Don't ask me why but I am trying to account for all of Larry's Fender Jazz and post-Jazz basses.
It's strange to me that a bassist so revered has very little ink about his gear.
Usually anything you find is talking about his Moon basses, which are my least favorite of his.
This fascination began because of his unique late era Sly/early GCS tone.
The only other player I heard cop that tone was Larry's protege Keni Burke.
TalkBass solved that mystery for me by informing me that the secret was the tapewound strings Larry and Keni were using. I have no idea what brand of tapewounds these were.
They both eventually switched to rounds.
It seems like his first Jazz was the red one with matching headstock, white pickguard, rosewood(?) fingerboard, pearl inlays and tug bar that he used when we was still with Sly.
Then he was using a white 1970 Jazz with a maple fingerboard, a tort pickguard and black block inlays.
He signed this bass and it sold from a San Francisco shop last year.
From there, a natural finish Jazz with a white pickguard, maple fingerboard and pearl block inlays.
Then the silver Jazz with extended black pickguard (think Marcus Miller), rosewood(?) fingerboard and pearl block inlays.
We start seeing Larry with this bass around 1975-76.
Even though the mod looks identical to the mod Sadowsky did for Marcus Miller years later, it's not a Sadowsky mod and Sadowsky claims he had zero knowledge of Graham or his mod.
Roger Sadowsky said in another thread here on TalkBass
"I created Marcus' pickguard in late 79 or early 80. It was the second bass preamp install I did and the first on a Jazz Bass.
I did not know who Larry Graham was at the time and never saw any photos of him with his bass.
Marcus trusted me completely on the preamp install and did not have any input into the design.
I made room for the electronics and battery with a drill press and a chisel and made the pickguard to cover it all up and provide access to the battery.
Within a few months of doing Marcus' bass, I learned how to make templates and use a router and developed the method of routing from the back and creating just a small cavity for the circuit and the battery."
Seems weird. Sly and the Family Stone were one of the biggest groups on the planet at one time and Larry was prominently featured in that band, but who knows.
Do we know who did Larry's mod? Was it a preamp in the cavity or a wireless transmitter?
Then we see Larry with this thing around 1980 during One In A Million You.
It's a Jazz bass but I don't know if it's Fender.
It has the XLR jack on the body for that extremely goofy mic that he likes.
Other than that, I cant find any information about this bass.
It sounds okay but not my favorite. I remember reading that it's in a Hard Rock Cafe now.
A closer look at it here: Invalid Link Removed
Somewhere in the early 80's, we start seeing him with his Moon bass, but then I remember seeing this:
This is around 83 or 84 and he's rocking a Musicman Sabre (basically a Stingray with two humbuckers instead of one).
EDIT: This is an early 80's G&L L-2000E. The Sabre had the 3+1 tuning peg config, this does not.
It sounds great! Never seen him play this anywhere else. Maybe this is one of his at home basses.
I don't know when this is from or what kind of bass this is. Sounds cool.
From here, we pretty much see him exclusively with his Moon basses. Seems like there have been more than one.
But then I saw this where he's playing a Warwick in 2011
It looks like he allowed them to make a signature model since he uses their amps.
I don't know why, but this sounds terrible. I would have gone back to the Moon, too.
This seemed to be short lived and he's back on the Moon bass.
He does a have a Moon 5 string. The 4 string is named Sunshine, the 5 string is named Moonshine.
He said that the 5 string never leaves the studio and he never plays it live.
Any Graham experts out there?
It's strange to me that a bassist so revered has very little ink about his gear.
Usually anything you find is talking about his Moon basses, which are my least favorite of his.
This fascination began because of his unique late era Sly/early GCS tone.
The only other player I heard cop that tone was Larry's protege Keni Burke.
TalkBass solved that mystery for me by informing me that the secret was the tapewound strings Larry and Keni were using. I have no idea what brand of tapewounds these were.
They both eventually switched to rounds.
It seems like his first Jazz was the red one with matching headstock, white pickguard, rosewood(?) fingerboard, pearl inlays and tug bar that he used when we was still with Sly.
Then he was using a white 1970 Jazz with a maple fingerboard, a tort pickguard and black block inlays.
He signed this bass and it sold from a San Francisco shop last year.
From there, a natural finish Jazz with a white pickguard, maple fingerboard and pearl block inlays.
Then the silver Jazz with extended black pickguard (think Marcus Miller), rosewood(?) fingerboard and pearl block inlays.
We start seeing Larry with this bass around 1975-76.
Even though the mod looks identical to the mod Sadowsky did for Marcus Miller years later, it's not a Sadowsky mod and Sadowsky claims he had zero knowledge of Graham or his mod.
Roger Sadowsky said in another thread here on TalkBass
"I created Marcus' pickguard in late 79 or early 80. It was the second bass preamp install I did and the first on a Jazz Bass.
I did not know who Larry Graham was at the time and never saw any photos of him with his bass.
Marcus trusted me completely on the preamp install and did not have any input into the design.
I made room for the electronics and battery with a drill press and a chisel and made the pickguard to cover it all up and provide access to the battery.
Within a few months of doing Marcus' bass, I learned how to make templates and use a router and developed the method of routing from the back and creating just a small cavity for the circuit and the battery."
Seems weird. Sly and the Family Stone were one of the biggest groups on the planet at one time and Larry was prominently featured in that band, but who knows.
Do we know who did Larry's mod? Was it a preamp in the cavity or a wireless transmitter?
Then we see Larry with this thing around 1980 during One In A Million You.
It's a Jazz bass but I don't know if it's Fender.
It has the XLR jack on the body for that extremely goofy mic that he likes.
Other than that, I cant find any information about this bass.
It sounds okay but not my favorite. I remember reading that it's in a Hard Rock Cafe now.
A closer look at it here: Invalid Link Removed
Somewhere in the early 80's, we start seeing him with his Moon bass, but then I remember seeing this:
This is around 83 or 84 and he's rocking a Musicman Sabre (basically a Stingray with two humbuckers instead of one).
EDIT: This is an early 80's G&L L-2000E. The Sabre had the 3+1 tuning peg config, this does not.
It sounds great! Never seen him play this anywhere else. Maybe this is one of his at home basses.
I don't know when this is from or what kind of bass this is. Sounds cool.
From here, we pretty much see him exclusively with his Moon basses. Seems like there have been more than one.
But then I saw this where he's playing a Warwick in 2011
It looks like he allowed them to make a signature model since he uses their amps.
I don't know why, but this sounds terrible. I would have gone back to the Moon, too.
This seemed to be short lived and he's back on the Moon bass.
He does a have a Moon 5 string. The 4 string is named Sunshine, the 5 string is named Moonshine.
He said that the 5 string never leaves the studio and he never plays it live.
Any Graham experts out there?
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