Entwistle basses at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC

slinkp · May 19, 2019, 04:05:20 PM

There's an exhibit up now called "Play it Loud". Exhibiting mostly famous instruments from the past 60 years of popular music. The cool thing is that you can see them from inches away (behind glass). Very heavy on guitars of course, but there was a bass section and I thought some of you might like to see a few familiar Ox axes...
I'll post more later but for starters here's a Quadrophenia-era bird, supposedly one that gigged a fair amount.

wellREDman · May 19, 2019, 05:27:10 PM

which metropolitan museum?

slinkp · May 19, 2019, 06:27:06 PM

Oops. Fixed the subject. The Met in NYC. Now through October 1.
https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2019/play-it-loud

wellREDman · May 19, 2019, 10:34:43 PM

wow, just wow

Dave W · May 19, 2019, 11:51:24 PM

Too bad it's not a traveling exhibit.

slinkp · May 20, 2019, 06:38:54 AM

Here's the My Generation jazz bass in shockingly good condition next to his first Alembic.

And here's the "Trick of the Light" 8-string Alembic.
What struck me is a) those pickups are huge and b) this thing looks like a beast to play... wide neck!

Speaking of shockingly good condition. Although the kick drums were not original, those are "lost, possibly destroyed".

What's this? A bit of a broken guitar? Ho hum. Why would that be in a museum?

slinkp · May 20, 2019, 06:43:57 AM

slinkp · May 20, 2019, 06:47:15 AM

And then there's this. What idiot would hack up a perfectly good guitar this way?
Clearly nobody with a future in music, that's for sure.

gearHed289 · May 20, 2019, 10:26:39 AM

Cool pics, thanks for sharing. I recognize that 'bird with the mismatched knob from his book. Same with the My Generation bass and the Alembics.

FrankieTbird · May 20, 2019, 03:32:04 PM

I'm gonna be up there in July, gonna hafta go check it out. I hear they also have several Jimmy Page guitars, including his #1 LP.

slinkp · May 20, 2019, 05:37:01 PM

Quote from: FrankieTbird on May 20, 2019, 03:32:04 PM
I'm gonna be up there in July, gonna hafta go check it out. I hear they also have several Jimmy Page guitars, including his #1 LP.

They do! For some reason I didn't get a pic of the LP, the tele, or the silvertone, but I did get this:

Chris P. · May 21, 2019, 02:51:27 AM

Nice!

I played two of JEAs 8-strings. A Warwick Buzzard and an Alembic. Very wide necks!

Alanko · May 26, 2019, 02:40:53 PM

Looks like cool exhibition. Nice to see the fragment of Jimi Hendrix's Monterey guitar. The Fender CS reissues of that guitar have quite a solid, steady paintjob on them, whereas Jimi's own looks a bit roughshod and feverishly applied. That is an eye-opener for me.

That Thunderbird with the mismatched gold speedknob was in a book I had as a kid, simply as an example of the type. John wasn't mentioned at all.

The Jazz Bass is another interesting find. The white pickguard is unusual. Weren't Fender all about tortoiseshell back then?

Right enough! I wonder if the chrome pickup cover ended up on Frankenstein.

slinkp · May 26, 2019, 03:07:45 PM

The bird with the mismatched knob appears to be the same one at the top of this page about John's gear:
http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/bass/bass7174.html

... yep. The serial number given on that page (160065) matches the one in the museum exhibit listing online:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/810992?&exhibitionId=%7bd4024ef6-623f-4770-a626-a38b90c25b64%7d&oid=810992&pkgids=569&pg=0&rpp=100&pos=147&ft=*&offset=100

They have a page like that for each of the instruments exhibited, it's a fun browse.

uwe · August 26, 2019, 08:05:57 AM

Quote from: slinkp on May 20, 2019, 06:47:15 AM
And then there's this. What idiot would hack up a perfectly good guitar this way?
Clearly nobody with a future in music, that's for sure.

I have a hunch that a Dutchman was behind this mad and wanton destruction. IIRC he created noises by tapping the strings from above rather than picking them - weird. Edward Tappinghands.