Peter Hook's equipment

[ndrly]

As some of you may know, Peter Hook is one of my influences. If nobody is familiar with his work with Joy Division and New Order, maybe you should check out his playing on such songs as "Love Will Tear Us Apart", "True Faith", "The Perfect Kiss", "Crystal", "60 MPH", "Krafty" and other stuff like that (that's pretty much every New Order/Joy Division song I know, but I'm planning to hear more).

Anyway, if you wanted an amp setup similar to his, you'd need either an Alembic preamp, Crown power amp and a Marshall 4x15 cabinet OR a Hiwatt head/Vox cabinet combo, as shown below.



Of course, either setup could be simulated with a Line6 POD. And by the way, that "unknown chorus pedal" is an Electro-Harmonix Clone Theory. His kinda looks like this...



But of course, the current model would suffice too.



Now, moving onto his basses...

In the days of Joy Division and early New Order, Hooky used a now discontinued Yamaha BB1200. Not entirely sure if his model is passive or active, but this photo here may suggest that it's active, but the one he used in the "Love Will Tear Us Apart" video appeared passive to me. He's used this on every New Order album.



(what is that StingRay doing there?)

Another bass he used is a Shergold Marathon six-string bass. I don't really know much about this model, though I may have heard it's tuned EADGBE (guitar tuning an octave lower).



Finally, there's the classic Eccleshall. He went to this luthier named Chris Eccleshall, who lives in Devon, and asked for a hollowbody bass with Yamaha electronics. This is what he received...



He almost always uses this bass live. Doesn't really work well in the studio, or so I've heard.

Don't know much about his other basses.

And if you don't want to search on eBay, desperately waiting for one of the above basses to show up, you could always look for similar products...

You could just use a Yamaha BB414 or BB614. Looks similar to the BB1200, doesn't it? The only difference is the construction. BB414 and BB614 are bolt-on. BB1200 is neck-through.

The Shergold circuitry looks similar to that of a StingRay. And MusicMan are going to produce some six-string basses soon! (crosses fingers)

As for the Eccleshall...well, there aren't really that many EB-2 style basses out there, let alone active ones. I'll probably just use, like, a Jack Casady bass or something.

Well, hope you found that interesting.

[ROON]

I love all the funky Electro-Harmonix designs.

[EddieG]

According to the website for 24 Hour Party People, back in the Russell Club days Hooky used this Gibson copy:



He actually had the notes written on the fretboard!



After that it was apparently some sort of chipboard Rickenbacker copy, which he smashed up. As for the Yamaha, I think you get a better look at it in the Perfect Kiss video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--pSWLEVGhY

[ndrly]

I don't really like SG basses. They look ugly, and the Epiphone version I tried did not stay in tune.

[The Hammer]

In the early Joy Division days Hooky used a Hondo Rickenbacker copy. Apparently the neck was warped which caused him to play mostly in the higher register.

His Eccleshall Hot1 and Hot2 Gibson style basses don't use Yamaha electronics. They have a custom built pre-amp in them.

[iamthebassman]

Originally Posted by The Hammer

His Eccleshall Hot1 and Hot2 Gibson style basses don't use Yamaha electronics. They have a custom built pre-amp in them.

From a Peter Hook interview in "Bass Player":

Eccleshall “It’s made by Chris Eccleshall in Cornwall. I wanted a hollowbody with Yamaha electronics, so he took the active electronics from a BB1200s and built a full-scale neck-through bass with 24 frets.”

[EddieG]

Originally Posted by iamthebassman

From a Peter Hook interview in "Bass Player":

Eccleshall “It’s made by Chris Eccleshall in Cornwall. I wanted a hollowbody with Yamaha electronics, so he took the active electronics from a BB1200s and built a full-scale neck-through bass with 24 frets.”

Evidently he wasn't talking about the black ES 335-esque bass, because that only has 22 frets.

[lunarpollen]

I have the newer Clone Theory pedal and it definitely can get his tone... I love playing along with NO's "Bizarre Love Triangle"
I can also pretty much get the sound from the Glove's "Like an Animal " (not Peter Hook of course, but definitely inspired by his playing style).

I think I read someplace that these days he's fond of Ashdown amplification

I also have a Hondo Rickenbacker copy like he used to have (although I got mine well before I found out he used to have one). I heard that he played in the upper register on it because the combination of the crappy pickups and his non-ideal amplification at the time made it difficult for him to hear himself play unless he played up high.

I believe he committed "furi kuri" with it by smashing it over someone's head at a gig back in the early days (Warsaw era?).

[contakt321]

How can we talk about Peter Hook without mentioning how good the bassline from "Procession" is?

[iamthebassman]

You just did.

[Fender32]

Paging Fassa Albrecht!

Where are ya lass?

[ndrly]

Originally Posted by lunarpollen

I think I read someplace that these days he's fond of Ashdown amplification

See, that's the kind of amplification I'd like. Must try out.

[jtkennedy9]

ndrly, I highly recommend the Joy Division box set. Supposedly has every song Joy Division ever did. Hook is one of my major influences....

[ndrly]

You know another cool song that has chorus on bass is Inbetween Days by the Cure. Nice intro.

[sensible68]

great post ndrly

that Eccleshall bass looks most gorgeous - edit: apart from the logo *sheesh*

[Bard2dbone]

Originally Posted by Fender32

Paging Fassa Albrecht!

Where are ya lass?

Wondering the same thing.

[ndrly]

Right. Anyone here got a bass POD? Maybe a POD X3?

If so, could you possibly set up something like this...

Head: Alchemist/Hiway (AKA Alembic F-2B or Hiwatt head)
Cabinet: 2x15 Class A (AKA Vox Cabinet)
Effects: Chorus (try out various choruses, but I think Analog Chorus might be closest to the Clone Theory)

Compare that to any of the various Joy Division/New Order songs I've listed above. If you can provide recordings, then please, could you do it?

I think I might have more detail on his amps. His primary head is an Alembic F-2B combined with a Crown power amp. His main cabinet is a Vox cab. I think he used a Hiwatt head with Joy Division.

[ndrly]

For bass guitar, I only believe in one chorus setting. Just crank everything to the max except rate. Leave rate at midnight.

[The Mock Turtle Regulator]

And MusicMan are going to produce some six-string basses soon! (crosses fingers)

Ernie Ball Musicman have been doing a 6 string Silhouette bass since the 90's.
(baritone guitar like a Fender Bass VI or Shergold)

there's an OLP version too.

[iamthebassman]

The BassVI and Shergold are not baritones.