Black Sabbath basses

[Graham]

Anyone know what basses Geezer used to record each Sabbath album? Was listening to Volume 4 earlier and got thinking about the different tones he seemed to have on each record and which I liked the most (Paranoid) and started wondering what bass he used on each one.

He seems to change quite frequently, so I have no idea what he played on which album except it looks like he recorded the first album with a Precision from the sleeve notes.

[Dingus]

Geezer started out playing a Precision on the first three albums, but by Vol 4 I think he was using a Dan Armstrong plexiglass bass.

Later in the mid 1970's Geezer started using custom Martin Birch and JayDee basses, then switched to BC Rich Eagle basses at the very end of that decade for the Heaven and Hell/ Mob Rules era stuff . By the late 1980's he was rocking Spector NS2 basses, then used Vigier Excess and Passion basses throughout the 1990's, before discovering the Lakland basses in the early 2000's Bob Glaub PJ and, Joe Osborn) he uses as his touring basses up to the present day. Lakland have just released the new Geezer Butler signature model, essentially a Precision -style ( or optional PJ) bass featuring Geezer's own signature EMG pickups .

Geezer often records with a selection of his vintage Fenders.

[Dingus]

I used to know Geezer Butler's cleaning lady. She didn't know anything about basses, though.

Edited February 12, 2014 by Dingus

[Ou7shined]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1392231308' post='2366286']
I used to know Geezer Butler's cleaning lady. She didn't know anything about basses, though.
[/quote]

Did she use and iron man?

[Truckstop]

Nice

[Dingus]

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1392231469' post='2366288']
Did she use and iron man?
[/quote]

Poor, but great at the same time.

[Graham]

Thanks for that comprehensive reply Dingus :-)

Interesting he played Precisions for the first three albums, I'd have guessed Master Of Reality was something else, particularly as I really dislike his tone on that record.

[Dingus]

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1392233738' post='2366332']
Thanks for that comprehensive reply Dingus :-)

Interesting he played Precisions for the first three albums, I'd have guessed Master Of Reality was something else, particularly as I really dislike his tone on that record.
[/quote]

He was definitely using his Precision up to about 1971/ early 72, when his main bass got smashed at Toronto International airport and he bought Dan Armstrong as a hasty replacement . .

I've played one of his old BC Rich Eagle basses when it was for sale in a shop , and it was awful, with a neck like a tree trunk.

Edited February 12, 2014 by Dingus

[Graham]

Oh aye, I'm sure you're right, I'd just thought before - "there's no way that can be a Precision" when listening to MOR, strange the things we can convince ourselves of.

[basshead56]

[quote name='Ou7shined' timestamp='1392231469' post='2366288']
Did she use and iron man?
[/quote]

Surely it's Mop Rules?!

I'll get me coat...

[Gust0o]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1392234071' post='2366339']
I've played one of his old BC Rich Eagle basses when it was for sale in a shop , and it was awful, with a neck like a tree trunk.
[/quote]

They've got a Precision-a-like neck. Shame, brilliant basses - but horses for courses. One man's gravy is another man's jus, ad nauseum.

[Dingus]

[quote name='Gust0o' timestamp='1392236821' post='2366393']
They've got a Precision-a-like neck. Shame, brilliant basses - but horses for courses. One man's gravy is another man's jus, ad nauseum.
[/quote]

They were ( and still are) iconic basses as far as I am concerned.

Geezer's BC Rich bases were custom-made for him by Bernie Rico personally after Geezer visited the factory in L.A, so it is quite probable that this bass had a custom extra- chunky neck profile at Geezer's request , and was not typical of all Eagle basses.

[Dingus]

[quote name='basshead56' timestamp='1392236107' post='2366380']
Surely it's Mop Rules?!

I'll get me coat...
[/quote]

Again, poor, but I like it!

[ash]

Geezer used John Birch basses that looked a little like a certain US brand..... Tony Iommi also used John Birch SG type guitars. Made just down the road in Staffordshire.

[White Cloud]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1392234071' post='2366339']
I've played one of his old BC Rich Eagle basses when it was for sale in a shop , and it was awful, with a neck like a tree trunk.
[/quote]
Wow! Those basses really inspired me in a big way at the time. I'd have loved to have played that bass.

[Skybone]

IIRC, in the original vinyl version of Vol 4, with the booklet inside, Geezer's pictured using a plexi Dan Armstrong. In the Live in Paris video's (circa '70) he's using a Precision, whereas in the Never Say Die video 9circa '79), he's using a Fireglo 4001. He's used a lot of different basses over the years.

In numerous interviews, he's always said that his "old faithful" go to bass was a Precision, until he started using the Lakland's.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

The first three Sabbath albums are the masterclass in Geezer-style. It helps that he's right up in the mix too. MoR is still the Precision, we're just not used to hearing P basses with flats being drop tuned to C#, so no wonder it sounds odd!
From Vol 4 onwards his tone changes to something warmer and more indistinct - probably due to the ever more complex productions and multi-tracked guitar parts.
That said, my favourite Sabbath album of all is Sabotage.

[Silvia Bluejay]

Fantastic thread for a Sabbath fan. Thanks, all

[JPJ]

Didn't he at one time use a certain brand of american bass that isn't mentioned on here which he swapped a precision for with Glen Hughes of Deep Purple or did I dream that (I have strange dreams)

[Immo]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1392231208' post='2366281']
Geezer started out playing a Precision on the first three albums (...)
[/quote]
Oooh, so THAT'S WHY I love those most

[Dingus]

[quote name='Gust0o' timestamp='1392236821' post='2366393']
They've got a Precision-a-like neck. Shame, brilliant basses - but horses for courses. One man's gravy is another man's jus, ad nauseum.
[/quote]

It's worth mentioning that this bass that had belonged to Geezer had been very well -used ( absolutely hammered, in fact), so wasn't in the best overall fettle . I suppose that is what heavy touring does. I have played other Eagles in the past that were much better and much more easy to play than Geezers. There were a pair I saw for sale in Atlanta a couple of years ago that were phenomenal, one from 1979 and the other from 1980. The quality and craftsmanship on those basses is of the very highest order, and they have help up very well.

I have played a few "celebrity" owned basses over the years , and it was very noticeable that, by most ordinary people's standards, they had all been trashed mercilessly. Ex- big name players instruments really are the bass guitar equivalent of an ex-hire car.

[Dingus]

[quote name='White Cloud' timestamp='1392287001' post='2366731']
Wow! Those basses really inspired me in a big way at the time. I'd have loved to have played that bass.
[/quote]

Yes, I was pretty awed just by seeing that bass in the flesh and thinking that it was the one that Geezer played so brilliantly on those couple of albums . I think it will have been sometime around 1990 and the Bass Centre wanted about £600 for it !

I remember only too well what a special band Sabbath were to me and my friends when we were young, and the first Sabbath concerts I ever went to were on the Heaven and Hell tour when Geezer was playing that bass. I remember my friends and I waiting outside Black Sabbath's hotel on the afternoon of the concert to try and get their autograph and what must have been Geezer Butlers bass tech getting out of a car with a pair of Zero Haliburton aluminium flight cases which must have had those BC Rich bases in them and walking into the hotel reception . Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet Geezer that day, and still haven't met him yet, despite my hotline to him via his cleaner, but did have a memorable encounter with Tony Iommi who turned out to be a lovely bloke .

Basses like that BC Rich were completely beyond the reach of mere mortals back in the day, for all kinds of reasons. Yes, they were very expensive ( I seem to remember that a BC Rich bass would have cost around the £1000 in the late 1970's , and that was a huge amount of money for a bass in those days) , but also the world was not the global marketplace it is now. Today, you could look on the internet, email people, or pick up the phone and call a builder or retailer anywhere in the world and order any bass that took your fancy and not think twice about it, providing you have the money . There is so much more information readily available about whatever bass you want to buy, and about how you can go about buying it. Buying consumer goods directly from overseas was practically unheard of for most people in those days.

You only need to look on Basschat to see that there are lots of people in the U.K that have got some very nice basses from the top end of the market. Back in the late Seventies, that was not the case, and esoteric basses like BC Rich or Alembic were very much the prerogative of successful professional players who bought them in the States. For the most part such instruments were just not available to ordinary players in Britain. I seem to remember that you could get BC Rich guitars and basses to special order from one of the shops on Denmark Street / Shaftsbury Avenue , but they were not for the likes of folks like us. Probably the only ones in the country belonged to people like Geezer, Suzi Quatro and Neil Murray.

Edited February 13, 2014 by Dingus

[Dingus]

[quote name='Cosmo Valdemar' timestamp='1392295789' post='2366867']
The first three Sabbath albums are the masterclass in Geezer-style. It helps that he's right up in the mix too. MoR is still the Precision, we're just not used to hearing P basses with flats being drop tuned to C#, so no wonder it sounds odd!
From Vol 4 onwards his tone changes to something warmer and more indistinct - probably due to the ever more complex productions and multi-tracked guitar parts.
That said, my favourite Sabbath album of all is Sabotage.
[/quote]

I read an interview with Geezer where he said that he hates the bass sound on Volume 4 in particular. He said they were taking so much coke that he lost the plot a bit , and that their dodgy manager was having a hand in producing and mixing the record , despite the fact that he didn't have a clue about what he was doing , and the bass sound suffered as a result.

I personally think that Geezer's sound was all wrong after the Paranoid album, and didn't come back on song until Heaven And Hell. He seemed to spend most of the 1970's experimenting with one woolly and indistinct tone after another. Still a monumentally great player, nevertheless.

[Dingus]

[quote name='Skybone' timestamp='1392289163' post='2366763'] IIRC, in the original vinyl version of Vol 4, with the booklet inside, Geezer's pictured using a plexi Dan Armstrong. In the Live in Paris video's (circa '70) he's using a Precision, whereas in the Never Say Die video 9circa '79), he's using a Fireglo 4001. He's used a lot of different basses over the years. In numerous interviews, he's always said that his "old faithful" go to bass was a Precision, until he started using the Lakland's. [/quote]

Geezer bought the Dan Armstrong the day that his Precision was smashed in Canada because it was the only decent bass in the first shop they went to to find a replacement , and he needed something to do the gig with that night. He decided he like the Dan Armstrong, and used it until he got his custom Martin Birch bass for the Sabbath Bloody Sabbath -era stuff. He was certainly playing a white Martin Birch by the 1973 tour.

[Dingus]

[quote name='JPJ' timestamp='1392297400' post='2366904'] Didn't he at one time use a certain brand of american bass that isn't mentioned on here which he swapped a precision for with Glen Hughes of Deep Purple or did I dream that (I have strange dreams) [/quote]

Yes, although he says that the night that Never Say Die concert video was recorded was the only time he ever used that Rickenbacker, and he only did so that night because he had forgotten to bring his own bass , which was a custom black and white striped JayDee by that time ( 1978). .