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Bill Wyman's gear

halloweenfiend

halloweenfiend

Jun 28, 2008
163
57
Cleveland, OH
#1
Hey guys just wondering if anyone here knows a thing or two about Bill's gear throughout the years. Stones era and after. I have not had the oppurtunity of seeing him and his band nowadays (besides Youtube vids). But it looks like he uses some kind of headless short-scale (Steinberger mayb?). Neways, if anyone knows about his basses, amplification, strings, and whatnot please tell.

-Jon
 
#2
In the Stones heyday he used SVT heads and V4B (2x15 folded horn) cabs. He used various basses including a Mustang bass, EB3, plexiglass Dan Armstrong (all short scale) and Steinberger.
halloweenfiend said:
Hey guys just wondering if anyone here knows a thing or two about Bill's gear throughout the years. Stones era and after. I have not had the oppurtunity of seeing him and his band nowadays (besides Youtube vids). But it looks like he uses some kind of headless short-scale (Steinberger mayb?). Neways, if anyone knows about his basses, amplification, strings, and whatnot please tell.

-Jon
Click to expand...
 
#3
Most of his recordings were done on a cheap older bass he got when he first started playing bass (I think it's a Framus, but I'm not certain). The neck was in such bad shape that he filed the frets down flush with the fingerboard, and most of the classic Stones stuff was recorded on that fretless bass.

Early on it was Vox amps. He had a day job when he hooked up with Keith, Brian, and Mick. Keith Richards said once that he first time they jammed with Bill, he brought two Vox AC-30s with him as well as his bass amp, and said they could plug into them. It was like going from a no-name practice amp to a Twin Reverb. Keith and Brian said that they didn't think he was the best bass player they'd heard, but he had those amps they could use, so that's how he originally got the gig...

Sorry for the side-track there.

Later the Stones were among the first to use the SVT (and the bass predecessor the SBT), and Bill's been through just about every short-scale bass except for Gibson and Guild. A Mustang is featured in the photos of "Get Your Ya-Ya's Out", and around 1981 in a Guitar Player Magazine interview he was using a custom made Kramer with a short-scale aluminium neck. in that interview he mentions how Keith kept telling him he should have a Fender, but that he just couldn't play a long-scale neck.

jte
 
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#4
I think nowadays he just plays through a 1x15 combo. I'm pretty sure its a Trace Elliot. I would be curious what brand of strings he used. I know flats but in the Gimmie Sheltar film they appear to have blue silks. Possibly Pyramids?
 
#9
I remember reading (can't remember where. Maybe bassplayer)that the old fretless he used was a no name Japanese that he got cheap & defretted himself. He added a Burns pickup to it.He stopped using it live during the "screaming girl riot" period of the Stones for fear of it being damaged.I think he said he recorded with it up to "Some Girls" & that Billy Preston called it the "Best bass guitar he ever messed with". I've seen a lot of old pictures of him with that bass.

In the 60's in England,he used two Vox Foundation amps(Tube) with a single 18 cabinet for live shows. For the American 60's live shows(mid 60's.not the 1969 shows) he used Fender Dual Showman's. He also used to play hollowbody Framus Star basses for live & T.V. shows.

Bill Wyman has very small hands & every interview I've read with him that goes into his bass playing,He always mentions his trouble finding the right instrument.

He's one of my favorites.
 
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#11
Well, forgive me if im wrong, but he used his homemade, then a Framus Star bass, Then a Sg Bass, then a Mustang, And then a Travis Bean which he used during the 80's... until he got into steinbergers.
Correct me if im wrong, but i am pretty sure that sums up his instrument wise gear....

I love his late 70's early 80's Tone.

Thanks.
 
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#14
KramerBassFan said:
Well, forgive me if im wrong, but he used his homemade, then a Framus Star bass, Then a Sg Bass, then a Mustang, And then a Travis Bean which he used during the 80's... until he got into steinbergers.
Correct me if im wrong, but i am pretty sure that sums up his instrument wise gear....

I love his late 70's early 80's Tone.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I seem to remember a Vox teardrop bass in there somewhere...

I wish I had some videos of the Stones early days, Ed Sullivan & such...those performances were beyond awesome...& set the R&R world on its ear...
 
#15
JTE said:
(I think it's a Framus, but I'm not certain).
jte
Click to expand...

Yep. I had a chance to buy that very same, fret-filed, Framus... It was at a local music store, and the price wasn't bad (considering who owned it!). The guys at the store said that a guy bought it off Bill a while back, and then the guy put on consignment there...

That neck was TINY. We're talking short scale as well as thin; the whole neck was as thick as Geddy Lee Jazz is at the neck, and just as thin depth-wise. Played well though, all things considered, but it was pretty beat up.
 
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#16
Zoidberg523 said:
Yep. I had a chance to buy that very same, fret-filed, Framus... It was at a local music store, and the price wasn't bad (considering who owned it!). The guys at the store said that a guy bought it off Bill a while back, and then the guy put on consignment there...

That neck was TINY. We're talking short scale as well as thin; the whole neck was as thick as Geddy Lee Jazz is at the neck, and just as thin depth-wise. Played well though, all things considered, but it was pretty beat up.
Click to expand...

That's pretty cool zoidberg. I think I've seen that thing somewhere on the internet... got a real strange shape to the body doesnt it? Neway, I take it u got to play it? Seeing as u said it played well.

-Jon
 
#17
In the last interview he did in Bass Player Bill said he really never paid much attention to gear and didnt remember much about all the stuff he used thru the years. He did say he needed small necks since had small hands but is no gearhead for sure.
 

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