Phil Lesh101 wrote:I Dont understand "John K. BAss" He Played a Fender Jazz and A Cort bass they didnt Mix With eachother
Not quite correct - he most often used a Fender P in the 70's although there's a pic or two of him with a Travis Bean bass in 1977, and a few other oddball basses. His first Ps were stock and then in 1978-1981 he had a 1958 sunburst P with a DiMarzio pickup and Leo Quan Badass II bridge. Then in the 1982-83 he used a G&L L2000 - you can definitely pick this one out on the recordings, very aggressive tone. Then from 1986-1995 he used a headless/bodyless Steinberger L2, probably the one you're thinking is a Cort?
My goal was to put together one bass that covers the tones of all of his basses. I've settled for now on just a regular Fender Highway One P, with flatwound strings and a Sadowsky 2-band preamp installed onboard. The preamp is boost-only, treble and bass, so I can turn them all the way down for a stock 70's P sound or boost them both for nicely scooped mids that sound close enough for the Steinberger tone, which is mostly characterless IMHO since he was so low in the mix during those years.
And actually it turns out that the Steinberger and P bass do mix - the neck pickup on the Steinberger is an EMG, with the pole pieces in a P configuration and in the exact P location. I made this overlay pic in Photoshop with a pic of a Fender P from Fender.com, and overlayed an L2, 50% transparent, and played with the size and location until the frets lined up. You can see how close the pickups are... this was my inspiration for going with a stock P. I may add the bridge pickup at some point but for now I'm quite happy with it.