NBD - what I really wanted for Christmas

[alex9152]

Last Christmas I posted a thread complaining about my dad holding my money hostage. This year was almost going to be a repeat - lectures about not blowing all my money etc.

 

I really wanted a better sounding bass. The Dean just wasn't cutting it. I decided that I wanted something that was either P or J pickups. I was originally looking at the Squier CV series, which would have just barely been in my budget, and discussed it with my dad before he took the money hostage.

 

After negotiation he allowed me to spend a lower budget of $200 and put the rest in the savings account. I had it narrowed down to two 80s era Yamaha models, one an RBX series on Craigslist with a Fralin P pickup installed (searched the owner's e-mail and found that he worked for Fralin and seemed to play a Music Man as his #1), and another a BB with J pickups: http://elderly.com/vintage/items/55U-4391.htm . I learned that no RBX models were made in Japan so that sealed the deal on the BB.

 

Pics are at the link because that is the one I bought. As for playability, it blows my old Dean away. Got the action lower than the Dean and with less buzz too. Neck was about as wide but somewhat thicker. The real surprise was the body being really thin, but the neck pocket was tight.

 

The sound quality was like removing a blanket from my amp. I'm not really qualified to describe the sound beyond that.

 

I could not find any information, save for this catalog in Japanese: http://brochures.yokochou.com/guitar-and-amp/yamaha/1985/en_index.html . By then, it seemed that the BB series with 5000, 3000, 2000, etc. were all neck-thru while the models with Roman numerals were bolt-on. Doesn't explain the 300 and 400 stuff, though.