I'm pretty sure it was the franken P as well, I don't think he started using the Fenderbirds until the live Quadrophenia tour. Personally, I love Quadrophenia, but I can't stand the bass tone (not enough treble, sounds way too muffled for my ears) or the guitar tone (wayy too trebly, very weak sounding to me) . However, vocally, it was Daltrey's best work, as well as some of Moon's best drumming. And Pete's awesome synthesizer puts the icing on the cake. Definately an album for either the car, or to just put on late at night and fall asleep to.
I think it was a standard reverse T-bird. also on Who's next. (similar bass tones) the Franken-P was on Tommy and Live at Leeds.
No, Live at Leeds he used a standard sunburst P with a maple fretboard (same as woodstock). The franken P was pink with a rosewood fretboard. I'm almost positive that he used the Ps on Who's Next and Quadrophenia, and used the T-birds live only from 1971-1974, along with a black P w/rosewood fretboard & Hiwatts in late 1970 & 1971, before switching to Sunn solid state Coliseum amps in '72 (bad decision IMHO ). Shots of him playing at the Young Vic in 1971: Here's a shot of him at Leeds playing the sunburst P w/ maple fretboard:
are you sure of that? in the Bassist interview with pics he says "Frankenstein" was a maple neck P bass, originally sunburst, but refinished in pink- see the recent pics from the auction of Entwistle's posessions. check out the tone on Who's next, in particular "behind blue eyes" -doesn't sound like a P bass when you hear string-fret contact- more like a 2 pickup bass of some kind.
Was it a maple board? Maybe i'm getting things mixed up. But his tone at Woodstock and Leeds was the best tone EVER IMHO. I love And about Behind Blue Eyes, I've only heard of him using Ps on who's next, but maybe he was using T-birds.
If you haven't already, you need to pick up the 1979 Quadrophenia soundtrack. Entwistle redid many of the bass tracks and they sound very different. I think they sound like ass compared to the original, but you may like them. In your paragraph you fail to mention the fantastic horn section on that album that consisted of the Ox playing many parts overdubbed. Entwistle's horns make a great impact on that record.
I've read a few times that he used his reverse TBird IV on "Who's Next". That Young Vic photo above shows one of the Fenderbirds and live photos from the Quadrophenia tour also show him using Fenderbirds. Oh well, guess we'll never know for sure.
This might be a little off topic, but if anybody cares Phish covered Quadrophenia in its entirety on Halloween - '95 if I remember correctly. Good stuff, highly recommended if you can find tapes or cdr's.
Doh! How could I have forgotten his horn section?!? God, I must now beg forgiveness form the bass gods. And I have the 1979 Quadrophenia soundtrack on vinyl, but haven't listened to it at all. Didn't he use a quadrophonic Hamer 12-string fretless bass, the only one in existence on that?
Actually, that Young Vic pic is actually a very rare non-reverse Gibson firebird. Unfortunately, it was smashed accidentaly when Moon knocked his amp onto it. Here's another pic of that same bass: Which is different from the fenderbird:
Theres a piece of rock memorabilia if I ever saw one! £62k's about outta my leauge I think. For now anyway ! Andy