Very Early Pic of Berry Oakley

doc540 · #1 02-18-2010, 09:26 PM

and a couple of good shots of his custom Jbass

(credits to the original photographer)

bass_snake · #2 02-18-2010, 09:30 PM

That's a cool looking J. What year was this?

Fred

GlennW · #3 02-18-2010, 09:34 PM

I'd guess 1970, maybe '69.

bassvi · #4 02-18-2010, 09:36 PM

Wow, cool. that's definitely Butch on drums, who's on guitar? A young Dickie Betts? I never knew him to play an SG, always a Les Paul as far as I know. (Yes the bass is cool and this is a bass forum, I just find Allman Bros. trivia interesting

Thanks for posting-

chanson · #5 02-18-2010, 09:38 PM

Awesome!

doc540 · #6 02-19-2010, 06:47 AM

Yep, Dickie and Duane both played SG's in the beginning.

**baba** · #7 02-19-2010, 06:55 AM

Great pics of one of my favorites! Thanks.

RickC · #8 02-19-2010, 08:02 AM

Dickie looks like David Grohl!

/rick

mccartneyman · #9 02-19-2010, 09:40 AM

My band opened for the Allmans at a college in Pennsylvania in early 1971, and this is the bass Barry had then.

dougjwray · #10 02-19-2010, 09:56 AM

What's interesting to me is that his bass has only one bridge pickup. All the other pictures of the Tractor show the neck pickup reinstalled right next to the bridge pickup.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...26tbs%3Disch:1
Maybe this was an intermediate stage, and the Guild pickup in the neck position was too muddy for him??
(Or maybe my eyes are deceiving me?)

JTE · #11 02-19-2010, 11:04 AM

I think there were two Tractors, but I'm not sure. There was an extensive thread here on TB a year or so ago about Berry's basses. This one's a burst, and there's another natural (probably a stripped and refinished) finished one with the Guild/Hagstrom and both Jazz Bass PUPs. I recall a photo (maybe from the original Fillmore vinyl, when you had photos big enough to see!) that clearly showed two cables coming out of the plug, and I remember reading that he'd tried some stereo stuff with the Guild/Hagstrom PUP going to one cable and the Fender electronics going down the other.

Of course all this is hazy recollection, but now that it's on the internet it's fact, right?

John

RickC · #12 02-19-2010, 11:19 AM

This has been covered on TB before.

Here's another pic of the first Tractor, a '66. Note the doubled bridge pickups and added knobs. So it looks like the OP pic was taken earlier.

Here's a pic of Berry's son with Tractor #2, which started life as a '62, neck swapped in from the '66. Note the pickup angle vs Tractor #1

/rick

chanson · #13 02-19-2010, 05:44 PM

Anyone know what Berry's rig is here?

doc540 · #14 02-19-2010, 06:04 PM

Marshall stack

CBgaragebassist · #15 02-19-2010, 07:04 PM

DARKSTAR!

(Wait, is it a Darkstar?)

mccartneyman · #16 02-19-2010, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CBgaragebassist

DARKSTAR!

(Wait, is it a Darkstar?)

Hagstrom single coil, I believe. Darkstar is the recreation of the Hangstrom

xray · #17 02-19-2010, 10:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RickC

This has been covered on TB before.

Here's another pic of the first Tractor, a '66. Note the doubled bridge pickups and added knobs. So it looks like the OP pic was taken earlier.

Here's a pic of Berry's son with Tractor #2, which started life as a '62, neck swapped in from the '66. Note the pickup angle vs Tractor #1

/rick

Pedro Arevalo isn't a bad bassist himself!!

All cool pics though, thanks for sharing - u can never get enough of the ABB.

GlennW · #18 02-20-2010, 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chanson

Anyone know what Berry's rig is here?

Both times I saw them everybody (except the drummers) went through a separate 100 watt Marshall stack. If you look at the second pic in the OP you'll see the "Bass" logo in the upper left corner on the angled 4x12 between the drummers.

I'm not sure about this, but iirc Marshall made 3 variations of the 4x12 at the time; the regular one for use with 50 and 100 watt guitar heads, the "Bass" cabs for use with 50 and 100 watt bass heads, and ones with a "100" logo in the upper left corner for use with 200 watt bass and guitar heads.

coreyfyfe · #19 02-20-2010, 08:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dougjwray

Maybe this was an intermediate stage, and the Guild pickup in the neck position was too muddy for him??
(Or maybe my eyes are deceiving me?)

You may be on to something there, this one does appear to only have the one jazz pickup (or it may be hidden by his hand) but either way there are no knobs below the Bisonic.

Is/are the bisonic/darkstar humbucking? Maybe with the single jazz there was too much hum...

mccartneyman · #20 02-20-2010, 10:04 AM

Berry has Marshall when we opened for them, but I've seen those cabs with the striped grillecloth in the OP's pix before -- Kustom Kasino Snake Eyes cabs, I think, but without the logo. Appears that there are six of them in use. Probably 2x15's from the size, but maybe 6x12, which was popular at the time.