Tony Levin p-bass --> stingray

IronLung1986 · #1 06-10-2010, 08:43 PM

hey i've been wondering this for a while...does anyone know at what point tony levin switched from using a p-bass to a musicman? i had always assumed he was using the p for at least the first 2 peter gabriel albums.

fretless Bob · #2 06-11-2010, 02:27 AM

"So" is definately a stingray, i never heard of Levin playing a p bass, in my mind he has always been a stingray man

IronLung1986 · #3 06-11-2010, 06:18 AM

but he was performing and recording professionally before the stingray was invented. and i'm pretty sure i've read that he used a p bass throughout his early career.

PhR · #4 06-11-2010, 06:23 AM

He definitely used a Precision on the first two Gabriel albums (1977-78) and on "Fripp's "Exposure" (1979) and a Stingray on "Discipline" (1981) and Gabriel's fourth (1982). He didn't play bass on Gabriel's third (1980), Chapman stick only.

There's some youtube footage from 1978 Rockpalast Gabriel gig where Tony plays a natural Precision with a rosewood fingerboard.

JTE · #5 06-11-2010, 12:43 PM

In fact Roger Sadowsky has talked about putting a pre-amp in Tony Levin's Precision. Tony got an early StingRay, and a lot of engineers wouldn't take the time to change settings on the board. They said they couldn't get a good sound out of that bass because it was active. So, Tony had Roger put a pre-amp into his Precision, and because so many of the engineers were listening with their eyes, they had no trouble getting a good sound out of it...

John

Ezbass · #6 06-11-2010, 01:48 PM

Unfortunately Tony's P was destroyed in a fire at his house along with his famous 3 string 'Ray, thus why he seems to play EBs exclusively these days (not counting Stick and EUB of course).

pasta4lnch · #7 06-11-2010, 01:56 PM

this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuEnLnrEqss

around the 3:00 mark ...

meursault42 · #8 06-13-2010, 08:49 PM

Check out the stuff he did with Paul Simon. In particular, some of the tracks on "Still Crazy After All These Years" have Levin producing some truly sublime P-bass tones. Anybody know what year his P was? I'm guessing early '60s from the sound of it, but it's hard to tell. There's some footage from the "Paul Simon Special" where he's using one with a natural finish, rosewood fingerboard, and a white pickguard.

And as for the question, it seems like he switched right around 1980. On Simon's "One Trick Pony" album from that year, the studio cuts are all on a P-bass, while the live cuts are undoubtedly a Ray.

Chrisk-K · #9 06-14-2010, 02:12 AM

Levin played the P on Lennon's last album.

IronLung1986 · #10 06-14-2010, 03:57 PM

cool. all this is good to know. i mainly wanted to figure out what bass he played on a sort-of obscure gabriel song called "white shadow" from PG2. his bass tone is so cool on that song, it's like a very subtle fuzz. i had suspected that this was the p bass and from what people are saying i guess it was.