HW: Lemmy's six-string

Doug Pearson jasret at MINDSPRING.COM
Wed Mar 20 16:12:51 EST 2002


Thanks for the additional information, warning: nit-picky Rickenbacker bass
trivia follows ...

On Wed, 20 Mar 2002 18:25:11 -0000, Captain Bl at ck <starfield at SUPANET.COM>
wrote:
>True, Lemmy's first bass was a Hopf (courtesy of London Airport), which he
>loved, but was one of several items nicked from the band sometime in 1972.

Any idea if he would have been playing that one on the 'Greasy Truckers'
recordings, since those were done after he'd only been in the band for a
few weeks?

>His first Rickenbacker was a Red 4000,

Do any pictures of this one exist?  I don't recall seeing one with a two
knob bass (4000 = 1 pickup, 2 knobs, no switch; 4001/4001s = 2 pickups, 4
knobs, 1 switch), but I could be mistaken.  His bass in the Space Ritual
photos looks black (but it's tough to tell under the lighting) with 4 knobs
IIRC.  He seems to have only very rarely used a "standard" 4001; I've
mostly seen photos with the 4001s [or possibly 4000] model - 4000/4001s =
fretboard dots, no binding; 4001 "standard" = triangle markers on
fretboard, binding on body & neck.)

>customised (of course) with a second pick-up,

... from a Gibson Thunderbird (60s-era single-coil, not 70s/later-era
humbucker), I believe he's mentioned that a few times (and actually played
a T-Bird during the 'Warrior' era - the distinctive headstock - nothing
like a Rickenbacker's - can be recognized in many photos, even in
silhouette on the 'Warrior' inner sleeve) ...

    -Doug
     jasret at mindspring.com



More information about the boc-l mailing list