Jaco's other bass?

[Chickenwheels]

Jaco was a real character. He never paid much for his basses. Usually they were in need of repair, which he loved doing.
I’ve also seen him using a Mocha brown 70s Precision, probably borrowed, and a Guild Pilot fretless in a Hartke advert. Those two old sunburst Jazz basses were his babies, though. They “worked hard” though.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

View attachment 4641719

bass on the left is the Bass of Doom after it was repaired by Kevin Kaufman. Bass on the right is a Fender Custom Shop Jaco Pastorius signature model.

 

[Killing Floor]

 

[Killing Floor]

 

[J_Bass]

View attachment 4641949

That's his 5 string acoustic. He recorded "Chromatic Fantasy" on that one, if I remember correctly.

 

[Killing Floor]

 

[Killing Floor]

He’s nekkid! And also not a Fender.

 

[Killing Floor]

Mind Blown. TalkBass in tatters. Servers melting. P bass.

Jaco didn’t need a Jazz Bass!
And Albert Collins! Can you imagine how cool that would be?

 

[J_Bass]

 

[Chickenwheels]

Mind Blown. TalkBass in tatters. Servers melting. P bass.

Jaco didn’t need a Jazz Bass!
And Albert Collins! Can you imagine how cool that would be?
View attachment 4641969

There it is, the Mocha P.
Loving that naked Jaco with chopped-up bass pic.

 

[Killing Floor]

Last one, I promise-ish.

Reed Width?

 

[J_Bass]

 

[J_Bass]

 

[Chickenwheels]

I like where he’s literally putting together a bass, filing the nut and all, at the start of the DCI video.

 

[VegetarianBass]

Yes, he played the fretted a lot.

That interview is great, I highly recommend reading it.

He also says that he bought his fretless already without the frets.

And the explanation about the recording of Continuum is mind blowing, to me.





"
[I point at a big silver double flightcase, open in the corner of the room.] Those are your two basses?

Yeah, my instruments are just straight old Fender basses [his fretted '60 Jazz Bass and de-fretted '62 Jazz Bass]. I've been using both these basses about five, six years. About six years, yeah. These are not my original instrument—I don't know where the heck that is, sold it. These two I've had for about six years.

Have you modified them at all?

One has frets, one doesn't.

You just took the frets off yourself?

Yeah. That particular one, somebody had already ripped 'em out when I bought it, looked like someone took a hatchet to it, so I had to fix it up. But I've done that, like—I've always been playing a fretless bass, I've had a few other fretless basses that I had to do it to myself.
"

what’s the interview so I can find it and read later?

 

[pbass2]

I always wanna take my pickguard off my Jazz after I watch him. But mine doesn't look right w/o it - black jazz, and you really see the naked wood in the screw holes. The one he's playing looks cool sans pickguard.

 

[bigjames]

Man I had no idea he played fretted on Portrait. (The album version that is)

I did not know this either....

 

[J_Bass]

what’s the interview so I can find it and read later?

Here is the interview:

Jaco Pastorius Shares How He Learned Bass and Composition in Unpublished Interview | Bacon's Archive

 

[DJ Bebop]

Pastorius played a Framus-S-380 bass when he visited bassist and producer Jan Jankeye in Stuttgart in the spring of 1986. He used that bass to record the CD entitled "Broadway Blues".

Jaco Pastorius

 

[bigjames]

View attachment 4641710

Pretty sure that is Jerry Jermont's bass. I think that is a clip from a bass instructional video called "Modern Electric Bass". I owned the VHS back in the day. I recognize the sweater. I read years later that Jaco was in rough shape when they got him in to do the video. He played a J bass with a P neck (as I recall) and explained in the video that it was by choice to stretch his hands, but later Jerry said it was the only bass they could find on short noticed since Jaco showed up in rough shape without a bass. May have some of that wrong...