The Last Bass Outpost
Main Forums => The Bass Zone => Topic started by: gearHed289 on March 28, 2018, 07:33:37 AM
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I was just reminded about these guys by an old high school buddy. Really good 70s rock and roll band. Take a look at this humbucker added to a P. Also, what is that guitar the singer is playing? Looks like it might have some kind of sliding pickup setup.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4ghBxtJ3jA
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The guitar's a Dan Armstrong isn't it...? The solid version of the plexi variant...? No idea about the bass pup, mind you... saw them as a support one time but not sure who it was with... Sabbath...? Might have been the Technical Ecstasy tour... (looked it up, it was)
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Dan Armstrong Model 341.
I don't remember the band. Nice song.
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Don't know much about them other than dubious LP covers from the time... never had any of their output...
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They became Rage (UK band, not the Kraut heavy metallers), here with a (heavy-handed) Joe Lynn Turner/Fandango song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuLEqcB4I30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmyj__by7YE
I stumbled across this just now, never knew something of that audio quality was available of JLT's early days! And I have to say with all the derision the guy (not always unjustly) gets, Fandango were a great live band with a lot more ooomph than on their four studio albums - smooth AOR you Yanks excel at! Not a bad guitar slinger either, our Joe!! The (likewise excellent) slide player is the late Rick Blakemore (yes ..., but no relation, just a coincidence - or even fate? :) - and spelled without a "c" and with another "e").
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kM3kKk_LZg
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On the West (Best) Coast this was the one song that I heard on Seattle FM back in the day.....
I did buy the album, may still be upstairs somewhere :P
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0ZFfsV1pOo
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The guitar is a Dan Armstrong London (as Dave had already mentioned...). Jack Bruce played a London bass circa '75 and Alan Mair used one too with The Only Ones. The bass was available as a long and short scale versions. Kinda ugly but cool, would like to try one.
The bass pickup looks like a custom job.
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They became Rage (UK band, not the Kraut heavy metallers), here with a (heavy-handed) Joe Lynn Turner/Fandango song:
Uncle Ted's take on it...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnX0HE3Cys8&ab_channel=TedNugent-Topic
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And then there's some things known primarily to us Northern NJ natives who attended high school dances in the 70s...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwl3bvOqM68&ab_channel=Dabbitt353
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Wow, good history, thanks guys! :toast:
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Forgot to add: the humbucker on the P looks like a regular guitar humbucker to me.
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Didn't know of any of those alternate bands but knew the Nuge version... even saw the tour when he came over here for it...
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Forgot to add: the humbucker on the P looks like a regular guitar humbucker to me.
The coil closest to the neck looks like it only has four pole pieces to me, like a single coil Precision pickup. Seems like an amateur's Frankenstein experiment.
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The coil closest to the neck looks like it only has four pole pieces to me, like a single coil Precision pickup. Seems like an amateur's Frankenstein experiment.
Typically, humbuckers with three adjustment screws are Schallers, but I can't find any that look like this one.
(https://i.imgur.com/EHNPil4.jpg)
Maybe...
(https://i.imgur.com/nJ36d0x.jpg)
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I have a theory that it might be a Guild bass humbucker, without the chrome cover. I'm thinking of the pickup that replaced the Bisonics in Guild instruments.
What makes me think it might be one is the 2 + 1 screw arrangement, the row of screw pole pieces and the row of flat, rectangular poles. Also the pole spacing is tighter on the Nutz humbucker than the string spacing, even down at the end of the neck of a Fender bass. This is consistent with the tighter string spacing of Guild basses.
Here is a naked Guild pickup, as bodged into a Peavey bass:
(https://i.imgur.com/NrGPnoB.jpg)
The problem here is that I've only ever seen these pickups with cream flatwork, whereas the Nutz pickup is clearly black. The poles also look bigger on the Guild pickup than on the Nutz bass. At a push the modder sprayed the pickup black to make it stand out less, and there is overspray on the poles.
(https://i.imgur.com/hY45gwc.png)
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I have a theory that it might be a Guild bass humbucker, without the chrome cover. I'm thinking of the pickup that replaced the Bisonics in Guild instruments.
What makes me think it might be one is the 2 + 1 screw arrangement, the row of screw pole pieces and the row of flat, rectangular poles. Also the pole spacing is tighter on the Nutz humbucker than the string spacing, even down at the end of the neck of a Fender bass. This is consistent with the tighter string spacing of Guild basses.
Here is a naked Guild pickup, as bodged into a Peavey bass:
(https://i.imgur.com/NrGPnoB.jpg)
The problem here is that I've only ever seen these pickups with cream flatwork, whereas the Nutz pickup is clearly black. The poles also look bigger on the Guild pickup than on the Nutz bass. At a push the modder sprayed the pickup black to make it stand out less, and there is overspray on the poles.
(https://i.imgur.com/hY45gwc.png)
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I think you've got it. It looks like the black paint is wearing off the end of the bobbin on the E string side. I think the reason the pole pieces look bigger on the Guild is the angle that the photo was shot at. We're seeing some of the side of the screw head, which makes it look bigger.
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Yeah the paint wear makes sense. It looks like there is some cream showing under the A string on the slug coil as well. 8)
I like a bit of detective work! :mrgreen:
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Makes sense. I think you've solved it.
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:toast:
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And then there's some things known primarily to us Northern NJ natives who attended high school dances in the 70s...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwl3bvOqM68&ab_channel=Dabbitt353
OMGosh!!! I had heard of Ezra as a band of Joe's formative years, but never heard any of their music much less seen footage!!! His quote "we played Deep Purple covers and type music with Ezra" I always took with a grain of salt, catering to his later career as if he was "chosen". Turns out now, he was right! I'm baffled. A (pre-)historic artefact, no less. Vielen Dank fürs posten!
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I did buy the album, may still be upstairs somewhere :P
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0ZFfsV1pOo
Be honest, only because that French maid cover appealed to your inner yearnings!!!
I bought Runaways records for the guitar solos of course.
(http://heartlandrecords.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/runaways-the-runaways-live-lp-front.jpg)
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Be honest, only because that French maid cover appealed to your inner yearnings!!!
I bought Runaways records for the guitar solos of course.
(http://heartlandrecords.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/runaways-the-runaways-live-lp-front.jpg)
The album cover certainly encouraged my purchase! :-* I actually did hear "As far as the eye can see" on Seattle FM first though, my parents quit looking through my albums right after Alice Cooper's "School's Out" ;) though, so no trouble on that front!
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OMGosh!!! I had heard of Ezra as a band of Joe's formative years, but never heard any of their music much less seen footage!!! His quote "we played Deep Purple covers and type music with Ezra" I always took with a grain of salt, catering to his later career as if he was "chosen". Turns out now, he was right! I'm baffled. A (pre-)historic artefact, no less. Vielen Dank fürs posten!
Both Joe's boyhood home and the one he bought with his Rainbow earnings (his ex and daughter still live there) are about a mile or so from where I grew up, so his visage was a familiar one for some of us locals. Prior to Ezra, he had a brief stint in another local band called Fillet of Soul who rehearsed down the street from me at the drummer's house - although Joe was not in the band at that point. I briefly dated his cousin in high school and several kids had Ezra promo pics inside their lockers along with the de rigueur Led Zeppelin and Bowie. Over the years I have run into him in odd places, like the auto repair shop where I worked. Even now, when he plays in the area, the shows are as much a family reunion as they are a gig. My wife was, and is, a big fan, so we almost always wind up attending - even though the set lists have been pretty much burned into our brains by now. None of this, of course, was helped by the fact that I was friendly with a hotshot local guitarist who as a teenager was the biggest Blackmore / Purple / Rainbow fanatic I have ever known - yes, even bigger than you, Uwe.
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Your life goes kinda in circles, doesn't it? :-X :mrgreen:
Joelene has received a lot of stick - from Purple fans too (or even mainly) -, but I've never seen her sing badly at a gig. And Slaves & Masters is really underrated in the Purple canon IMHO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sb4jIXnY1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYhVPjzH2EA
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OMGosh!!! I had heard of Ezra as a band of Joe's formative years, but never heard any of their music much less seen footage!!! His quote "we played Deep Purple covers and type music with Ezra" I always took with a grain of salt, catering to his later career as if he was "chosen". Turns out now, he was right! I'm baffled. A (pre-)historic artefact, no less. Vielen Dank fürs posten!
There is a 'cover' of Rondo by The Nice in there!
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Your life goes kinda in circles, doesn't it?
You have no idea how much, lol.