Yamaha BB614

Brand new natural gloss finish model, active electronics, bass mid treble knobs on front of body as well as volume, and blender knob, which blends from the Precision type pickup in the neck position, to the Jazz type pickup in the bridge position. Oval inlays in the neck, which are probably plastic, but not too bad. Body is not bookmatched, but I like it its interesting to look at. Neck is not too thin, I personally don't like that anyway, very comfortable. Hardly any string buzz at all, action is plenty low for me. I'm so glad I got this and not the passive model. I could take this to an open mic and plug into a PA and be able control the sound better. The bridge is cheesy, as I have read online but who cares? It was not expensive, and I can change it easily anyway. I'm not giving a ten here only because the frets are not hand finished. They are great for coming right off a machine tho.

Love the sound. I bought it because I happened to take it off the wall at the music store and play around with it out of curiousity and couldn't get it out of my mind after that. I can get just about any sound I want so far, I can make it sound passive and mellow, or really good for slappin or whatever. Not muddy at all to me. I think you have to keep in mind that there is no bass that will sound like everything, and I may buy another bass someday with active humbuckers but this really covers everything I play like jam band, blues, jazz, fusion, rock, americana, etc. I'm not so much for metal so not too worried if it doesn't fit that bill...
I'm really impressed with it, and even tho I haven't been playing for years and years, I have a pretty good idea of what sound I want and I can get it with this one. If I wind up gigging a lot more I'll get a backup.

Action is excellent, neck is straight and true, a couple tweaks with the allen wrench provided did the trick to the truss rod, and the bridge heights. There are a couple very minor finish flaws but I'm not really concerned, and you can only see them because the finish is clear natural gloss. Like some very small sanding marks under the natural finish. The other finishes are not translucent so you really wouldn't be able to see anything under what seems to be a very hard finish. Nothing else that I can spot. I wish it was more satin, or maybe if there were other color choices like pearl white or something...I'm not unhappy at all...

It seems well made, and I have always thought Yahaha was a good import brand and I'm more than happy to give them the business this time. I'm going to assume that this will be long lasting and durable.

Don't know never dealt with them.

I've had a few quality basses, from Reverend to Ernie ball, I currently use a Trace Elliot commando combo amp, with some light effects, chorus, compressor, octave, real nice smooth sound or nasty as I want. If it were stolen I would certainly buy another. Its not an Alembic by any means but it is a hell of a deal for 450 bucks. I think it puts a lot of really expensive basses to shame, and for me its the perfect take out bass. Don't really have to worry about it, its not custom made or anything.

The BB 614 is a reissue of the legendary BB series basses, made in Taiwan by Yamaha.
I guess that, after the success of the BB 1000 MA and the more expensive BB 3000 MA (the Michael Anthony signature basses), Yamaha decided to put back into production this "classic" in a more standard version.
They even offer a BB 5 string version (based on the BB 5000), as far as I know, one of the first 5 string basses available way back in the 80's.
Basically the BB 614 is built like a Fender bass: long scale, 4 string, bolt on neck (maple with rosewood fretboard), alder body, a P-Bass style pick up at the neck and a (kind of) J-Bass style pickup at the bridge.
The electronics are active, the controls are volume, balance and a 3 band EQ (bass, mid & treble).
At the shop they had it in very different colours.
Mine sports a nice, high-gloss natural finish, very well done.
The stock bridge and especially the tuners are - straightly speaking - crap.
I guess they decided to use cheap parts to keep the price as low as possible.
The good news is that you can replace those parts easily, without spending necessarily a fortune (which I did immediatly with Shaller and Gotoh parts).
No accessoires included.

What can I say...this thing sounds absolutly amazing.
I own about 20 basses, most of them are really expensive instruments (Fender custom shop, Music Man, Kubicki, Hamer) but this cheap Yamaha blows away many of them.
That's almost frustrating, why did I spend so much money ? :(
To be honest, at the shop there were 4 or 5, I took some time for testing and not all of them were as good as mine (although none of them was bad, actually they all sounded quite good).
I just picked up the best of that crop.
The sound is fast, precise and focused, both pick ups do a great job, the EQ sounds good too (but you shouldn't boost frequencies too much, otherwise you'll get some bad distortion).
No dislikes or complaints at all.

The factory set-up was absolutly OK.
When I replaced the bridge and the tuners it took maybe 5 minutes to re-adjust it.
The neck is absolutly straight, the string action is reasonably low and the frets don't buzz at all.
It definitively has less buzz problems than most of the basses I own and it plays like a dream.
The finish is great as well, (again) much better of many expensive instruments I know, the guys at Yamaha/Taiwan really seem to know what they do.

The BB is a solid, well built, straight forward bass, I'm sure it won't let you down.
I replaced the strap buttons with Shaller security locks, as I use to do on all my basses.
The only thing I'm not completely sure about are the electronics...time will tell.

1 year warranty - never hat to deal with them

I play bass since 1982, I earn my living making music since more than 16 years and during my career I owned maybe 50 or 60 basses.
I don't think you'll be able to find a better bass for less than 500.- Euro.
And I'm quite sure you'll have to compare it to many other basses to find a better one in the 1000.- Euro category.
Does it still make sense investing a fortune in expensive instruments, when you can have such a great bass for so little money ?
These new Yamaha BBs made in Taiwan are amazing instruments.
Buy one, replace bridge and tuners (maybe a 100.- Euro investment) and be happy (...and still rich :)