretted and fretless. If you are into fretless, you probably enjoy tweaking the neck and bridge anyway. I found plenty of range in the adjustments to satisfy anybody. I find the workmanship good. There were a few nicks that must have been factory (under strings on the body, etc.), but with the satin finish, they aren't noticeable unless you look.

I think this bass will survive a nuclear war. I expect the finish to age nicely.

I was quoted 5 years parts and one year labor. I don't know whether I have to send it to Yokohama. Unless the fingerboard de-laminates or something, I have no need for service. The bass cost $325, and I don't expect it to need factory maintainance.

I've been playing guitar and bass for a while. I've owned Fender US Jazz fretted and freless J basses, a Mexican Fender fretless, an Applause fretless bass, and a laminated upright. I currently own the Yamaha, a Guild fretless B-30 and a Tacoma fretless Thunderchief, and I'm looking for the right fretted 5-string. I play my basses through a SWR Workingman's 15 (too clean?) and a Line-6 Bass Pod (not worth it). The Yamaha makes me want a good compressor and equalizer.

When you buy an instrument, you should play it. If you don't fall in love, put it back. Life is too short. If this bass was stolen or lost, I would try to find something that sounds as good. If I find another bass that sounds as good to me, I'll probably buy that one too.

- 4-string lined fretless (24 frets) with side markers.
- Nathan East body profile (looks vaguely P-bass ish)
- Alder body, maple neck and rosewood fingerboard.
- Dual J-type single-coil pickups with volume/tone/balance controls.
- Chrome hardware, with the bridge worthy of mention - it looks like it
would survive a nuclear strike.
- Came with a cable, but not sure if this is standard for Yamaha.

Even through my practice amp, this bass sounds fantastic - although the controls might seem a bit limited it's actually possible to get an enormous range of sounds out of this instrument, ranging from a J-bass style 'growl' to a wonderfully warm, 'classic' fretless sound, plus all points in between.

I play a wide variety of styles, but would use the Yamaha for jazz or more mellow stuff - it's not really a 'rock' bass, IMO.

Very low action out of the box - not really a problem on a fretless, and it saved me having to adjust it anyway. Intonation was slightly off on the D and G strings, but again nothing that couldn't be fixed quickly.

Good quality hardware, too - the bridge on this beast has to be seen to be believed - it looks like it was milled out of a solid chunk of metal.

Finish is nothing short of superb - mine is 'Yellow Natural Satin' which looks absolutely gorgeous and brings out the grain of the wood beautifully. The finish on the fingerboard is equally good.

Definitely a giggable instrument, although I've not used mine live yet.
The build and finish of the instrument seem to be damn near bulletproof.

Haven't had to deal with Yamaha at all.

I've not had this bass long but I love it to death already, and I'd be absolutely gutted if it were lost/stolen/broken. I don't own a huge collection of guitars, but the Yamaha sits nicely alongside my other bass, a Peavey 6-string, for playing jazz or more mellow tunes.

There's a lot to love about the Yamaha - the price (cheap), the looks (gorgeous), the build quality (bombproof) and the sound (nothing short of awesome). My only gripe is that it came with roundwound strings, which in my experience is a seriously boneheaded thing to do on a fretless - I'd have expected better from Yamaha, even at the bottom end of the price range.

Bought new in February 2003.
- 4 strings
- fretless (24 frets scale)
- dual passive humbucker pickups
- 2 volume knobs
- 1 tone knob
- Alder body
- Maple neck
- Rosewood fingerboard
- Natural finish

I would like to have active pickups to allow more agressive attack. It should be sold including flatwound.

I play jazz, blues and some rock. I keep this baby for jazz, my other gear fill the needs for blues and rock. I play it straight through a Yorkville XM100C bass amp that deliver a beautiful solidstate clean sound. I too play it through my audio system via my mixing console and in both cases, it outputs a nice smooth sound. The bridge pickup is surprisingly high oriented and alone sound a bit funky but when mixed with the neck humbucker the sound possibilities are infinite. Overall it is a surprisingly versatile instrument even though its fretless nature implicitly restrict its use.

From the factory, everything was properly setup. The only thing I did was to change the roundwound for flatwound strings. The finish is kind of natural satin gloss which seem to be wear proof. Flawless is the word even though I personnally find Yamaha instrument perfectly finished, most of the time they lack of punch, it's not these that shines on a stage. But it's cosmetic that I'm talking about so it's not supposed to be considered.

This will withstand everything. Simple but rugged enough setup. As it is fretless the truss rod doesn't need fequent corrections because the fretboard is less sensitive to humidity and temperature. I don't see why I would need a backup but I always have one because the only two failures I had with my gear was in the rare occasions I played live in partys. So I'll never get stucked again. I had only one problem, the output jack was a little bit slack but the tech guy replaced it on the fly and since I had no issue with this beauty.

I have no idea of the warranty. The tech at the store have been really kind. They replaced the output jack the first week I got it in about 3 minutes and since I haven't needed to deal with yamaha or the store.

I have been playing intensively for 2 years. In the bass department I own a Washburn XB100Q(see my review) which is a wonderful standard basic bass. The Yamaha is the perfect complement for my fretted 4 strings bass. If lost I would not replace it because soon I'll be shopping a 5 string fretless with active electronics(I tend to the Cort Artisan series). When I bought it, I litterally fell in love after playing a few riffs at the store I couldn't hang it back to the wall... The neck is slim and wide enough (I got real long fingers) so I feel like home when jamming with this big toy. I haven't tried several other fretless bass as it was love at first sight but I do not regret it. I'll keep it forever.