James Jamerson - Fender Bass?

[itu]

1 hour ago, Vanheusen77 said:

From all accounts he was not a gear nerd at all. He just got out there and bought whatever bass that was the most functional and established electric bass that he could find.

1957-1960 JJ played a German upright. Stiff action.

 

Horace "Chili" Ruth persuaded JJ to try his refinished '57 (P) Black Beauty. After buying it, it was soon stolen from the trunk of his car.

 

The same happened to his sunburst P from the early 60's.

 

The Funk Machine was a stock, sunburst '62 P including the bell, the metal centrepiece, and the foam mute. JJ carved the word "Funk" to the heel of the neck. He filled it with blue ink. Neck had a substantial bow. The strings were heavy flat wounds from LaBella.

 

The Funk Machine was stolen few weeks prior his death.

 

JJ tried an 8-string Hagström (stolen in LA), one of the early Fender 5-strings, and a fretless, which he hated. The last one can be heard on Supremes' Someday, we'll be together.

 

He tried fx pedals but did not like them.

 

He had two amp setups. A B-15, sometimes with an extension cab. It was - stolen. For big venues he used a blue padded Kustom amp with two 15" speakers.

 

Family Jamerson still has the Kustom, the upright, and the Fender 5-string.

 

This is an abbreviation from the book: Standing in the shadows of Motown. Copyright 1989.

[diskwave]

Jamersons story is a damn sad one. Early 70's and everyone in LA where he'd moved to was getting into rounds for more snap and bite and I think was Chuck Rainey gave him a pack and he binned them.. it was from that point on that work dried up and his decline started. A signature P bass per se wouldnt be much good. It was a standard 60's P bass with around 5/16ths at the 12th....virtually unplayable but as an upright player he found it easy. 

[Vanheusen77]

Probably a lot of factors in his downfall. Ironically his sound has been very popular the last 25 years. 

[chris_b]

9 minutes ago, Vanheusen77 said:

Probably a lot of factors in his downfall. Ironically his sound has been very popular the last 25 years. 

 

err. . . . more like 60 years.

[diskwave]

On 26/07/2024 at 13:12, Baloney Balderdash said:

Any old Fender P Bass with a banana bend neck, with a relief of a couple of cm or so, and bridge suspension wires as strings, set with an action of about 2 cm or so as well, will do.

 

Also don't forget to only use a hooked index finger to pluck the strings.

 

Haha... and I dont fancy the pong in the store either with a bucket of old chicken fat smeared all over the board.."Its the grease that keeps the funk" or words so to speak. Quote from Jamerson.

 

Anyway just had a listen to Darling Dear....so busy but so darn musical...genius.

Edited July 29 by diskwave

[Reggaebass]

In all these years I never knew they did a Fender Custom Shop James Jamerson Precision Bass 

[Linus27]

1 hour ago, Reggaebass said:

In all these years I never knew they did a Fender Custom Shop James Jamerson Precision Bass 

 

Super rare but as already mentioned, the only difference over a standard US Precision is the neck plate and the strings.

[Linus27]

[bremen]

3 hours ago, chris_b said:

 

err. . . . more like 60 years.

I think he might have meant "popular again". For a while there, bass had to be metallic, or, even better; not from a bass guitar.

[Guest]

From a post on TB by someone who was working for that shop back then:

 

A few notes about Jason's Jaco Pastorius Signature Bass and James Jamerson Tribute Bass:

- These are both Fender Custom Shop basses, commissioned exclusively by The Bass Centre (Studio City, CA)

- Less than 50 of each of these basses were produced (the number is likely closer to 35)

- They are the first "Signature" basses ever produced by Fender

[Guest]

Number 007 sold on Reverb for a quarter of this asking price

 

https://reverb.com/uk/item/1870497-fender-custom-shop-james-jamerson-precision-bass-sunburst-1990-s007

[basskit_case]

42 minutes ago, Munurmunuh said:

Number 007 sold on Reverb for a quarter of this asking price

 

https://reverb.com/uk/item/1870497-fender-custom-shop-james-jamerson-precision-bass-sunburst-1990-s007

The listing is 8 years old, so price may well be north of that by now

[mikeswals]

On 29/07/2024 at 14:22, Munurmunuh said:

From a post on TB by someone who was working for that shop back then:

 

A few notes about Jason's Jaco Pastorius Signature Bass and James Jamerson Tribute Bass:

- These are both Fender Custom Shop basses, commissioned exclusively by The Bass Centre (Studio City, CA)

- Less than 50 of each of these basses were produced (the number is likely closer to 35)

- They are the first "Signature" basses ever produced by Fender

Yes, this report was from the former Bass Centre LA store manager. He's a member there on TB.

I used to frequent that store back then as it was only a couple hours drive for me if we wanted to go see the good stuff, and I remember seeing these 'Tribute' basses there. They weren't called signatures back then....the whole sig thing hadn't taken off til several years later.