Does anyone own a famous Bass?

[delta7fred]

Glenn Cornick (Jethro Tull) played my 62P one night after a gig he had played with his band Wild Turkey in about 1972/3

I knew their guitarist, Mick Dyche, and was buying his SG Special which had been used on tour when they supported The Osmonds (I don't know if that makes the SG famous or not ).

The whole band came round and were sat drinking coffee while Glen was playing my P through a full 4X12 stack at about 2 in the morning.

 

[kosmicwizard]

Never owned a famous bass, but I did get to play on one briefly. This was a db once owned by Domenico Dragonetti. (1763-1846)

GT

I don't know a lot of the names on here, but this one I know. Did it still have sinew strings? Was it a three or four string? Anything else that stands out to you? Where did you get to play it? Cheers.

 

[rockstarbassist]

The pros have all the good s**t! Plus, I would think that a lot of rich famous people would probably take better care of their instruments than your average Joe. The guy I used to work for (well-known film composer) had a humidity controlled room for all his guitars and basses (about 150 of them). I even got to borrow a '53 P, a '64 Hof, and a '69 (I think) Ric 2005. That Ric was hands down the sweetest bass I've ever touched..

4001, 4000, 4005 in Mapleglo, 4005 OS in Fireglo & 4005-6 in Fireglo

That's true also! But it really depends on how they used it. Brownie was one of, if not the, main touring bass for the last 3-4 years of the band so she's been through the ringer a few times, but all of that just adds to it. Still plays and sounds like a new Spector would, just happens to be a tad cooler!

 

[libanass]

I believe that I own this bass.
All of the grain seems to match. I also checked out his Hal Leonard DVD and some vids of him playing with QJ.
It seems to be the same creature.

Got some pics of your pre ernie ball stingray?

 

[genstormbringer]

So I just saw the thread of the Ibanez bass on Ebay with a price tag of $4.500 once owned by the Warrant guy Jerry Dixon and got me thinking, Does anybody own or know somebody who owns a famous bass guitar?

Why would anyone wanna buy that DB's bass esp for $4500

 

[GoesThump]

I don't know a lot of the names on here, but this one I know. Did it still have sinew strings? Was it a three or four string? Anything else that stands out to you? Where did you get to play it? Cheers.

This was about 15-16 years ago, in Toronto. It was a 4, but the owner was unsure if it had been a modified from 3 originally. (I suppose I could look that up.)

Clearly it had some work done it to manage modern strings, but in the brief 10 minutes it was in my hands I didn't get to check it all out. The bridge certainly looked newer than the rest of the bass, as did the endpin.

One thing that struck me was that it was unusually light compared to a modern db. It seems like the wood (sides & top) was thinner than we use nowadays.

It was kind of a cool moment, I wish someone would have had a camera handy.

GT

 

[bluesdogblues]

Not exactly famous, but this '57 Precision belonged to Paul Goddard of the Atlanta Rhythm Section. In addition to using it to record the first 3 ARS albums before switching to a Ric, Paul also used it for studio and stage work with Roy Orbison's Candymen, Joe South and the Classics IV. I've been fortunate to own it for nearly 30 years.

Oh Man..IT IS EXACTLY FAMOUS to me!

 

[iuserneim]

well, i dont own a famous bass, but i liked all your famous basses so far, and just in case that i will get famous one day, you can all say that me - the famous guy - once liked all your famous basses

does that count ?

 

[tjnkoo]

My Ibanez's truss rod cover was signed by Chris Squire! That's about all I got.

 

[CaptainGrog]

At my local Guitar Center theres a 1978 Antigua Mustang bass. I was looking at it and one of the employees came to me and said that it belonged to John Oates. He also said he brought in a matching P bass. So no I dont own it but I did play it.

 

[baileyboy]

I own the Fender P that was owned/used by Brian Eberts from The Meddling Kids, a Rochester, NY based band, to record the Rick Springfield tune "I've Done Everything For You". This song is on the Rick Springfield tribute album "Working Class Dogs".

 

[Rickengeezer]

I have an experimental prototype of the first Gibson Les Paul bass--complete with Les Paul's name etched onto the back of the headstock. It has holes all over the place where he apparently tried different pickup, tailpiece, and tuner configurations. It ended up with two of the huge EB-0 mudbuckers on it. When I play it, it can't be heard, only felt!

 

[brianrost]

I own a "somewhat" famous cab. If any of you guys remember that one hit wonder "Come and get your love" from the band RedBone. They were a group of Indians. I have the bassist acoustic 361.

His modded '53 Precision was hanging in Bass NW several years ago. A guy on the fender forum snatched it up.

That would be me.

Pat Vegas was Redbone's bassist. Actually they were two hit wonders, remember "Witch Queen of New Orleans"?

 

[maxiegrant]

I came across a bass on ebay a while back that was a 67 (I believe) Jazz owned by Electric Ladyland Studios, which would put in the hands of some legendary performers for sure. I couldn't afford it, but some dude now owns it.

Existentially, I considered that even before, some dude owned it too.

Only when it didn't exist did some dude not own it.

As for famous instruments, I did not own one ever, but I was in a band in the 1980's called Rabbit Manor (yeah, we named it after an Adrian Belew song), whose lead singer/guitarist/mandolinist (yeah, it was kind of an off-color band) was formerly a protoge of famous Bluegrass mandolin player Sam Bush.

Washburn had made an electric Sam Bush signature mandolin, which Sam thought was a piece of crap and gave to Phil (the singer) who used it to our noisy delight in several songs. It was a shrill little thing, a solidbody with single-course strings instead of the double-courses you typically find on a mandolin.

And outside of seeing them in concert or behind glass in museums, that is as close as I've ever come to a famously-owned instrument.

 

[abngourmet]

I own two Ampeg BXT series cabinets once used by Victor Wooten at a club called Blues Alley in Alexandria (I think), VA about 10 years or so ago. I'd been looking to replace the Hartke rig I'd been using, and bought an SVT-4 Pro as the head. Needed cabs, and went to the local GC to check some stuff out. Tried the BXT cabs with the SVT-4 Pro and really liked it, but GC didn't have any in stock. I called Chuck Levine's Washington Music Center, and told them I wanted a 4X10 and a 1X15. They didn't have any in stock (meaning brand new, never used), but they did have the cabs that Victor used on that gig. They were drop shipped from Ampeg to the venue, where he used them one night, then they went to Chuck Levine's. I bought both and still have them, to include the shipping labels on the boxes with "ATTN: ALLEN STODDARD/V WOOTEN" clearly written on them. I didn't keep the boxes, but I did keep the receipt indicating that they'd been used by Victor. Unfortunately, I didn't acquire the Victor's chops along with his cabinets!

 

[McBassHead]

I let Billy Joel's bass player use my Gibson EB3 for a gig they did back in 1971-72 at Ultrasonic Recording Studios back in the days when they did live on the radio concerts for WLIR 92.3 FM Long Island's rock station. Does that count?

 

[audreycashin]

just bought a Hohner B-2 Steinberger type from John Gatto of the Good Rats.......

 

[Modern Growl]

I owned one that Willie Weeks owned. I got rid of it in 3 weeks.... didn't bond with it at all.

 

[LowEndGroover]

I don't know if this qualifies as famous. But, I got a Ken Smith serial #76 that Ken played on a Bubblicious commercial with when he used to do jingles in the early 80's. Got the info directly from Ken when I inquired where I should get the neck replaced after the headstock broke off.

 

[Lon86]

I have played that bass many times... I was the AR guy at SWR in the late 90's until 2001.

How did you come across it???

I have a 1988 Sadowsky originally built for Steve W. Rabe, founder of SWR Engineering. It was used in some of the SWR ads back in the early 90's

The bass all the way to the left.

Closer view of the ad.

And now I have it! Nothing like a well played "vintage" Sadowsky! Note the "SWR" on the headstock!