Re[2]: misc. things

["Kevin Winn" <kwinn@chrome.com>]

}       3. I have a snapshot of them onstage in Detroit (probably Cobo Hall) 
}       sometime around '68, and Entwistle has a bass with one of the most 
}       peculiarly designed bodies I've ever seen. I can't recall seeing any 
}       other photos of this beauty. I can't draw the shape of it here in 
}       cc:Mail, but it was fairly small, black finish, with the outer edge 
}       highlit in a light yellow or pale orange, maybe white trim. The 
}       general shape is sort of...hmmm...how to describe this...a tight curve 
}       down at the lower edge nearest the plug and volume/tone knobs, and 
}       very little else around to the neck intersection, only a very small 
}       cutaway 'horn' by the underside of the neck. Looks vaguely like the 
}       silhouette of a large conch shell. Kinda like a weird variation on the 
}       old Vox teardrop body, but smaller than that. Anybody know this one? 
}       (Now that I'm thinking about this, I believe I DO have another photo 
}       of it, also onstage in the US, ca. '67-'68.) The headstock was pretty 
}       similar to the standard Fender Jazz Bass shape, as I recall.
}       

>John Alec has a particularly fabulous collection of basses/guitars.  Check
>out the "Tommy" movie to see at least one of them.  I think some of this
>was in his interview with Guitar Player magazine, which I'm pretty sure
>I still have in a box somewhere...

>I'll have to see if I can dig up the reference (the interview in Gary
>Herman's book? Guitar Player?), but it's my recollection that John used to
>use Gibson Firebird basses a lot (I think that's the name).  This was a
>Fender Jazz Bass body with Gibson pickups.

I'm not sure about the "conch" bass, but the bass that Mike is referring to is
a Thunderbird, which Gibson made in the early 60's.  "Firebird" is the guitar
version of the T'bird.  Thunderbirds were VERY long-necked basses (I stand
a little under 6 feet, and my T'bird measured up to my shoulder) with a
Fender-ish headstock, and a small dark body that looked like a rounded version
of the Alembic bass the Ent used exclusively in the late 70's.  They had a
characteristic deep boom and incredible sustain, while maintaning a very crisp
treble-y sound.  Ent used these a lot in the late 60's and early 70's.  It
doesn't sound like the "conch" bass described at the top, though.

For a great view of a lot of Entwistle's basses, check out the TKAA clip of
"Success Story."

Being a bassist and Entwistle worshipper (usually the same thing), I'll check
my resources to try to come up with the bass in question.


OK,
KLW