Yamaha BB450

I have a 4-string that I bought in 1989. It is all black and although I bought it used, it was in excellent condition. One of the features that attracted me was the weight. It is a comparably light guitar compared to a Fender and some other solid-bodies I have played. Playing/practicing for 4 hours can really be hard on the shoulder with a heavy guitar. This time, I prioritized sound and comfort.

The bass has a really nice tonal range. It is an excellent slap bass. We used direct boxes to our sound board. My soundman was impressed and described the pick ups as "hot", especially for a passive system. The sound is very even accross the range. I never had to compensate for dead areas or unevenness.

I had the bass set up professionally and the only major change I saw was that he dropped the g down lower but it was a prefect octave accross the neck at the 12th fret. He also dropped the pickups slightly because the strings were rubbing against them. The neck is perfect for my average sized hands. I was a littel worried about playing a long scale at first but teh neck felt so good I could not resist.

The bass held up really well in hundreds of gigs and practices over the 4 years I played in a party band. There is only one weakness that I ever found. The 3-way toggle sux. What a weak piece of crap it is. I have been trying to replace it for years and continue in my quest to find a replacement. As with many older, lower cost basses like this, parts are hard to find.

Yamaha gave me a lead for parts but it did not pan out. I give them credit for trying.

I've been playing R&R for 34 years and I selected this guitar for it's feel, it's weigh, it's price and I wanted something that I could abuse and not feel sick if something bad happened to it. The bass grew on me and now I can't bring myself to part with it. Mostly for sentimental reasons but it is a very good bass and will work well across the expanse of music styles and sounds.

I got my BB450 from my lead guitarist in one of the bands I play in. I had just scored a Marshall tube power amp (I don't know why I wanted it- I just saw it and wanted!), that I really didn't need and he had this bass sittin in his home studio. I offered him a trade (I know the value thing is out of whack here, I have about as much use for a guitar power amp as he has for a bass guitar!).
Obviously, this bass has seen better days! The tuners are loose and rattle when you play hard. The body has some pretty deep scratches and a few "thumb marks" above the pickups. on the other hand, the most important part, the neck, is perfectly set up (one of the reasons I wanted it!), and it just fits me (hint: I like two types of neck on my basses- Jazz style thin ones and wide flat necks like this Yamaha. I've never like the baseball bat feel of ones like Warwick and Rickenbacher)!
I have two other working basses in my arsenal- a Yamaha Nathan east four string with DiMarzio J pickups in a stereo configuration, and a Aria Pro II neck through body with EMG 45Ps and an EXB expander control (at the moment. My other two are a early 60's Fender Jazz and a homemade P bass copy in peices in my workshop).
the finish on the BB450 is sort of a candy apple red. I say "sort of" because its started to fade and has lost a bit of luster.
Because its a used instrument, I don't really know what sort of rating ot give it, but I'll treat it nicely!!!

Currently, the sound is murky and dull! This is partly because the strings are VERY old and the bass hasn't been set-up properly.
I plan on at least changing out the P pick up with a DiMarzio that I have kicking around my workshop. I just find these pickup s reliable as all hell and have always loved the deep bell tone from this one. I think with a new set of strings and maybe a new bridge, I might have a winner here. But like I said, the thing is no prize winner right now!

As mentioned above, the neck is super flat. I don't even think that it will need a real setup (Guitarist and I use the same bass strings). One thing that will have to be replaced is the nut. the existing one looks like a dog chewed on it! the neck is set into the body extremely well for a lower end model and the finish on the neck, while being laquer (which I sand off anyway on all my instruments), is even. Apart from the minor damage to the body finish, its pretty damn impressive!

I hope this bass will stand live playing- thats my livelihood right now! I play in two bands and everything I own has to live up to gig after gig to rehearsal to studio. If it sucks for any reason, off out it goes! I haven't gotten this thing road worthy yet, so I can't really express and opinion on durability. I have so many thngs I do to an instrument to get it to my standards, from replacing the strap buttons to locking types to just the way the controls are located on and instrument.

Even though this is my second Yamaha bass, I haven't had to deal directly with them yet. every instrument I own is a second hand one, so I have never dealt with any manufacturer!

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I don't know much about this bass. Bought it for $50 bucks 3 years ago when I started playing bass. As i started knowing more about gear and becoming a better bass player I noticed that this bass was really a pretty damn good bass. I bought a ESP LTD B205 which is great but I find myself much more comfortable with the BB450. I bought it off some kid that didn't know anything about it but it must of been owned by a avid bassist. It has 4 pickups: 2 Fender Lace Sensors at the neck and 2 P style pickups at the bridge. It has a Badass II bridge and it has two inputs probably active and passive circuitry but one of them doesn't work. The neck is really comfortable. Coming from a 5 string this bass is really fast and accurate.

I haven't got it setup and I know it really needs it, but I practice in my band with it once in awhile and it sounds great. It sounds almost as good as my ESP. I wonder how it's going to sound when i get it set up. I just decided that I'm going to start gigging with it. All the strings sound are the same, where my ESP the E string (high C tuning) is alot louder/deeper than the other strings. The other strings are more punchy (tone). I don't know how well it will do in the studio going straight to through the board, but once I get it setup we will see.

It really needs to be setup. I will write again once I have it setup (been too busy last few years.) The tuners are a little loose. I don't know if that is something that they can fix. I haven't tried. This bass fits very well. It is very comfortable and not too heavy.

I 've been throwing it around the last couple of years and it's been the same. The strap buttons seem ok but it hasn't really endured alot of play time. Mostly practice sitting with it. I think once I get it setup it will be a little work horse. Depends what the Luthier says to me.

Never dealt with them but I saw there website and it looks pretty good.

Great bass! It just may become my number one.

I bought this at a guitar store in 1989 for 200 bucks.

The other reviewer pretty much summed it up well. It's a p/j style with a wider body and the controls are a master volume, 3 way selecter, and tone. The neck is a little thicker than most four strings.

For the price, I really like the sound. I've own several amps over the years, and I've been pretty impressed with it. Unlike many basses, the sound difference between the P and J pickups is enormous, and allows you to change sound quickly on stage.

This bass is really ugly. Kinda a puke orange. After about 2 years you fall in love with the color, and people come up to you and say "Hey aren't you that guy who plays the ugly bass"

I bought it used and got it professionally setup, so I don't really know how well it was before. The way the bridge is designed makes it enevitable that you'll scratch it with the ball ends.

But you can set the action incredibly low on this thing.

I've owned this bass for 12 years. It's always been a part of my arsenal. I've toured with it, played it at over 1000 gigs. It has never let me down except on 2 occasions. The bottom nut for the strap came out once during a show and I had to drill a larger hole with a bigger screw to fix it. (I've met 4 people with this bass over the years and 3 of them have had this same problem). And the cord jack has come loose twice.

It's been dropped, forgotten in the rain, fallen off the back of a truck. And with a few adjustements, it has never let me down.

I got it used. I've never had to deal with Yamaha.

I saw one in the guitar store the other day for $150. I would've bought it, but instead I convinced a dad shopping for his budding bassist son to get it. I would recommend this bass for this price to anyone, professional or beginner. I've owned several basses over the years, including ones like Warwicks and Zons that cost several thousand dollars, and I keep coming back to her. I love this bass.

This is a 4 string, 21 fret, 34" scale bass, made in Taiwan (don't know when-early 90's or late 80's maybe).I picked it up in a pawn shop for a cheap trade so I'm not real sure of it's history. It has a split P style pickup and a jazz pickup (the originals I believe), 1 volume, 1 tone knob, and a 3 way selector switch, a bolt on maple neck, typical open gear tuners, and standard adjustable bridge. I'm guessing the body is alder or ash? It's the rounded off kind of jazz bass style with a deep cutaway at the neck. The finish is a metallic dark orange I'd call it. Pretty typical stuff and about all I need.

I don't know if I have a "style" yet:-) I play all types of music from praise and worship to classic rock to heavy metal and this bass suits me fine. I'm currently running it through a Hartke B60 and no effects (yet). I can get a pretty full deep sound out of it and some bright popping too. I haven't mastered the slap technique but a buddy of mine seemed to have no problem slapping with this bass. There's no noticable fret buzz. It humms a little if the amp is cranked and the tone is turned up on the bass but nothing that would be a problem. I'm going to try some new pickups soon just out of curiosity.

Well like I said it was a pawn shop orphan. It was in pretty rough shape when I got it. The bottom strap button was ripped out, the tone knob was gone, and the tone pot was all crapped up, the 3 way switch would only stay in the middle position, the electronics cavity cover was gone, the tuners were loose, and the bottom edge of the body was all scraped up, (but other than that it was perfect:-) Oh and the action was so high you could stick your thumb between the worn out strings and the fret board. Amazingly the neck was in almost perfect condition. After I fixed everything and set it up it plays fine and stays in tune pretty good. 1 small thing - the truss rod adjusts at the body end of the neck so you need the right tool to adjust it without taking the thing apart.

I would have no problem gigging with this but the only gigging I'm doing yet is playing in church. This bass must be pretty tough if it could survive the beating it must have taken in it's former life. The only parts that I had to replace were the missing ones. I installed strap locks after the strap slipped off the button and the bass landed on it's neck (didn't hurt it). I've only had it 4 months so I've only needed to adjust the truss rod when I set it up originally.

Never tried to contact them as it was probably out of warranty 10 years ago.

I've only been playing bass for about 4 or 5 months and I dabble with the guitar a little too. Took it up because my son started playing guitar and I wanted to prove you can teach an old dog new tricks:-) Also have a Sguier Strat, an Epiphone SG, a Boss Metal Zone pedal, and a Fender J.A.M. amp. (I love the cheap stuff!) I love this bass since it is my first one and I'll probably keep forever even if I get something better. If something happened to it I would definitly consider a new Yamaha - maybe a RBX360. I feel very lucky to have gotten a decent bass for almost nothing since I didn't even know what I was doing:-0 PEACE