GEAR SETUP JAMERSON’S BASS RIG When he graduated from high school, Jamerson bought a German upright acoustic bass, which he played for the rest of his life. He bought a refinished black 57 P-Bass (Fender Precision Bass®) from a friend in 1960, replacing it, when it was stolen, with an early Sixties sunburst model. When that bass was likewise stolen he purchased a 62 sunburst P- Bass, nicknamed the Funk Machine, that he owned up until it too was taken just before he died. Over the years, he exerimented with a 5-string Fender and an 8-string Hagstrom, as well as a fretless model. His string choice consisted of LaBella, heavy gauge flatwound strings. An Ampeg B-15 and a blue Naugahyde Kustom were his two regular gigging amps. With few exceptions, Jamerson always recorded directly into the board at Motown. THE FUNK MACHINE Jamerson played three Fender bass® guitars throughout his life, but the one that we hear on most of those Motown recordings is a 1962 Fender P-Bass with a sunburst finish. On the heel of the basss neck, Jamerson had carved the word funk into the wood, and the guitar that produced more hits than any other in history was officially dubbed the Funk Machine. To most other musicians, that bass was unplayable. Jamerson kept his action very high, and his neck was bowed due to lack of truss rod maintenance. He rarely cleaned his guitar, and he never cleaned the fretboard. To Jamerson, the sweat and dirt on the bass was the secret of his sound, the essence of the funk. Just days before Jamerson died in 1983, the Funk Machine was stolen from his house. To this day, it still has not resurfaced. There are stories of bassists who stumble across a 62 P-Bass in pawn shops who then take them home and unscrew the neck plate, hoping to find the word funk. Its become a legend -- the holy grail of all basses.
Posted on: Fri, 03 Oct 2014 04:29:32 +0000
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