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Lemmy's equipment

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Alanko:
Lemmy must have had a few basses, right? I've found there to be a bit of ambiguity as to the basses he used, and when. There is a video of a tour around the Rickenbacker factory up on Youtube, and they show the carcass of one of Lemmy's old basses which was in for repair. From memory it looked like a very dead 4001S. Likewise a luthier posted photos of a rehab'd Lemmy bass or two on his website, including the half-dozen snapped strap button screws in the body. I've also seen it mentioned that Lemmy used at least one Rickenfaker, and that the 'Out to Lunch' bass might not be a real Rick.

Some things are consistent. From the early days in Hawkwind he was playing modified Rickenbackers, and his Hawkwind Rick was used in early Motorhead as well. This looks to be a 4000 or 4001S with a Thunderbird pickup in the neck and an odd control arrangement.

uwe:
Uhum!!!

uwe:
But granted: The Ric and him were an iconic pair.

Somewhere there is also a pic of him with Hawkwind playing an SG shape bass (not the Hopf pictured above) - it could have been an SB model - with a Thunderbird Mk1 pup. My guess is that he broke his TBird II at one point and then used the pup in various other basses because he liked the overdrive it gave him.

doombass:

uwe:
This will be considered heresy in Motörhead quarters, but:

- the T-Bird sounds better than his Ric in this vid, more bassy, warmer, less like a baritone guitar, rounds of the middish guitars better,

- Motörhead's music flowed better with the two-guitarists line-up and especially Würzel's playing. More rock'n'roll.

And I always liked Philthy's drumming, for all his technical limitations, he had real swing. Later line-ups lost that. Mike Dee is a metal drummer in comparison (with no doubt the better chops).

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