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Posted

Edgar Winter bassist and songwriter Dan Hartman (who played on Edgar Winter's monster rock hit "Frankenstein" from 1973) designed this $5000 silver “Bass Suit” in 1974. 

 

The controls are on the sleeve attached to an aluminum plate. The guitar neck ends in a Crescent Moon and the suit itself has moons on it.

 

“The bass suit was actually one of the first cordless guitars in existence, and I invented it. It was built right into this silver bodysuit so it looked as though the bass was coming out of my body, and the volume and tone knobs were on the sleeve.”

 

“When it worked it was great, but the tunings were a little strange, plus I can’t tell you how many times I got shocked. It wound up being just one more thing that we had to worry about on tour: ‘Well, I wonder if this will work tonight.’ After a while I couldn’t stand wearing it anymore so I gave it up.”

FB_IMG_1712066464239.jpg

Posted

It was 1974, so of course it looks ridiculous. But it was part of the show and the entertainment,  and as long as the audience had a good time that's the main thing.

 

I wouldn't wear it for the worship band on a Sunday mind you! 🤣

Posted

It's utterly stupid.

 

If he had the treble pickup sided closer to the neck, instead of the bass side pickup, he'd have a much more even tonal palette.

  • Haha 2
Posted (edited)

No more stupid than grown men having alter ego’s and daft costumes (Kiss) covering themselves in flour and dressing like steam punk cowboys (Nephilim) getting all pretentious about mime (Bowie) pretending to be gangsters still when they attend business meetings and have property portfolios and live in the most affluent parts of LA rather than carrying guns in Compton (too many to mention).

 

Why not?

Edited by tegs07
  • Like 1
Posted

Is there any live footage of this contraption? I can only find the studio photographer shots, and I wonder if it turned out so impractical that it didn't make it out on gigs that much. It is ridiculous, but the band at the time were all about that campy over-the-top performance style and it kind of fits.

Posted

The inspiration for MDP's fanned tuners.

 

  On 03/04/2024 at 08:14, Angel said:

Wow, I had to do an instant replay on that image.

 

Looks a complete ****.

Bit worried about where one sticks the input jack. 

Expand  

Good job it was wireless then!

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