Billy Sheehan Basses

[scotty]

A buddy of mine called me and told me about a Billy Sheehan bass for $175.00. Tomorrow I should receive some pictures. All I know right now it is teal blue, it has that big pickup and it has some scalloped frets. Can somebody give some info on different models to help my ID this bass? I am not a bass player but have always wanted a bass for recording or just to have around for jamming. Any info would be great, thanks in advance.

[neilli]

As far as I know, the only Sheehan Signature basses were higher-end Yamahas so $175 would seem like a steal if it's in decent condition.

As I recall they had an output for each pickup (Gibson style hum at the neck and a split p-style) and the upper frets were partially scalloped, with the scallops picked out in the same colour as the body paint (usually red or blue)

[Carbuff]

Maybe like this?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Yamaha-Billy-She...QQcmdZViewItem

$175 seems like a deal. If thats the one, Id grab it quick.

[scotty]

Thanks for the input guys. I spent 9 hours on the road today and only 3 hours on site but finally found some time to do some research. I really had a hard time finding info on this bass. I didn't think it would be this difficult. I did find some info at www.archive.org but most of the bass links didn't work.
Thanks again!

[Nuclear Vampire]

What's up with the partial scalloping? Why only certain frets? I always thought they were just decorative inlays.

[Lorne]

I had a Yamaha Attitude LTD edition for about a month in the 1990's,couldn't wait to get rid of mine-soooo many stupid little problems and a really shitty customer relations from Yamaha

Would anybody be happy at paying over $2000 for a bass and having to strip the bass down,because the Taiwanese hadn't screwed the neck down correctly,or would you be happy to pay $30 for a new Volume control-even though the bass was less than 1 month old

Once I had striped the bass down to parts and rebuilt it-it played great and sounded beautiful,but alas,by then I had fallen out of love with Yamaha and the bass-the next owner got a really great set up bass

The neck and volume pot were not the only problems I had with that particular bass

[horns666]

The Yamaha BB3000's he used back in the day were MUCH better..

I'll stick to G & L 2000s..

[Bryan]

If I'm not mistaken Yamaha made an entry level Attitude Bass for a little while. That's probably the one you bought. Still for $175 it's a great deal.