Did Malcolm Foster play Lefay basses?

[Thomas P]

Hi guys
Malcolm Foster played with Simple Minds among other on their
"Good news from the next world" album and subsequent tour.
The song "The band played on" track 6 on the album, has a very
characteristic powerful growling bass sound that always inspired me.
Digging through Youtube I've found and old live recording in which he
plays a headless bass with this same characteristic sound.
It does look very much like a Lefay Pangton with its quite unique shape.
So, is it a wenge body, padouk neck bass that I'm hearing, as that's what the
old Pangtons were made of?
And, if someone has a 5 string bass for sale that has this characteristic growl, I'd be interested.

Regards

Thomas

 

[ped]

Certainly looks like one to me. Fantastic instruments. We have a few members who own these. From what I recall they are fairly heavy but sound incredible. I really like LeFay instruments in general. 

[Hellzero]

It's indeed an old LeFay Pangton headless. The growl is mainly due to the padauk neck. I had a few basses with padauk necks (Leduc Maurad 4, Leduc Pad 5, Leduc Pad Rock 5, another Leduc Maurad 4 and a LeFay Herr Schwarz 5 that I still own). Add also the extraordinary ergonomics of the LeFay basses and their own pickups branded Rough Crystal and you'll be growling forever...

Mine is an early one totally passive with 28 different pickups combinations in single, parallel and series modes (very clever design) and two tones with two different capacitors usable simultaneously...

See pictures below.

The rest by PM.

Edited November 19, 2017 by Hellzero

[Hellzero]