1995 Yamaha BB-N5A 5 String Electric Bass MIJ Nathan East

1995 Yamaha Nathan East BBN5A - Made in Japan

A classic! This is the Nathan East BBN5A 5-string bass, one step down from top-of-the-line model but with a few changes: rosewood board and a less figured maple top. This bass was LOVED and played to death before I got it, speaks to how great this specific bass is and how well it plays. For those of you who know, these necks are a bit thicker front to back, but they feel so good in the hand and are probably the reason why it has a great B string for a 34" scale bass!

This bass has seen bumps and bruises, the photos below will show - there's minor finish damage at the headstock and then some dents and paint chips missing on the body as well.

The neck has been refinished by Andrew at Drake Custom Bass with his special wax finish, it plays SO SMOOTHLY now and won't get all sticky like some neck finishes can.

The electronics have been swapped out because the original pickups got noisy and microphonic. The bass is now sporting a set of Bartolini M55CBC pickups wired to switch between Parallel/Single Coil/Series as a set (no individual pickup options, all or nothing). Those pickups are now fed into the wonderful John East Uni-Pre 3 Band Bass Preamp - controls are Vol/Bal stack, passive tone (push pull for passive/active), the P/SC/S switch, stacked T/B, and stacked mid/mid freq. The bass sounds wonderful now! My only comment here is that the battery box tabs are older and I needed to fit some cardboard in behind the battery so that it made a solid connection. I will not ship with a battery installed, bass still works in passive mode.

Official Yamaha specs:

• Bolt on maple neck with rosewood fretboard, 34" scale, 24 frets
• Neck is 1.75" at the nut, 18mm spacing at the bridge
• Weight seems to be at 10lbs
• Body: Alder with a slightly figured maple top
• Color: Translucent Blue/Turquoise/Blue-Green