Yamaha Review: MB-II Motion Bass

History:

Purchase: I'm a sucker for a good cheap bass if it's even just a little bit out of the ordinary and so I grabbed this one at an after the holidays clearance price of $238 with bag, at Daddy's Junky Music. I played it twice before buying ['cuz I first encountered it in mid-december.... ]

What I Like About This Yamaha MB-II Motion Bass: Very comfortable and easy to play, compact [33" scale, very small 2+2 headstock] and it has passive twin-humbucker tone. I had it home and was tending to what at first I thought was just a loose knob when I found that the knob was really a double control: the tone knob is also a push-button that splits the humbuckers to single coils. At 33" scale you could use 34" strings on it, but if you use 32" [medium scale] you get higher string tension.

What I Do NOT Like About The Yamaha MB-II Motion Bass: It's black. I'm really tired of black.... and with gold hardware, it verges on tacky looking [but fortunately the gold has lost its original gleam]. The bridge is a bit complex to set up [but I don't have to do that unless I change string types]. As a Yamaha, of course it don't get no respeck.

Yamaha MB-II Motion Bass Quality Rating: Bolt-on 24 fret neck, rosewood fingerboard, can set good low action with no problems. Every inch of wood is covered with glossy black finish [which has lasted very well] so I don't know the neck construction or the type of body wood. Headstock tilts down to BOTH SIDES instead of the usual tilt down toward the top, so it has a very odd effect: the tuning pegs tilt somewhat away from center, and there is "keel" down the center of the headstock, providing an excellent break-angle as the strings cross the nut [black plastic]. Rod access is at the body joint. Neck has a nice rounded edge and no snaggly fret ends to annoy me. Bridge is too much to describe, but it has fine tuners, although I'm not sure there's any real benefit of those to the player. You can fudge the fine tuning to make all you tuning keys parallel at the headstock if you care. PUs are Yamaha passive humbuckers, not too close and not too far apart. Knobs: VVT.

Review Summary: Very percussive with roundwounds, very classic with TI flats [but you can use the coil splitters to get some honk for songs that need it]. Unusual at first glance but not truly totally wierd [it looks normal to an audience]. Light and well balanced, slightly compact, comfy neck, simple controls. Don't know its age, but it's marked "Made in Japan" so I expect it was made pre-90's or early in the 90's. It is what it is, and I like it, so I rate is a "4".

Rating of this Yamaha product: 4

This Yamaha MB-II Motion Bass Bass Guitars Review Submitted By: Golem

Review Date: 2005-01-04