Can anyone tell me what instrument this is? (Steve Swallow's Fender Bass)

[L3onardo]

Hi

i'm Leonardo a young bass player from Italy. In these day i'm writing my thesis on the bassist and composer Steve Swallow. On internet i've found Steve with a strange bass.
Can anyone tell me what instrument this is?
The neck is fender but i don't have any information about the pickup and te body.

HELP!

 

[TOGNA]

https://www.talkbass.com/threads/name-the-bass.1506377/

 

[Low Main]

I worked on that bass at Steve's request around 1982-83.

The neck is a great P bass neck that Steve got from bassist Frank Gravis. Worthy of being the centerpiece of a custom build.

This was where I began to understand the critical importance of having a good neck.

Froc Filipetti was in charge of the build. It was his design and concept. He did the body and electronics. I made the individual wooden bridges for the piezo elements. I think the body was spruce and had hollow sections. Or at least had a spruce top.

My part was really fly by the seat of your pants. There was no established design and fabrication template for incorporating piezos into bass bridges at that time. Steve asked me to try a few things using different wood species to see what worked best. I never got a close look at the final finished bass. I saw it on the bandstand a couple of times at gigs. I think Froc may have used different bridge species for different strings. We tried wood species in densities from maple to African Blackwood (which is harder than you need to go). It was just practical bench testing, sort of like what Leo Fender used to do with his pickup testing setup. No math, no electrical engineering diagrams, physics, acoustics, etc. Just try stuff and find what works. Steve paid right along for the R&D time.

This all happened in and around Hartford where Froc and I both had shops at the time. This was before he became part of F Bass.

Froc is a great guitarist if you ever have a chance to hear him play. I think he's back on his own with a one man shop these days.

Really high level lutherie and musicianship with that guy. Multi talented cat.

I still make wooden bridge saddles and nuts for ABG's and piezo hollowbodies and all the nuts I make for electric basses are wood. Especially good for fretless. The goal is to take the twang out of the open G (or C) string so you can play lines in low positions and have the open notes sound like they belong with the others. Wood does the job.

I still have a big section of old Corian countertop which is three lifetimes worth of nut blanks and once every year or so, I make someone a Corian nut blank. But every time I machine that stuff I remind myself that I'm in no hurry to use it.

 

[winston]

Wow awesome timing I've just been watching Steve on Youtube today with Scofield and Gary Burton.
When I got into FBass around 2004 I noticed that the "F" logo was pretty much identical to the one I'd seen on Steve's Froc Filipetii bass featured in Guitar Player back in the day. And I see you were in Hartford - I grew up in Darien, CT.

Do you have any idea what the electronics were on the Fender here? I've been looking for a live video of "Holidays" from the Scofield trio for decades and finally came across it. One of my favorite bass solos ever. Steve's extended residence at the top of the neck show why it makes sense he moved to 5 string with high C in later years.


Thanks again!

 

[funkifiedsoul]

Wow awesome timing I've just been watching Steve on Youtube today with Scofield and Gary Burton.
When I got into FBass around 2004 I noticed that the "F" logo was pretty much identical to the one I'd seen on Steve's Froc Filipetii bass featured in Guitar Player back in the day. And I see you were in Hartford - I grew up in Darien, CT.

Do you have any idea what the electronics were on the Fender here? I've been looking for a live video of "Holidays" from the Scofield trio for decades and finally came across it. One of my favorite bass solos ever. Steve's extended residence at the top of the neck show why it makes sense he moved to 5 string with high C in later years.


Thanks again!

Ya, killer solo, and trio, thanks for sharing. I'm a big fan too, though not heard everything from before Bill Stewart's joining.

 

[H K]

I worked on that bass at Steve's request around 1982-83.

The neck is a great P bass neck that Steve got from bassist Frank Gravis. Worthy of being the centerpiece of a custom build.

This was where I began to understand the critical importance of having a good neck.

Froc Filipetti was in charge of the build. It was his design and concept. He did the body and electronics. I made the individual wooden bridges for the piezo elements. I think the body was spruce and had hollow sections. Or at least had a spruce top.

My part was really fly by the seat of your pants. There was no established design and fabrication template for incorporating piezos into bass bridges at that time. Steve asked me to try a few things using different wood species to see what worked best. I never got a close look at the final finished bass. I saw it on the bandstand a couple of times at gigs. I think Froc may have used different bridge species for different strings. We tried wood species in densities from maple to African Blackwood (which is harder than you need to go). It was just practical bench testing, sort of like what Leo Fender used to do with his pickup testing setup. No math, no electrical engineering diagrams, physics, acoustics, etc. Just try stuff and find what works. Steve paid right along for the R&D time.

This all happened in and around Hartford where Froc and I both had shops at the time. This was before he became part of F Bass.

Froc is a great guitarist if you ever have a chance to hear him play. I think he's back on his own with a one man shop these days.

Really high level lutherie and musicianship with that guy. Multi talented cat.

I still make wooden bridge saddles for ABG's and piezo hollowbodies and all the nuts I make for electric basses are wood. Especially good for fretless. The goal is to take the twang out of the open G (or C) string so you can play lines in low positions and have the open notes sound like they belong with the others. Wood does the job.

I still have a big section of old Corian countertop which is three lifetimes worth of nut blanks and once every year or so, I make someone a Corian nut blank. But every time I machine that stuff I remind myself that I'm in no hurry to use it.

WOW!

Looks like someone just found a goldmine for his thesis.

I'm so freaking thankful and amazed by TB some times. Thanks for the info Low Main

 

[SC Bassboy]

I worked on that bass at Steve's request around 1982-83.

The neck is a great P bass neck that Steve got from bassist Frank Gravis. Worthy of being the centerpiece of a custom build.

This was where I began to understand the critical importance of having a good neck.

Froc Filipetti was in charge of the build. It was his design and concept. He did the body and electronics. I made the individual wooden bridges for the piezo elements. I think the body was spruce and had hollow sections. Or at least had a spruce top.

My part was really fly by the seat of your pants. There was no established design and fabrication template for incorporating piezos into bass bridges at that time. Steve asked me to try a few things using different wood species to see what worked best. I never got a close look at the final finished bass. I saw it on the bandstand a couple of times at gigs. I think Froc may have used different bridge species for different strings. We tried wood species in densities from maple to African Blackwood (which is harder than you need to go). It was just practical bench testing, sort of like what Leo Fender used to do with his pickup testing setup. No math, no electrical engineering diagrams, physics, acoustics, etc. Just try stuff and find what works. Steve paid right along for the R&D time.

This all happened in and around Hartford where Froc and I both had shops at the time. This was before he became part of F Bass.

Froc is a great guitarist if you ever have a chance to hear him play. I think he's back on his own with a one man shop these days.

Really high level lutherie and musicianship with that guy. Multi talented cat.

I still make wooden bridge saddles for ABG's and piezo hollowbodies and all the nuts I make for electric basses are wood. Especially good for fretless. The goal is to take the twang out of the open G (or C) string so you can play lines in low positions and have the open notes sound like they belong with the others. Wood does the job.

I still have a big section of old Corian countertop which is three lifetimes worth of nut blanks and once every year or so, I make someone a Corian nut blank. But every time I machine that stuff I remind myself that I'm in no hurry to use it.

What kind of wood do you recommend for a fretless string nut? I might make one for both the ***** and the giggles. My fretless is made of alder with a maple neck and ebony fingerboard.

 

[Low Main]

I tried a lot of wood species for fretless nuts and could not get an open G string to ring well with the fingered notes.

I got down to wood as soft as red maple and that was still too bright on the G string.

I thought: I'm not going to do poplar - that's ridiculous. I thought of doing a segmented nut with one species for the E A and D strings and another for the G string but it seemed like more work than necessary if I could find a species that worked for all strings.

I thought about the wood properties I wanted, for the nut to have some density but not brightness and crispness.

Teak was the answer I'd been looking for. And the older the better. I had some old scraps that worked better than ordinary newer plantation teak.

But I'm mostly stringing fretless basses with flats. Players who use rounds may not get the sustain they want from open notes on the lower strings with teak.

You can always harden the nut slot for the E or A string with a careful wicking of CA glue if you need more liveliness and sustain at the low end.

 

[Low Main]

Do you have any idea what the electronics were on the Fender here?

I tried to get a good look at the bass during the video and never quite saw clearly what the components were.
It almost looks like a Leo Quan Bad@ss bridge and maybe a J pickup or something larger was routed in just ahead of it with a surrounding plate.
I never got to see that bass, either in Steve's hands or on the bench. Froc may know something about it.
I wonder if the neck for the Froc custom build came from that bass.
I can't see anything on the bass that tells me there are anything other than magnetic pickups being used.
Steve has had such an interesting gear journey over his career as an electric bassist that I hope someone archives or catalogs all the details sequentially.

 

[Low Main]

One thing to keep in mind when looking at the history of Steve's gear is that he was continually working on refining and tweaking his instrument and his sound. He had changes made to basses in the flow of his touring schedule so that if you looked at a chronological sequence of photos of his basses you'd be able to see the progression of the ongoing changes that were being made. It was a natural evolutionary process which seemed to continue after he began having custom 5 string builds done from the ground up by F Bass, Citron, et al. His never ending quest to reach the next rung on the playability and sound ladder. He did the same thing with picks. He tried a lot of different shapes and materials over the years. I made him some picks out of cross laminated ebony veneer which he liked, but they wore down quickly on his roundwound strings so he just used them for ballads.

All of this also means that if you looked at photos of his basses out of chronological sequence, it would be easy to get confused as to what was going on.

 

[Low Main]

Another thing I'm reminded of when watching the Scofield video that Winston posted is that around that time, Steve said he was deep into his relationship with the Bach cello suites, and I think you can hear that connection in his solo.

 

[L3onardo]

Ho lavorato su quel basso su richiesta di Steve intorno al 1982-83.

Il manico è un fantastico manico P bass che Steve ha preso dal bassista Frank Gravis. Degno di essere il fulcro di una build personalizzata.

Fu lì che cominciai a capire quanto fosse importante avere un buon collo.

Froc Filipetti era responsabile della costruzione. Era il suo design e il suo concept. Lui si è occupato del corpo e dell'elettronica. Io ho realizzato i singoli ponticelli in legno per gli elementi piezoelettrici. Penso che il corpo fosse in abete e avesse sezioni cave. O almeno aveva una parte superiore in abete.

La mia parte era davvero improvvisata. All'epoca non esisteva un modello di progettazione e fabbricazione consolidato per incorporare i piezo nei ponticelli dei bassi. Steve mi chiese di provare alcune cose usando diverse specie di legno per vedere cosa funzionava meglio. Non ho mai potuto guardare da vicino il basso finito finale. L'ho visto sul palco un paio di volte ai concerti. Penso che Froc possa aver usato diverse specie di ponticelli per corde diverse. Abbiamo provato specie di legno in densità dall'acero al blackwood africano (che è più difficile di quanto si debba fare). Era solo un test pratico al banco, un po' come quello che faceva Leo Fender con il suo setup di test dei pickup. Niente matematica, niente diagrammi di ingegneria elettrica, fisica, acustica, ecc. Prova semplicemente le cose e trova cosa funziona. Steve ha pagato subito per il tempo di ricerca e sviluppo.

Tutto questo è accaduto dentro e intorno a Hartford, dove Froc e io avevamo entrambi dei negozi all'epoca. Questo è stato prima che lui entrasse a far parte di F Bass.

Froc è un grande chitarrista, se mai avrai la possibilità di sentirlo suonare. Penso che sia tornato a lavorare da solo con un one man shop ultimamente.

Liuteria e musicalità di altissimo livello con quel tizio. Gatto dai molti talenti.

Continuo a realizzare sellette e capotasti in legno per ABG e piezo hollowbody e tutti i capotasti che realizzo per i bassi elettrici sono in legno. Particolarmente adatti per i fretless. L'obiettivo è di togliere il twang dalla corda Sol (o Do) aperta in modo da poter suonare linee in posizioni basse e far suonare le note aperte come se appartenessero alle altre. Il legno fa il suo lavoro.

Ho ancora una grande sezione di un vecchio piano di lavoro in Corian che equivale a tre vite di dadi grezzi e una volta all'anno circa, realizzo per qualcuno un dado grezzo in Corian. Ma ogni volta che lavoro a macchina quella roba, mi ricordo che non ho fretta di usarla.

LOW MAIN SEI IL MIO EROE! Grazie! TB è fantastico per questo tipo di lavoro.

 

[HaphAsSard]

LOW MAIN SEI IL MIO EROE! Grazie! TB è fantastico per questo tipo di lavoro.

(WHOA!
Sto avendo un ictus, o è a causa tua se tutt'a un tratto...ci vedo italico?)

 

[L3onardo]

(WHOA!
Sto avendo un ictus, o è a causa tua se tutt'a un tratto...ci vedo italico?)

hahaha ops! mi sa che mi sono fregato da solo con il traduttore automatico di google!

 

[Bob_Ross]

Steve's extended residence at the top of the neck show why it makes sense he moved to 5 string with high C in later years.

I recall reading an interview with Steve Swallow many years ago where he mentioned that he had become enamored of the specific register that male tenor vocalists sing in, and that's what caused him to gravitate towards basses with a high C string.

Fascinating guy, with a wholly unique approach to the electric bass.

 

[brianrost]

I played some of Froc’s basses in the early 80s (Steve’s was just Froc’s body with a P bass neck) and met him once at a jam session. He borrowed my bass and made my jaw drop with his playing, at least compared to my pathetic skills at the time. Sweet guy. I wanted to buy one of his basses, but the price was just out of my reach.

 

[ad9000]

I saw Swallow playing that bass with the Scofield trio at 55 Grand in NYC in 1983, and I if I remember correctly he was playing through a Walter Woods amp. It sounded great.
Many years later I got a chance to briefly play Swallow's Citron 5-string. It's clear in retrospect that the bass discussed here is conceptually on the road to the Citron.

 

[DJ Bebop]

Wow awesome timing I've just been watching Steve on Youtube today with Scofield and Gary Burton.
When I got into FBass around 2004 I noticed that the "F" logo was pretty much identical to the one I'd seen on Steve's Froc Filipetii bass featured in Guitar Player back in the day. And I see you were in Hartford - I grew up in Darien, CT.

Do you have any idea what the electronics were on the Fender here? I've been looking for a live video of "Holidays" from the Scofield trio for decades and finally came across it. One of my favorite bass solos ever. Steve's extended residence at the top of the neck show why it makes sense he moved to 5 string with high C in later years.


Thanks again!

My thoughts on electronics. I think they matter little with his style despite his deep dive into them. It’s more his picking style, IMO. Much like Phil Lesh to me, despite the various basses he has played on and amp combinations he's played through, he still sounds very much like Phil. The other stuff just adds a little color to the overall personal styling of the artist. Despite the brush used, a Monet is still a Monet.

Another thing, Sco! I first saw him live with the George Duke Billy Cobham Band in small-town America of Portland Oregon back in the 70s. I’ve been a believer ever since.

 

[Low Main]

I recall reading an interview with Steve Swallow many years ago where he mentioned that he had become enamored of the specific register that male tenor vocalists sing in, and that's what caused him to gravitate towards basses with a high C string.

Thank you for mentioning that. I happened to be on the phone with Steve when the news broke about the death of Marvin Gaye and it was devastating, as Marvin was one of Steve's principal male voice heroes.

 

[winston]

My thoughts on electronics. I think they matter little with his style despite his deep dive into them. It’s more his picking style, IMO. Much like Phil Lesh to me, despite the various basses he has played on and amp combinations he's played through, he still sounds very much like Phil. The other stuff just adds a little color to the overall personal styling of the artist. Despite the brush used, a Monet is still a Monet.

Another thing, Sco! I first saw him live with the George Duke Billy Cobham Band in small-town America of Portland Oregon back in the 70s. I’ve been a believer ever since.

I don't obsess on stuff like this, but hey if the person who worked on Steve's bass in the '80s has insight something I wondered about for 40 years, heck I'm gonna ask. And regarding Grateful Dead tone eras, I think Jerry Garcia never sounded better than the early '70s on Strats, and part of it had to do with how the tone made him feel/play. And the Beam not plugged into anything wouldn't sound the same...