Marshall Music Factory - Lemmy

[Suburban Man]

Maybe a little known fact, but the Marshall factory (Milton Keynes, Bucks) has a small 'museum' of amps, guitars etc in and around reception.

Although it is primarily for the guitar nerds, in amongst the Les Pauls and Bluesman amps are a few pieces of Bass memorabilia, with pride of place going to the irredeemably individual Lemmy.

 

[Dood]

As a teenager, my mum took my friend and I down to the Marshall factory for a tour. An experience that I will never forget as a wide eyed and impressionable young Dood! Jim may have been in that day but we didn't get to meet him (although I did get to meet him on numerous other occasions at guitar shows, so much so that he remembered my name!)

 

On the tour, back then, Marshall number 1 wasnt in a glass case and Production Manager (i think) Steve Yelding dumped it in my lap whilst we were rummaging through the piles of amplifers I could only ever dream of owning. A surreal moment, but there was an inevitability that I'd end up with an old Marshall amp at some point. I have a 68-69 Super Bass that makes all the right noises!

[Cosmo Valdemar]

I don't recognise the bass...

[Hellzero]

20 minutes ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

I don't recognise the bass...

It's Lemmy's Rickenbacker signature model.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

1 minute ago, Hellzero said:

It's Lemmy's Rickenbacker signature model.

I meant the real one!

[Suburban Man]

21 hours ago, Cosmo Valdemar said:

I don't recognise the bass...

It is Lemmy's own bass (allegedly, but why not?) the outline is slightly obscured by the strap hanging over it. I'm not a Rick afficionado, but I guess it was customised to what he wanted (three humbuckers, gold fittings), as opposed to the signature model which is, as you rightly point out, more decorative, but a distinctly different instrument.

As I was trying to find out where the bass came from I discovered that if you want a 'knock-off' Lemmy bass from Ali Express it will set you back a grand total of £413. Fine if you only want to hang it on the wall I suppose. 

[Cosmo Valdemar]

3 hours ago, Suburban Man said:

It is Lemmy's own bass (allegedly, but why not?) the outline is slightly obscured by the strap hanging over it. I'm not a Rick afficionado, but I guess it was customised to what he wanted (three humbuckers, gold fittings), as opposed to the signature model which is, as you rightly point out, more decorative, but a distinctly different instrument.

 

Are we looking at the same bass? 😆

I can see what looks like a standard Rickenbacker, two pickups, chrome hardware.

[tauzero]

6 hours ago, Suburban Man said:

As I was trying to find out where the bass came from I discovered that if you want a 'knock-off' Lemmy bass from Ali Express it will set you back a grand total of £413. Fine if you only want to hang it on the wall I suppose.

 

Why, what's wrong with it?

[Hellzero]

I've been tempted many times to buy the AliExpress Lemmy signature bass.

 

I'll certainly do it one day as I've always found it esthetically appealing and I had a lot of good surprises with these far East instruments.

 

Of course, even if I'm a fretless player mainly into jazz, Lemmy was my first bass inspiration and I've seen Motörhead so many times: It's always been a delight as his presence was so huge and different.