Categories: Guitar Equipment

Bass c. ’70

Just a few random things today that caught my eye. The Hagstrom 8-string bass pictured above with players Noel Redding, among others, was recently re-issued. seems like not a bad choice for live rock bands. Tom Petersson of the not-terrible band Cheap Trick has used a similar contraption for years. Yes I am joking btw Cheap Trick is rad. ANYways…

Good lord. Just in case the SVT is not big/heavy/loud enough for you, Fender swings back with 435 watt PS-400. I have only seen one of these in my life; can’t recall when/where. Great fan-site for these amps here… interesting picks of melted (like, literally) 6550 tubes from some sort of biasing-mishap. Proceed with caution…

The Fender Precision bass in classic James Jamerson trim. Who is James Jamerson? Books have been written… but you can start here. Kinda invented maybe 25% of the electric bass guitar lexicon? Rough guess.

The electric bass Jamerson played was a stock 1962 Fender Precision Bass which was dubbed “The Funk Machine.” Jamerson bought it after his first Precision (a gift from fellow bassist Horace “Chili” Ruth) was stolen. It had a three-tone sunburst finish, a tortoise-shell style pickguard, and chrome pickup and bridge covers (the latter containing a piece of foam used to dampen sustain). He typically set its volume and tone knobs on full. This instrument was also stolen, just days before Jamerson’s death in 1983. To date, it has not been found.

(source)

chris

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Eli Monolator says:

06/01/2011 at 1:00 pm

A friend who used to play bass in one of my bands had (still has?) a PS-400. He didn't have that giant folded horn cabinet, but rather ran it thru a PAIR of Ampeg 8x10 cabs. Considering that we generally played in clubs the size of a hall closet to roughly 12 or so people, this was pretty funny. But he meant business.