Welcome back to the final episode in our first “Know Your Bass Player” series.
But don't worry, we have plenty more in store for you in our second season.
Keep a look out for the separate update video for all the details.
In this episode of “Know Your Bass Player”
we're gonna take a look at Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath.
Black Sabbath has had many arrivals and departures
For this video we’re going to focus on the core years and reunions of the original lineup.
Let's do this.
Geezer joined Black Sabbath with a 1969 stripped finish
Fender Precision bass.
This was first seen in the earliest Beat Club video from 1970.
This Precision bass was used to record the first four albums
Black Sabbath Paranoid
Masters of reality. And Volume 4
During the tour -- of Volume 4,
Geezer is often seen with a Plexiglass bass made by Dan Armstrong at Ampeg.
He’s said in interviews that his Precision bass was smashed to pieces with a hammer
somewhere between Detroit and Toronto.
This event took place on a Sunday. where most of the shops were shut
His only choice was at the referral of the music promoter
where he choose this bass
This bass too met an unfortunate end and was stolen at the
end of the tour in 1973.
From this point on Geezer was now using custom hand made basses made by Birmingham
based John Birch.
In 1974 Black Sabbath played their biggest show to date
At the Cal Jam festival in Ontario California, to an audience size of about 250,000.
At this gig we see Geezer play his very first John Birch bass in white.
It was later customised with a sticker in the style of a Coca Cola label but says enjoy
cocaine.
In addition to this bass, he had an 8 string model
and a plain Black model.
Due to the shape of this bass, it has commonly been mistaken for a Gibson EB-3
This was intentional as the John Birch workshop regularly modified and created basses in a
similar style to the Gibson EB series.
This also includes Tony’s SG where they crafted his crucifix inlays.
The main feature of the Birch basses were the shorter scales length
and having possess the ability to be playable down tuned.
Many basses at this time couldn’t perform well in C# tuning due to the loss of tension
on the strings
From 1975 onwards Geezer used basses created by John Birch’s co worker John Diggins.
John Diggins’ basses have a distinct soft V shape in the headstock
and are branded Jaydee basses.
to separate himself from the Birch workshop.
A Jaydee Roadie 2 was created for Geezer in black and white stripes.
The Roadie 2 was used to record the albums Sabotage,
Technical ecstasy
and Never Say Die ,
it’s also seen in the 1978 music videos “A Hard Road” and “Never Say Die”.
That same year on a live video recording during the “Never Say Die” tour.
At the Hammersmith Odeon in London.
Geezer was seen playing a red Rickenbacker.
Some have attributed him using this bass throughout this period.
However that is not the case and this bass was used for this gig only.
Originally, Geezer forgot to bring his JD basses with him
but happened to have a Rickenbacker
and said in an interview, he’s not sure why he even had that with him.
The “Never Say Die” tour was the last before Ozzy Osbourne's departure from the
band.
After this
Black Sabbath went through a turbulent period hiring a bunch of new singers,
The two of note being Rio James Dio and Tony Martin.
As well as opening a revolving door of musicians which gave way to Geezer exiting the band
in 1984.
Leaving Toni Iommi,
to carry on as the final original member.
We’re gonna jump forward now 23 years, past the 1st reunion tours to the year 2001.
Where legendary producer Rick Rubin is expected to join Black Sabbath
And start production on an album that would eventually be named “13"
Unfortunately though production was postponed for several years due to somebody's on going
television commitments.
During the early 2000’s there was some effort to continue recording a new album
as well as more reunion tours.
In particular, headlining 2005’s Ozzfest and the UK’s Download Festival.
Around this time Geezer started a long and fond relationship with Lakland basses.
Over the years he has had well over 12 Laklands.
Originally, he tried their existing signature models
The Joe Osborn Jazz bass
and the Bob Glaub Precision Jazz bass.
From this experience. He had Lakland's made with custom options.
His go to bass was a Precision Jazz in black with a tortoise pick guard.
But it’s not uncommon to see him with plain old Precision or a Jazz bass from time to
time.
A full list of all the Lakland basses in all colours and configurations are listed in our
show notes down below or in the corner up above.
We’ve touched on players looking for super Fenders in the past,
Take Duff and BB basses or Jason Newsted and Sadowsky’s
Lakland basses are very much the same, creating basses in the Fender style.
Instead of recreating the wheel, they seek to improve it.
In many of the discussions I’ve come across,
players have routinely pointed out that Lakland have a better build quality and sound far
superior modern Fender basses.
Whoa whoa whoa don’t shoot the messenger. I say what I see alright?!
By the way this has NOTHING to do with me owning a Lakland.
With that said,
it is interesting how Lakland release their version of a 51 Precision bass
around the same time as Fenders 60th Anniversary Precision release.
We can only presume this was down to market demand.
Moving swiftly on …
Geezer has said in an interview during the recording of “13”
he wanted to truly capture his bass tone and sound as close to the first three albums as
possible.
To do this he used a Bill Nash Precision bass
which replicates the look and feel of vintage Fenders.
In 2013 he co-designed his very own signature bass with Lakland.
A rather beautiful looking black and grey, striped P bass with custom inlays and pickups.
The bass was eventually released to the public in 2014.
He also has two more backup signatures, which are almost identical
Signature number 2 is pretty much the same but with a plain head stock with a cross on
it and rose gold dotted inlays.
It also has Henry on the 5th fret
The third signature is a Precision Jazz With matching rose gold pick guard and hardware
With commitments out the way, Sabbath reunited in 2012,
bringing their album back to life and finally releasing it in 2013.
The album
“13” had the original lineup back together excluding Bill Ward who declined to join the
recording due to a contractual dispute.
Black Sabbath toured “13” for for 2 years.
Following this in September 2015 they announced their final ever tour - aptly named The End.
The final ever gig of Black Sabbath finished right back where it all started.
On the 4th February 2017 at the Genting Arena in Birmingham.
Geezer shortly thereafter published a photo of the very first and very last bass to play
Paranoid.
The last bass just so happens to be a gift from his bass technician Terry Welty.
It’s a Lakland Precision in Aston Villa’s
Join me in part two where we discuss Geezers amplifiers, strings, pickups and effects pedals.
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Make sure you watch part 2, and keep an eye out for the update video soon to follow
As there is plenty to tell you about the next season
Thank you very much for watching and I’ll see you in part two.