Yamaha BB615

2007 model, made in Taiwan. 21 frets, rosewood fretboard, maple neck, Alder body, chrome hardware with thick clover tuners, vintage style bridge with B string extension, 34 inch scale, active electronics with Vol, Bal, Bass, Mid, Treble. One P-pickup, one J-Pickup. Pearl Black.

Very useful array of tones can be coaxed from this bass.
Basic sound is warm and bright. J pickup is a little noisy when soloed but not as bad as a Fender pickup. At a certain point, the hum cancels out when both pups are used with the P-pup slightly favored. Electronics change sound dramatically and a little goes a long way. You want boost? This bass dishes it out relentlessly!
This would make for a good gigging bass, nice and solid and loud and punchy! The pickups are HOT!

Setup from factory was lousy! After I Gave the truss a full turn, lowered the bridge saddles about three and a half turns, and intonated it, BEAUTIFUL! Plays like a dream now! I had to lower the pups some after bringing the action down. Awesome Bass!

This bass is Cherry! Like a Tank! Blows away my Fender Jazz V !
I'd gig with this with no backup. Just make sure to take a spare battery. Strap buttons are big and tight. Tuners are old school clovers and are thick, turn smooth, glitch free, and hold the tuning.

I e-mailed them to ask a few questions and they responded the same day.

A good workhorse bass for gigging. Plenty of tones, sound and power!
Dollar for dollar, pound for pound, you can't go wrong with this bass.

I had previously owned a Yamaha RBX 775 and sold it. I could never get that sound again and was sorry that I had sold it. I decided after trying many basses that I could not get that sound and shopped for another Yamaha model since the 775 was discontinued. I stumbled upon the BB615 in a local shop, it was amazing. It has a 3 knob pre-amp that has a huge range, a fast fingerboard that is perfectly spaced for a 5 string, and pickups that were hot and noise-free. It was in tune and stayed in tune as I beat it up with my thumb for 20 minutes. I didn't want to put it down.

I bought it to use in the studio, I have gotten every sound I wanted out of it. With a little distortion and lifting the high on it's EQ I can get a Las Claypool sound. Or you can pick it and get all the Fender Jazz & P-bass tones with tones of punch. The low B has that growling Yamaha sound that I missed. I have not even scratched the surface of the tones you can get with this thing.

As expected from Yamaha the fit and finish are near perfect. I had to order a Pearl Black, they were hard to get but worth the wait. Neck is amazing as is the fret work. I a nut about the frets, if they suck I will finish file them myself but these were perfect. The only thing I did was lower the truss rod slightly for a better slap sound. I have read other reviewers complaining about the bridge being cheesy but it has no problem sustaining at all so I can't see changing it. The set back "B" string was a great idea, it gives the it more tension so it does not flap around.

My last Yamaha bass took quite a beating and help up great. The BB615 feels solid and Is built like a tank. I can't see any problems.

Other manufacturers should take a lesson from Yamaha. I had a question about the OEM string on the BB615 and they answered my email in hours not days. I have called or emailed their support in the past and they are very attentive. They are actually probably one of the best when it comes to that.

I love it. You can beat your head against the wall looking for a bass in this price range or you could go play one of these. It has worked great for me and have recorded several times with it already. Sounds great every time. Has loads of tones for different playing styles and Yamaha quality.

Five string bass, made in Taiwan according to the stickers.
Alder body
Maple neck with rosewood fingerboard.
21 frets.
Yellow Natural colour, a very nice finish. Prefered it to the more common black
P-Bass style neck pick up and jazz style bridge pick up both single coil.
Master Volume, Balancer, 3 Band EQ and Pickup Balancer.
Tuners are of the open type.
I also like the neck, not too wide for a 5-string. Tried a 5-string fender squier vintage jazz bass, great sound and looks but the neck was massive and it was heavy as well.
The 615 is not too light and you kind of feel it after carrying it around for 45-50mins non-stop, but you get used to it after a while.

Nice acoustic sound before even plugging it in.
Sound very 'zingy/bright' with controls all running flat. Great for slap style.
The EQ allows for multiple types of sound, e.g turn to the p-bass style neck pickup, cut out a little treble and dial in some if the bass boost and you have yourself a very p-bass like sound.
I am partnering it with a GenzBenz GBE100-115T and I don't even need top play with the EQ controls on the amp. That's how versatile the on-board EQ is.
I was surprised how quiet it is, since it has two single coil pickups.
So far it has delivered all the sounds that I required, which is playing rock, pop, reggae, sega, jazz etc.

As expected, some minor touch ups were made before the guitar hit the shop floor but I reviewed it when I reached home and it wasn't far from my preferred set-up requirements which is as low action as possible.
The B string tuning pegs had to be tightened a little.

I have played live and done several band practices with it. My only fear would be the battery dying as that would mean no sound at all. There is no active by-pass switch by default. I will be putting one in soon.
The strap buttons were good ones but I changed them for the Schaller Locking ones (personal preference, all my guitars have them.
The body has already had a few knocks but seems to withstand them like a rock. Hope it lasts. You can only treat your equipment as best you can but there is always a 'knock' factor wherever you're playing.

Haven't dealt with anyone yet as it is doing it's job fine. Might need the guys at the shop to set up the active bypass switch.
Warranty? There is warranty but I can't remember for how long.

I have been playing guitar for over 4 years now and own various electrics and acoustics. I picked up the bass by accident in January this year and was asked to fill-in in a new cover band until they find a permanent bassist....well looks like it is permanent now.
I have played many different basses before playing this one, fender, epiphone, warwick, spector, ibanez, squier, yamaha etc. They are all great but some were way out of my budget. Only one look at this one and I knew I had found something different. It's a different look to the usual brands and I prefered the natural colour. I only needed to play and listen to it, once that was done, I never looked back.
Apart from an active by-pass switch, there is nothing else that I would like on this bass, it's got it all, and it is also very affordable ( The Mrs was pleased that I didn't break the bank...once again :-) )

Old-School style
'05 Yammi BB Series V-String.
Has more frets than my Fenders - maybe 2 more?
Has a solid hunk of some kind of wood - definitely weighty.
This bass has a very simple blend pot for both PUs and volume and separate bass and treble pots. Nice.
I love these PUs! They're even better than the ones I had in my old BB-3000 from the '80s. They're a 3 + 2-pole P and an old Bill Lawrence-style Hot Rail J. Great sound.
The neck is Maple w/Rosewood board - my personal favorite, and on this bass, very sturdy and Fender/MM-like in width and heft.
The bridge is the best part.
Although the bridge is kind of wimpy, the B-String part of the bridge is extended (I believe) to a 35" scale independant of the other 4 strings (which are 34")!
That's innovation, and it's brilliant.
As a result, the B is very focused and tight sounding.
The bass I tested at an awful chain place had very nice tuners. Maybe the European market was different?
They were fairly beefy Schaller/Fender copies.

I play in a coupla Casino Tribute acts and my main bass is a Fender Roscoe Beck. Good axe for travel.
Although I should be saving up for my Ken Smith, my immediate needs require a second 5-String as electric basses are too big to be checked as carry-on luggage by the airlines. If you don't have a 5-String by now you probably have a good job or a trust fund.
I believe this bass is as sturdy as a MIM Fender, at least.
These type of gigs usually provide the backline - which is 90% of the time a GK and 2 Hartkes. In the store I played it thru a Hartke Kickback and it sounded really good. Very active and modern glassy as well as traditional Fender P-type tone.

The bass I tested was very well set up. Medium round-wounds, good action, straight neck, intonation, etc.

I haven't actually bought one yet, but I will soon.
I'll post an update after flying with it and gigging a few times.

This may be the best bass value under $1000. I've owned Yammi's in the past and loved them all. Even the cheapest ones had honest electronics and hardware and sounded good.
The only thing I wish is that the bridge was beefier. I say this only because this bass' bridge is unique and as far as I know, there are no after-market bridges with the 35" scale B-string.
I'm sure that will change very soon.
Let's hear it for Zen mastery...

5 String bass Yellow Natural Finish, alder body, maple neck, rosewood fingerboard.
Active electronics (I believe the pickups are passive but plugged in a 3 band eq before the output jack)
I have owned a BB3000 and the pickups seem to be exactly the same passive hot pickups as Yamaha used back in the 80's, that's why I believe they are passive.
Stock bridge is crap! (that's why my rating is 8, they could have used a little better bridge)I had to upgrade it straight away with a Leo Quan Badass Bass V and now I am confident the saddles don't move around while I am playing.
Tuners are poor quality too but as they keep the tuning for weeks(!) I have decided not to change these until they do their job.
It seems Yamaha has decided to save money in these two easily upgradable parts as the rest of the instrument is AMAZING!!!
Finitures are perfect and it SOUNDS BEAUTIFULLY!

Versatile!!!
I must say that this bass sounds nice also unplugged, the Badass bridge has added attack, harmonics and clarity to the instrument.
I will cut this short:
Neck pickup: it sound better than a Precision, I have been playing bass for the last 25 years and I have played many Precisions but I swear this BB615 has even a deeper sound, the neck pickup sounds "VINTAGE" with a sweet, smooth sound but ready to growl as you pluck the strings with more energy ;)
Bridge pickup:
It has that "jazzy" sound that you would expect, well it does sound like a Jazz Bass pickup but with more power and with the use of the 3 bands eq, you can get the sound you want from it.
The two pickups blended together sound like a modern active bass, the center position of the blend control sounds a little "fake" to me but there are some intermediate positions of the knob that offer very cool sounds.

The neck was a bit arched, it took me 5 minutes to adjust it with the easy to use allen key.
action was a bit high but since I changed the stock bridge with the Badass V, after a quick setup the bass sounds amazing with same action and note color on any string and any position :)

Bass is well constructed, I was thinking to add a switch on it to bypass the electronics and bring the Pickups signal straight to the output jack on demand, infact the electronics is the only thing I am not confident 100% but not only with this bass...
If the preamp stops working you basically have no sound out of the bass, with a bypass switch you can at least end your gig...
I will let yo know if I went thru the switch mod.

Didn't need any support so far, so I don't know.

I play my basses thru a Roland DB700 (250w - 115+tw)
Since I had sold my Fender Jazz Bass few years ago, I had no peace, I bought and sold many basses but I don't know why as soon as I took this bb615 from the shelf,I knew it was my bass! I would definately buy another one if lost or stolen, I would definately buy another one! Actually I was thinking of buying another one to defret...