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Bill Laswell's gear

chanson

chanson

Supporting Member
Dec 3, 2008
2,101
1,530
San Francisco, California
#1
Does anyone know any specifics about what king of basses/amps Mr. Bill Laswell has used or is using today?

I have seen many pics and videos of him playing a (vintage?) Fender Precision with an added J pickup in the bridge. Anyone have any info about it? Year? Pickups? Is it fretless?

I have also seen a live Praxis video where Bill uses an eight string bass.

Any info could help.
 
#2
The guy's a gear hound and a studio engineer and producer, he has and uses much more gear than the average "bass player". I know at one time he liked the Ovation Magnum 1, same as Jah Wobble, and he's famous for his use of the DOD FX25. I know he has recorded with both fretted and fretless basses, to about an equal percentage at a rough guess. Those are the only particulars I recall off the top of my head, but again his gear situation is a bit different than a typical bassist.
 
#4
If I recall correctly, a DBX subharmonic synthesizer rack mount is a big part of his sound when it comes to generating bottom. That and an envelope filter with a light touch. I've seen him live many times and his gear really depends on who he's playing with. For example, with Painkiller he uses a Thunderbird with a pick and roundwound strings, and with The Last Poets he uses a p or j bass with his fingers and flats. An old fretless P bass is a favorite as well. This is all from distant memory but I'm pretty sure it's correct.

He's a great musician. If you have a chance pick up Imaginary Cuba. Great bass and rhythms.
 
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#5
i recall a few bp interviews where he uses svt tube heads (70's i think). this is what i have seen him use live as well.
fretted and fretless fenders (i think it was p-basses w/ jazz in the neck)
i also recall a moog lowpass filter.
 
#6
Old thread, sorry, but the latest BP magazine has an interesting interview which discusses his gear.

It says he has a J pickup on hi fretless P bass with flatwound strings. How would he use the J pickup? Does he have it wired in the same way as the 2 pickups on a Jazz bass? He's famous for his dub tone which I would have thought the P pickup with flats would have achieved quite nicely, unless, as with a Jazz bass, both pickups at the same volume creates a fatter tone which would help the dub tone more I guess ?
 
#7
Mostly on recordings it's his 5 string fretless Fender, and he uses a pick. Fretless with a pick: that kind of surprised me when I first saw him with Massacre (w/ Frith and Mayer). With Painjiller, it amazed me how many extra folded bass bins he used with 2 or 3 SVTs, but when he used the Whammy he got so low you could almost count the cycles, and this was LOUD.

I have more Lazwell recordings and productions that any other artist...for years now, really since Material, "Memory Serves". I love Indian music and Lazwell is the only producer who uses it constantly and works with people like Zakir Hussain and Karsh Kalie. Also one of my favorite trumpet players, Nils Petr Molvear. And who else got such awesome drum sounds out of Ginger Baker and Shannon Jackson? Nobody.
 
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#10
chanson said:
Does anyone know any specifics about what king of basses/amps Mr. Bill Laswell has used or is using today?
Click to expand...

I haven't paid close attention to Laswell's work in recent years, but I know that back around the time of the early Material albums or his first solo album Baselines his main axes were a fretless 4-string Fender Precision, a Fender Bass VI (30" scale 6-string tuned EADGBE), an Ibanez ST-980 (32" scale 8-string octaves courses), a 4-string MusicMan Stingray, and a 4-string Steinberger L-2. And sometime in the 1980s he added a Wal to his collection.
 
#14
wingmanborge said:
1977' p-bass with added j by bridge - badass bridge - defretted and epoxyed jaco style neck - and 20 year old flatwounds - into an ampeg rig with either a 6x10 or a 2x15 cab - eq rolled back halfway and vol around 4
Click to expand...

:cool:
I read somewhere that it's a 1964-Body, with a 1970's fretless neck. That he added lines later, when he had it epoxied.
Wonderful sounding Bass.
 
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