Yamaha Broad Bass BB735A

Hi all.
Would really like some advice/ opinions of the Yamaha Bb735 as I’m thinking of taking the plunge lol
T.I.A

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I almost bought a BB734. They are great basses, sound awesome, look great, and have some fantastic features.

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I was looking at the Ibanez SR originally but they’re really a stretch price wise atm and the burnt coffee ( ?) Yamaha really caught my eye

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Why did you decide against then?

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Which SR? The 735 is in the same price range as the non-premium SRs.

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I was looking for a specific bass at the time, and there weren’t any decently priced used 734’s on the market at the time. Plus I already have an equivalent level Yamaha, despite that it is pretty different.

Weirdly the two new 734’s I did try were both defective in different ways (both had electronics issues.) However I am sure that is a fluke as Yamaha quality is normally super high.

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I think they’re great instruments.

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I LOVE my SR300, used for $219.99
I love the feel of Yamaha”s too, but the neck size difference on the SR’s makes it my choice in a head to head decision.
That said, I may be biased, owning two Ibanez and one Yamaha.
To be fair, I have two bottom line instruments.
Ibanez GSR200SM and Yamaha RBX170
I am more comfortable playing the Ibanez because the neck pick up on the Yam is not good for my plucking hand. Other then that, I like the feel of both equal.

I don’t have, and have never played a Yam equip to the Ibanez SR300 to do a side by side comparison (thanks to Covid)

I will finish with this however, the SR300 is Sooooooooooooo Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet, it will be tough to beat IMHO.

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this is the kind of detail that actually matters, and can make someone prefer one instrument over another.

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Absolutely @terb. Makes it hard to buy Basses blindly. However if it’s your only bass, and you learn on it, it could make it go the other way? I had the Ibanez first, so playing the Yamaha seemed foreign to me.

However, to me, almost every other bass I play is an easy transition, except the Yamaha.

Two thing she:
1- this is me, I cans speak for others
2-we are talking about the absolute bottom of the bottom line Yamaha here. That said, the p style slanted split pickup is used on other models.
The models without this pickup, are possibly more to my liking.
I won’t know til GC opens doors to public again :slightly_frowning_face:

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not so sure. my very first bass was a Rockbass (Warwick), it sounded pretty good but I never really liked this one. my second bass, bought maybe 10 yrs ago, was the 2004 MIA Precision I always use now. One design really works for me, the other just feels weird and odd to me, even if it was my first bass.

That said, I also have a Yamaha (old and high-end) with a JB style pickup configuration, as I had on the Rockbass (but the Rockbass was active and the Yam is passive). I love the Yamaha but it feels less natural to me than the PB.

All this is very personnal and that’s why it’s hard to give advices around the instrument choices. An important thing to keep in mind, I think.

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Agree, the best advice to giive, as @howard is quick to give is, go try both and see what you like, if possible.

Even then, it sometimes requires trying several of them, sometimes one just feels like “the one” and the sMe model next to it, feels “meh”

Covid limits this of course, but I try my Basses before I buy, even out of the trunk of my car.

I have an emergency road device, a battery / generator / compressor in my trunk, fully charged in case of dead battery, flat tire, etc.

I can plug into it, and power my Orange Crush 20b, or other practice amp, or my Zoom B1Four.

I used it to test out the SWR amps I bought, and 4 of the basses.

I also bring a tuner (if not the Zoom) a capo, a small hex / philips / torx key driver set (my set up kit) and a rhin pick.

I put the capo on first fret, hold the last body fret to check neck flatness, the thin pick is to check the gap at 12. I have not needed the other tools yet, but bring them in case. If the decision to buy or not is based on set up, I will ask to do a quick adjustment to see if I can get it closer. Again, have not had to, but either they let me do it, and I decide to buy or not based on results, or I just don’t buy.

I did NOT buy a bass because I didn’t bring tools, and had some concern about the neck, and was not prepared to see if it could be adjusted.
Since then, I made changes to my routine, and show up ptepared.
Then I plug into the (usually Zoom with headphones) and test the electronics.

I skipped the last part with this last SubRay I got cuz he said it needed to be fixed.
So I fixed it with a battery when I got home and plugged in and it works fine.

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Thanks for the advice everyone.
I was tilting towards the Yamaha out of laziness because it was available at my local music store which also made life easy with the corvid19 restrictions.
I have a real bottom end Fender P copy ( and I mean real bottom end lol ) to play on atm but I really don’t like the feel of it.
I’ve also got an old “ outlaw” Gibson but that needs a fair bit of restoration so that’s out of the picture.
I’ll probably wait until restrictions are lifted and visit a few stores before making any firm decision

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I was thinking the SR500E

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Those are actually much less expensive than a BB735, at least around here.

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Yeah and I do like the real natural look of them.
Hopefully the restrictions here will ease soon and I’ll be able to get my greasy little fingers on both to compare them :pray:

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I really like both the SR line and the BB line, either will be an outstanding bass. So yeah, it comes down to which feels better to you :slight_smile:

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Yeah, I was just looking up the Yamaha 735, and that our classes my SR, even my ESP. I imagine the pick up design on it is much different/better then the RBX170 I have, I can’t say for sure, but I bet the feel is Mucc Much different.

And yeah, I imagine it has a price tag above $1000. Heck, probably above $1400, but that’s just a guess, the MSRP was not on the website, and I didn’t look at GC or Reverb for exact price.

It is a bad ass bass for sure, but it would be not too good to get one and find out it’s not the right bass for you. Of course, most return policies will allow for return or exchange, but it is a bit of a hassle.

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I will add, I have played SR500E, and, to me, they play like a dream

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They are about $700-800, and have higher end YGD pickups and preamp, yeah. It’s a guitar at an equal or (slightly) higher level than my TRBX604, with the caveat that the BB line is a classic and loved by artists.

Peter Hook’s son swears by it; he’s touring with both Hooky’s band and Smashing Pumpkins with one.

Definitely a bass that might be in my future at some point. I loved their feel too (though a little heavier).

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