Bill Wyman's Steel Wheels rig

Dave W · June 16, 2020, 06:08:05 PM

Up for auction

Unfortunately I'm a few dollars short of the pre-auction estimate.

Highlander · June 17, 2020, 12:48:18 AM

A snip...

uwe · June 19, 2020, 11:12:29 AM

Way to go.

It's what I always say: speaker membrane area, cylinder capacity & penis length. Three phenomena of nature & physics where "less is more" simply doesn't apply. A silly concept.

Psycho Bass Guy · June 22, 2020, 07:51:36 AM

That's not that crazy of a rig, especially for 80's era Stones. PA's didn't do all the heavy lifting then, especially for stage fill. Given the quality of 80's live mixes and PA gear, it might have made him audible.

slinkp · June 22, 2020, 11:15:19 AM

Am I missing something?
I see mention of one 18, two 15s, two 10s, and four 6" speakers.
And two Mesa amps to drive it all. That doesn't sound colossal. Big by my standards, sure.
But it's no Entwistle rig, or even any number of bands of the details that played stadiums using multiple SVT fridge cabs.

uwe · June 23, 2020, 04:33:49 PM

Audibility was never that high on Bill's agenda - but you noticed it when he wasn't there.

Basvarken · June 24, 2020, 04:46:37 AM

Quotebut you noticed it when he wasn't there.

Isn't that the case with almost all bass players?

Dave W · September 15, 2020, 03:06:24 PM

This auction was scheduled for tomorrow but there was another auction of his gear over the weekend: Bill Wyman Auction Breaks Records for Highest Selling Bass Guitar, Amplifier

$384K for his '69 Mustang.

$704K for a '68 LP Goldtop used by Brian Jones.

ilan · September 16, 2020, 12:31:12 AM

Quote from: Dave W on September 15, 2020, 03:06:24 PM
$384K for his '69 Mustang. $704K for a '68 LP Goldtop used by Brian Jones.

I don't get how the Mustang fetched 7.5 times more than his Framus Star bass.

Dave W · September 16, 2020, 11:28:35 PM

I don't either, it's definitely less important to his work historically than the Framus. IIRC he didn't even like it that much. At least two people must have wanted it badly enough to get into a bidding war.

uwe · September 17, 2020, 11:34:58 AM

Poor guy. Never ever got to play a decent bass. Jagger & Richards were a bunch of misers.

slinkp · September 17, 2020, 04:04:38 PM

Quote from: uwe on September 17, 2020, 11:34:58 AM
Poor guy. Never ever got to play a decent bass. Jagger & Richards were a bunch of misers.

Sure he did!

Dave W · September 18, 2020, 12:21:57 AM

Quote from: uwe on September 17, 2020, 11:34:58 AM
Poor guy. Never ever got to play a decent bass. Jagger & Richards were a bunch of misers.

He did play an EB3 for a while. IIRC it was a '67.

ilan · September 18, 2020, 01:35:35 AM

Quote from: slinkp on September 17, 2020, 04:04:38 PM
Sure he did!

That's probably the one they chopped 2 frets off the neck to make it a short scale.

uwe · September 18, 2020, 05:46:37 AM

Quote from: Dave W on September 18, 2020, 12:21:57 AM
He did play an EB3 for a while. IIRC it was a '67.

Yup, though not in the 60ies. It was a good bit later, EB-3s had already gone out of fashion by then (yet golden nail polish with men was apparently all the rage):

No idea whether it was used on the actual sessions for Goats Head Soup (an album I like for its sheer over-saturated decadence, I'm not an Exile on Main Street fan at all, sorry all you Stones fans) though the bass on Angie sounds like it could have been an EB-3 (the audio sounds like pick playing to me, but Bill fingers in the vid). OTOH, Bill was really good at dialing in that same nondescript and plain sound no matter what brand of bass he played.

(Not a knock, I like his bass playing, but much like John Deacon of Queen he was never obsessed with having an individual instrument sound.)

I once read that he didn't like the EB-3 at all and ditched it after a US tour. If you are not going for an overdriven/distorted sound nor for the brittle plonk of the minibucker, an EB-3 does not exactly enhance your audibility on stadium and arena stages.