Well everyone has pretty much gotten the pieces of the puzzle put together.
He start eyed with a white Gibson T-Ord and a couple BC Rich Warlocks. For the Theater of Pain era, he was given a lucrative contract using Hamer Basses. It has been we'll catalog that there are Zero survivors from that era. The most recognizable one being a T-Bird shape with Black and white strips at about a 35 degree angle, and also came with a Kahler Bass Tremolo. That bass currently sits in the Hard Rock Cafe in Indianapolis Indiana. After the Theater of Pain tour The endorsements from Kramer for both Sixx and Mars came rolling into effect. Mars was playing a plethora of Kramer Barreta guitars, while Sixx was using the Spector bass line which Kramer had acquired from Stuart Spector. These basses where P/J basses with many having artwork from a Man named DENISE Kline. Most famous of which is the skull and cross bones Non-Reverse snap. Nikki Sixx had apoximatley 12 basses from Spector and Stuart Specto Designs. The reason for the two different names is that between GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS and DR FEEGOOD, Krammer filed bankruptcy. Spector Basses where now being made under Stuart Spector Designs for Kramer owned the trade mark on the Spector only name. These basses were very heavy, 11-12 pound range. Obviously those who do any live shows know that 11-12 lbbs puts a hurting an you after 3 hour shows. Of the Specror designs, there are about five know to exist. A faded leather looking one the Nikki Sixx has, the skull and crossbones is with a collector. The one used in Russia at the peace festival is with the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando. Another one with the syringes was auctioned off for a drug awareness benefit and is also with a collector and the last known one is to be with the owner of Guitar House of Tulsa. After Vince was kicked out, left, split ways, didn't show up or whatever the real story is we will probably never know. But that's the time Nikki went back to using the Gibson T-Birds. They were very good at that time and had amazing sound. The main story I keep hearing from that point out is that everything was great till after the EPA raid on Gibson for having protected exotic woods in the mid 2000's. While all industry corporations agree that the mistake was made by the importer (Even Fender, Gibsons top Rival Agreeed that it had to be the importers fault), the quality of the basses went down dramatically. Gibson was using what good wood they could to put in their Les Paul and SG lines, the real money makers of the company. In an interview Sixx's openly admits that he would get 6-8 basses and only two would sound good and he'd have to send the rest back. This went on for a period af a couple months and then Sixx just had enough of the inconsistency of the product and never renewed his sponsorship of the T-Birds. It's still unknown if Schedter gave him a lucrative contract, but Sixx was given full control over the design. So the two T-Bird styles were owned by Gibson and a slightly larger and some what curvier design by Spector. The Schedter is about as close as you can get without it being a knock off of one or the other. Also a ful two octave neck and EMGXs were his preferred choices.
As it has been stated above, he uses mainly a vintage fender P bass for recording and also uses the distressed leather looking Spector to add a bit of grit to the mix, due to Spectors 9v Proprietary Haz Labs pre amp, which by happen stance has very similar roll off and boost points similar to the DARKGLASS Tone capsule used by Sheldon Dingwall and many others.
As far as looks go, I really can't say I like it, but I did play one at a GC through a PF350 and 210 cab and it did sound nice. I think for an artist signature bass made in the USA $1400 isn't bad. In full disclosure I'm a Spector fan and my last two bass are in the $4000 range, but we are talking about carbon reinforced necks, solid maple wings and about 60 hours of hands on work to make a true hand built bass, where the Schedter is more C&C and rough shaping to then apply a heavy dose of flat black lacquer paint. Which again, isn't bad. My Frank Bello signature has the same finish and it wears like a tank.
I think it's a very good product for the price. Mostly not my cup of tea. But having seen them live on the final tour I still think the Spectors sounded best ( just my jaded opinion), but they did sound way better than the Gibson T-Birds.
I hope I have enough of a run down of his basses through the years. If I missed something, please add to it. I'm a Crue kid at heart in a 41 y/o body.
He start eyed with a white Gibson T-Ord and a couple BC Rich Warlocks. For the Theater of Pain era, he was given a lucrative contract using Hamer Basses. It has been we'll catalog that there are Zero survivors from that era. The most recognizable one being a T-Bird shape with Black and white strips at about a 35 degree angle, and also came with a Kahler Bass Tremolo. That bass currently sits in the Hard Rock Cafe in Indianapolis Indiana. After the Theater of Pain tour The endorsements from Kramer for both Sixx and Mars came rolling into effect. Mars was playing a plethora of Kramer Barreta guitars, while Sixx was using the Spector bass line which Kramer had acquired from Stuart Spector. These basses where P/J basses with many having artwork from a Man named DENISE Kline. Most famous of which is the skull and cross bones Non-Reverse snap. Nikki Sixx had apoximatley 12 basses from Spector and Stuart Specto Designs. The reason for the two different names is that between GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS and DR FEEGOOD, Krammer filed bankruptcy. Spector Basses where now being made under Stuart Spector Designs for Kramer owned the trade mark on the Spector only name. These basses were very heavy, 11-12 pound range. Obviously those who do any live shows know that 11-12 lbbs puts a hurting an you after 3 hour shows. Of the Specror designs, there are about five know to exist. A faded leather looking one the Nikki Sixx has, the skull and crossbones is with a collector. The one used in Russia at the peace festival is with the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando. Another one with the syringes was auctioned off for a drug awareness benefit and is also with a collector and the last known one is to be with the owner of Guitar House of Tulsa. After Vince was kicked out, left, split ways, didn't show up or whatever the real story is we will probably never know. But that's the time Nikki went back to using the Gibson T-Birds. They were very good at that time and had amazing sound. The main story I keep hearing from that point out is that everything was great till after the EPA raid on Gibson for having protected exotic woods in the mid 2000's. While all industry corporations agree that the mistake was made by the importer (Even Fender, Gibsons top Rival Agreeed that it had to be the importers fault), the quality of the basses went down dramatically. Gibson was using what good wood they could to put in their Les Paul and SG lines, the real money makers of the company. In an interview Sixx's openly admits that he would get 6-8 basses and only two would sound good and he'd have to send the rest back. This went on for a period af a couple months and then Sixx just had enough of the inconsistency of the product and never renewed his sponsorship of the T-Birds. It's still unknown if Schedter gave him a lucrative contract, but Sixx was given full control over the design. So the two T-Bird styles were owned by Gibson and a slightly larger and some what curvier design by Spector. The Schedter is about as close as you can get without it being a knock off of one or the other. Also a ful two octave neck and EMGXs were his preferred choices.
As it has been stated above, he uses mainly a vintage fender P bass for recording and also uses the distressed leather looking Spector to add a bit of grit to the mix, due to Spectors 9v Proprietary Haz Labs pre amp, which by happen stance has very similar roll off and boost points similar to the DARKGLASS Tone capsule used by Sheldon Dingwall and many others.
As far as looks go, I really can't say I like it, but I did play one at a GC through a PF350 and 210 cab and it did sound nice. I think for an artist signature bass made in the USA $1400 isn't bad. In full disclosure I'm a Spector fan and my last two bass are in the $4000 range, but we are talking about carbon reinforced necks, solid maple wings and about 60 hours of hands on work to make a true hand built bass, where the Schedter is more C&C and rough shaping to then apply a heavy dose of flat black lacquer paint. Which again, isn't bad. My Frank Bello signature has the same finish and it wears like a tank.
I think it's a very good product for the price. Mostly not my cup of tea. But having seen them live on the final tour I still think the Spectors sounded best ( just my jaded opinion), but they did sound way better than the Gibson T-Birds.
I hope I have enough of a run down of his basses through the years. If I missed something, please add to it. I'm a Crue kid at heart in a 41 y/o body.
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