YAMAHA BB235 5-String Bass Guitar, Yellow Stain

Showed up early, well wrapped, excellent condition. Exactly what I was looking for. No complaints at all.

BB434 series: Was hesitant to write a review about this one because of shipping quality time and some craftsmanship. I do give it 4 stars for the product, but I’d say, I’ll never make a huge musical instrument purchase on Amazon again. Experience CONS: The package was practically destroyed. The Yamaha box wasn’t all that secure to begin with. There was a ding on the back of the bass upon opening. It needed a complete set and intonation fix. The string tree also moves while tuning. So you have to hold it in place when close to finishing up tuning. The bolts in the back were practically forced in there as you can see in the pic, it’s scraped away at the finish (bad QC on the production line). Product PROS: lightweight, balanced, good fret edges and fingerboard. Love the 2 string through options. I know the tuners are “lightweight” but they do seems fragile? Pots are sturdy and smooth. Pick ups and tone options are great. Other than the extremely long shipping and poor handling and some QC issues and set up from Yamaha, the user experience of the product itself is excellent. I recommend this bass, just buy it from an actual music store in person in case of QC issues or from somewhere with trusted shipping and handling and better packaging.

This Bass is excellent especially in this price range. Sounds great!

I started writing this review but realized I could be playing my BB734A Yamaha bass *instead* so I did. Lots more fun. But here is a short review. I got this instrument as my entry into playing electric bass (prior experience guitar) and I’m so happy I did. If you want to read one-star reviews about shipping damage this ain’t it. I received this bass in perfect shape in the advertised time window and with an excellent gig bag thrown in. It needed no setup, just tuned it and started playing.

In addition to sounding great I have positives on the look (coffee burst), weight, balance, tuning pegs, bridge, satin neck finish (no sanding needed), and tonal range across the two pickups. On the latter I can go to the mid detent and they cancel hum even.

Accessories: I have found super helpful the following: A wide padded comfortable shoulder strap, a stand, a fret wrap, a set of flat wound strings, some cheap Amazon 9V batteries, a clip-on tuner, couple good cables, solid music stand and a reverb pedal. And an amplifier, goes without saying. In order the reverb and shoulder strap are most important.

The active electronics work great — 3 knob EQ only when the toggle is on — but I keep forgetting to toggle it off when I finish playing so to avoid draining more 9V batteries I just play it with passive pickups and keep the battery out on the desk; it goes in in a matter of a seconds.

Finally a shout out to YouTubers who put great learning content up for bass. You haven’t lived until you’ve spent four hours running scale patterns with Adam Neely, seriously. It can be overwhelming so also NTS don’t get overwhelmed.

Mostly I should say this bass does a great job of getting out of way so the experience of playing it is about the music. It sounds *really* good.

Extremely high-quality bass guitar, but you can’t go wrong with Yamaha. Beautiful tone, easy to play, very fast neck. Highly recommended!