Herbie's Bass

[Oldboy]

I just watched a tribute to Marc Bolan this morning and was surprised to see that Herbie Flowers was his bassist during the last couple of years of his life.Even then,Herbie was playing his blue Fender Jazz.I thought I caught sight of a slide switch just below where the finger/thumb rest would have been.Just wondered what it was or if Fender ever issued a Herbie tribute Jazz,with the switch.I may be wrong,but it looked like a switch.

[Kink Rimson]

Originally Posted by Oldboy

Herbie Flowers was his bassist during the last couple of years of his life..

Herbie's not dead?!

[UncleBalsamic]

I think he's talking about Bolan's life.

EDIT: Was the show TOTP? I saw the last few minutes minutes of one today that seemed to be all Bolan stuff.

[Kink Rimson]

Originally Posted by UncleBalsamic

I think he's talking about Bolan's life.

.

I know, hence the .

[uglycustard]

I'd also noticed that on Herbies bass I thought it looked like some sort of pickup like the sort you used to have in old telephones,it seems to fall off as the camera zooms in.
I've always suspected that Herbie got that wonderfull tone of his by using some sort of acoustic pick-up mixed with the normal jazz pickups( I could be wrong!)
Mr Flowers is still going strong and still using the same blue Fender,its about time FENDER did a signiture model of it,it has to be the most used jazz bass on many hits and flops!

come on FENDER give the man the credit he's due

steven sawyer

[Alan U]

He's a bit of a character too.
I read an interview with him where he was asked what a lifetime as a musician had taught him.
He answered: Pack a change of clothes. Don't expect to get a mortgage easily. Not to fiddle with a mobile phone when someone is talking to you. Don't park on the pavement. Stand up straight. Don't take the micky.

There.
Something for us all to remember, I'm sure.

[jerry]

On the Lou Reed 'Classic Albums' documentary Herbie talks about how he figured out how to get paid twice for the same session by using both is upright and electric bass for Walk On The Wild Side.

[chog]

From an interview with Herbie Flowers:
"I bought the bass on Oct. 12, 1959, from Manny's in New York. If you remove the neck you can see Leo Fender's signature and because it's a prototype it has various bits that are not standard. For example, underneath the pickguard they installed what was tantamount to a fuzzbox but it was very primitive - a couple of resistors that cut the signal in half and fouled it up. It had a switch on it and when you tried to cut the roughness out it wouldn't cut out properly, so I took it out."

Very cool bass, I found lots of close up pics here: http://curtisnovak.com/vintage/JazzBass59/

[MR PC]

In the case of a onboard fuzz, I think they probably tried some diodes in there.
Coulda' been a series/parallel switch.
Or maybe a phase switch.

[markorbit]

How about this
My new Shubie! (Shuker content)