Yamaha BB5000

This is a neckthru passive 5-string bass from the eighties.
It has a precision pickup at the neck and a J pickup at the bridge.
Knobs: volume, tone and pickup switch. It doesn't get easier.
My bass was manufactured in 1985 and it came with the original hardcase.

The sound of this bass is fantastic, and it is probably exactly the way a bass should sound.
The PJ pickups give you all the possibilities you need. You can go from beefy P-bass thru modern funk/rock sound to the funky Jaco sound.
Even though this is a passive bass it has a tremendous amount of output and clarity, ecpecially when both pickups are selected.

I don't know how this bass was set up coming from the factory, but i can imagine that it was great.
The best thing about this bass is the spacing between the strings. I have quite short fingers for a bass player and this bass has helped me so much. The neck is slim but sturdy and the bass is well balanced.

Everything on this bass is made with japanese craftmanship and pride. so durability and reliability is excellent. I wont need a backup ever.
I still haven't had to take it to the guitar doctor. The trussrod and neck is solid.

Dont know yet so im gonna give them a 10

The best bass i have ever had in my hands, no need to say more about it!

This BB5000 was made in Japan in May of 1985. It followed the recipe of the rest of the neck thru BB's: Overall Fender shape, 7-ply rock maple/mahogany center laminate with alder body wings, 24 medium fret Macassar ebony fingerboard (black with the delicious brown grain stripes running with the neck) with oval MOP inlays, the unique Yamaha adjustable tension elephant ear tuners, the P/J passive pickups in brass mounting rings, and all gold hardware. My 5000 is the Vintage White (I jokingly call it 'TV White') common to a lot of these instruments. It came with the original brown/green fur Yamaha case, including the little spanner wrench for the tuning machines. It's a fairly compact bass, with a deep cutaway, belly scoop, and elbow rollover on the body top. Weight is light to average. The neck is QUITE compact by modern five string standards: 1 3/4" at the nut, 2 1/2" at the bridge. I really think they took a four string neck and subdivided it for five strings. It's a very slim feeling neck as well, very Jazz Bass/Rick like. But really easy to zoom around on.

Yamaha correctly expanded the pickups from the 4-string BBs. The bass side of the P pickup has three sets of polepieces, the treble side two. The bridge single coil blade pickup was also widened to fit the five string spread. This was in the early 80s: Fender finally engineered a five string P only a few years ago! The control layout is vol/tone/3-way p/u selector switch. Tone is very beefy from the P, trebly from the bridge single coil, and combined, adds up to my favorite basic tone: P beef with the J adding the articulation. Also, with both pickups in, moving your picking hand from neck to bridge rotates through a larger range of tones than most basses I played previously.

I bought this 20 year old bass just a few weeks ago. It was 99% mint. The neck was remarkably straight. The setup was quickly and painlessly brought up to my personal spec, after a minor fret polish and fingerboard oiling. This is a Japan-built Yamaha and the woods and build quality are first rate. This particular bass vibrates as one piece: I can feel it humming against my belly, my most prized trait in a solid body instrument. The wood is alive! It may well be that 10-20 year old instruments have lived long enough for the wood to be truly dry and stable at last.

I've often played BB Yamahas on lots of gigs and would have NO reservations about making a living with this one with no spare. Neck thrus are usually more stable than bolt necks, the fittings and electronics are high quality, and I've played BBs for years. The overall tone easily suits anyone expecting a Fender-ish sound.

I recently spoke with Yamaha in LA tracking down the serial number. They are really helpful, but have no info on a 20 year old product, certainly not surprising. I shudder to think how many instruments they've sold in the last 20 years. I've found in general that the Japanese makers rarely have much info on anything older than a few years ago. They just don't have ancient archives like Martin, for instance.

This was a sentimental purchase. I also own a BB5000A, and while these two BBs are not the equal of my ALEMBIC, they make me very happy. I played BBs in my bar band heyday of the 80s and 90s, and could NEVER find a BB5000 as they were fairly low production number instruments. The 5000 was the FIRST five string from a major manufacturer that anyone could afford to buy (as opposed to Jimmy Johnson's five string ALEMBIC which predates the 5000, but for MUCH more money). It's just very satisfying to have it around.