- Jun 30, 2010
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- musician/artist/owner - Gildaxe
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James Jameron's Funk Machine - Wrong Year
- Thread starter bassfiddlesteve
- Start date
They should stickie this tread...
@FranF et al, I grabbed a couple screenshots of JJ playing with Martha Reeves on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert 1974. This bass looks earlier than the ‘66 he had in LA. The burst is different. The 12th fret dots look like slab board spacing and it’s hard to tell, but the logo looks spaghetti to me. The treble horn tort also might be broken? Anyway have a look
‘66 burst for reference :
‘66 burst for reference :
Same bass. Compare the tug bars on both sets of pics. Under the lower (left side) mounting screw you'll see the same round-ish light yellow spot in the pickguard tort pattern. Lower pickguard tip doesn't look broken to me, and the paint variation appears to be from lighting differences. Pickguard pattern clinches it though... ;-)
That is definitely a funky machine! Dig it.
There I go trying to be Colombo. I see the tort spot now. Tort is like DNA!
I take you have seen that footage before?
A new photo of JJ surfaced on youtube. Displaying The First Funk Machine in its latest known iteration, with the rather conspicuous orange sticker on the upper horn.
While the quality is not stellar (it seems the higher resolution edition has vanished), this also gives a more profound look at Funk Machine 1. At the beginning you can clearly see the double-lined streak of yellow dots running across the lower horn. It also gives a bit of an idea how the action was. Definitely not low, but not excessively high either.
A bit later in the footage, there is a more zoomed out shot, and one can see that the upper horn is more worn at the upper edge than in the famed photo. This footage is not earlier than summer 1965, as we can see from the Jazzmaster headstock in the picture, which is already the larger style, but not yet full-blown CBS. Per illustration, these are the different shapes. It's subtle but noticeable. Also confirming that is that a few seconds later one does not see a block inlay at the first fret, but there is binding. In this footage from 1966 you see Joe Messina (who was known for using Jazzmaster necks on this Telecaster) playing his red Telecaster NOT with the Block-inlaid neck he was known for, but with a neck with dot inlays. Is the headstock we see above that of Joe Messina?
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Then there is this photo of JJ testing some sort of wireless unit. The same double yellow streak is visible on the pickguard, as well as the nipped horn meaning that this is also Funk Machine 1. It's clear in this photo that it has a veneer fretboard, thus eliminating the 1960-1961-early 1962 notion. Even in the last days of slabboards, they were a noticeably thicker than the veneer, and they had a convex transition at the headstock (by tilting the heel of the neck side to side, supporting it at the nut, when they sanded the headstock to final thickness). A veneer is thinner, and often concave. This photo dates from 1964. The cover is already rather heavily worn, but not yet splotchy.
In this photo we see the Funk Machine 1 (there is a (faint) notion of the yellow streak across the lower horn) with hardly any scars on it. The nick in the upper horn is already there, but the pickguard is still intact. Sadly no date has been found. One source says 1967, but given the state of the instrument that's impossible. Given Jamerson has more hair in this photo than in the previous one with the wireless contraption, I'd say this is somewhere 1963.
For your viewing pleasure. Footage of Jamerson with The Crusaders from 1974
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While the quality is not stellar (it seems the higher resolution edition has vanished), this also gives a more profound look at Funk Machine 1. At the beginning you can clearly see the double-lined streak of yellow dots running across the lower horn. It also gives a bit of an idea how the action was. Definitely not low, but not excessively high either.
A bit later in the footage, there is a more zoomed out shot, and one can see that the upper horn is more worn at the upper edge than in the famed photo. This footage is not earlier than summer 1965, as we can see from the Jazzmaster headstock in the picture, which is already the larger style, but not yet full-blown CBS. Per illustration, these are the different shapes. It's subtle but noticeable. Also confirming that is that a few seconds later one does not see a block inlay at the first fret, but there is binding. In this footage from 1966 you see Joe Messina (who was known for using Jazzmaster necks on this Telecaster) playing his red Telecaster NOT with the Block-inlaid neck he was known for, but with a neck with dot inlays. Is the headstock we see above that of Joe Messina?
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
Then there is this photo of JJ testing some sort of wireless unit. The same double yellow streak is visible on the pickguard, as well as the nipped horn meaning that this is also Funk Machine 1. It's clear in this photo that it has a veneer fretboard, thus eliminating the 1960-1961-early 1962 notion. Even in the last days of slabboards, they were a noticeably thicker than the veneer, and they had a convex transition at the headstock (by tilting the heel of the neck side to side, supporting it at the nut, when they sanded the headstock to final thickness). A veneer is thinner, and often concave. This photo dates from 1964. The cover is already rather heavily worn, but not yet splotchy.
In this photo we see the Funk Machine 1 (there is a (faint) notion of the yellow streak across the lower horn) with hardly any scars on it. The nick in the upper horn is already there, but the pickguard is still intact. Sadly no date has been found. One source says 1967, but given the state of the instrument that's impossible. Given Jamerson has more hair in this photo than in the previous one with the wireless contraption, I'd say this is somewhere 1963.
For your viewing pleasure. Footage of Jamerson with The Crusaders from 1974
The bass player for Billy Paul (Ronnie Baker?) on The Midnight Special didn't care anything about James Jamerson. He was tearing it up on that bass
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Annoying that you can't edit your posts after a while, but alas. I think I've narrowed down the date of this photo. Given the VOX amplifiers we see (left: VOX MT-60 with matching 2x15" cabinet, right: Vox AC100 Vox Buckingham with a 2x12), this is likely a photo taken on the UK Tour (14 shows) that Stevie Wonder did in October 1967.A new photo of JJ surfaced on youtube. Displaying The First Funk Machine in its latest known iteration, with the rather conspicuous orange sticker on the upper horn.
Given JJ is still playing Funk Machine 1 that late in the year, before it disappears from view (sold it? stolen? Sidelined because structural issues that couldn't be fixed?), one has to assume that it's not that unlikely that The Funk Machine 2 is a 1967 Precision Bass, given he likely bought new and didn't have 2 at the same time, which IIRC correctly there is a statement from his family that he owned 3 basses: the Precision Bass, the Bass V he used in the studio and a fretless one (that he hurled across the studio while being distraught after Benny Benjamin died).
Just thinking aloud here. Since we pretty much factual know that the bass, Funk Machine I, in the famed "curtain photo" is not from before August 1962 (because veneer fretboard), and Funk Machine II (the real one) is likely a 1966-1967 one (because wider frets, and still a sighting from FM1 in October 1967 in post #193), could it be that this P-bass (which has a slab fretboard) might be the P-bass that was put up for auction by Billy Hayes back in 2017? I assume Hayes didn't lie (although in his photographic evidence substantiating the claim, there is a hootenanny button at the rear of the headstock, which the auctioned bass never had), it can at least be somewhat plausible.
That picture from the JW-show, in what magazine was it? Was there a venue mentioned?
Anyone knows anyone at Motown Museum for a search through their archives of 1960-1963 footage and pictures?
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The bass that was auctioned does not match either of the Fender Precision Basses that James Jamerson was pictured with. While it is clear that Mr. Hayes knew James Jamerson, the provenance of the auctioned bass is questionable and Jamerson‘s family says that it didn’t belong to him. @FranF can back this up as he was in contact with them.
- Steve
I'm not talking about either of the two Funk Machines, I'm talking about the one he used in 1961 with Jackie Wilson (which is, unless he invented timewarping, impossible to have played it with a P-bass with veneer fretboard as that was only introduced in the summer of 1962), back in the days when he was in his touring band.
While it might not be owned by JJ, that doesn't necessarily exclude that it can be provided by him.
Another photo surfaced, with Jamerson in the background playing his Funk Machine I, with the pronounced red sticker in 1967.
And some new footage from 1972, with a brief "Hook" appearance.
And some new footage from 1972, with a brief "Hook" appearance.
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Hello all. That photo was up on the 'net over 20 years ago.
If my memory still serves me well, that photo, which I remembered to be circa 1967, is Stevie Wonder in a talent show with his classmate at a Michigan School For The Blind event.
RE: Early 60s Fender Sunburst Bass #1...there was a Facebook post over a decade or so ago which told the details of how the bass went missing.
After a gig or studio work, James went to a Dennis Edwards gig at a club in Detroit in his new-ish Cadillac.
The car had a new fangled device called automated trunk button.
The thief popped the trunk on (reportedly) an unlocked car and that's how the bass went bye-bye.
Well, one out of two...Well on the plus side, we're not alone in the search. Lots of eyes on it, especially now. I hope one or all are found in my lifetime. Along with McCartney's '61 Hofner....
- Steve
What was the factory color of the maple part of the neck in the range of years in consideration? Just read through this thread, and many of the pictures seem to show a lighter color more consistent with a slightly aged clear finish rather than an amber stain or similar coloration caused by smoke or other environmental factors.
