John Entwistle Gear: 1974–1985

1974–1976

Bass

• 1974 Alembic Series I basses

  • One in zebra wood (the first one); others finished as pictured at right and below.
  • These Alembics featured active electronics and five-pin connector along with the standard jack.

    John (about the first one): Bought from Fred Walecki whilst holidaying in L.A.… I had it re-wired back to stereo by Peter Cook. He brought it along to a Who rehearsal when he’d finished — I plugged it in and it blew my mind. I jetted to San Francisco 3 days before the tour started and bought three more!

    From the August 1989 Guitar Player

    He happened upon a second-hand Alembic in a Los Angeles music store. “Someone had wired it incorrectly, so I gave it to my guitar tech, Pete Cook, to fix. Right before we were to leave for a U.S. tour, he brought it to a rehearsal, where I tried it and was, of course, blown away. I flew over early to order three more basses from Alembic, who eventually built me the Explorer-shaped models.”

  • Instrument at right owned by Brad Rodgers; on display at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1998–2007.

• Fender “Explorer-Bird”

  • Used in studio only, 1975 and 1978.
  • Gibson Explorer-style body with Fender Precision Bass maple necks and machine heads; gold-plated hardware, two volume controls/one tone control.
  • Several custom-made by Peter Cook, in white and orange/red.
  • As seen in the Who Are You segment of The Kids Are Alright film, 1978.

• 1973 white Rickenbacker 4001 prototype 8-string bass

  • Used in studio only: Success Story, 1975.
  • Serial no. MH2553.
  • Reverse (low string/high string) setup.
  • Wavy headstock.
  • One of two; other one bought by Chris Squire.

• Custom Peter Cook “Lightning Bolt” bass

  

  Click to view larger version Custom “Lightning Bolt” bass, made by Peter Cook. Courtesy Rock Stars Guitars.

  • Featured on The Who By Numbers album cover drawing
  • Used on many tracks

Amplification: 1975

• Amplifiers
  • Two Crown DC 300 power amplifiers or two Sunn Coliseum Power Amp power amplifiers.
  • Two Alembic preamps
• Speakers
  • Two Sunn 412L 4x12 speaker cabs
  • Two Sunn 3x12 speaker cabs
  • Two Sunn 1x18 speaker cabs
  • Two Sunn W 1x18 reflex bins

1976–1985

Basses

• Alembic Explorer bass

  • Bird’s eye maple body featuring:
    • Through-walnut neck.
    • Spider’s web wire sterling-silver inlay, which later appeared to be brass as the instrument’s lacquer yellowed with age.
  • Graphite-reinforced neck of laminated walnut and maple.
    • Fingerboard with music-note inlays in mother-of-pearl Gothic script.
    • LED markers on the top edge.
  • Two master volume controls with a selector switch to choose from the presets, active lowpass-filter controls.
  • Five-pin (Cannon) and standard jack connectors. Standard Alembic electronics.

  John worked with Alembic to design these basses. There were at least two of this model made, plus the following: a “V”-shaped headstock and an 8-string.

  The four-string model pictured at right sold in the 13 May 2003 Christie’s auction in London for £50,400.

• 1980 Alembic Explorer four-string with a “V”-shaped headstock

  

  1983 Gastank television performance with the Alembic with “V”-shaped headstock. (See clip of this performance on YouTube.

  • As seen on the cover of Too Late The Hero
  • Not used on stage with The Who (see photo at right for 1983 television appearance performing with this bass guitar. h/t Wil Bogantz)
  • Serial no. 80-1742

Alembic subsequently released a retail version of the “A”-shaped headstock model, renaming it the “Exploiter.”

Other basses

• Alembic Explorer 8-string

  • As used on Trick of the Light and You.
  • Identical “Explorer”-shaped body as above, with “A”-shaped headstock.
  • Used on stage ca. 1979 for Trick of the Light.

• Hamer Quad Standard 12-string bass

  

  Hamer Quad Standard 12-string bass, courtesy 12stringbass.com.

  • Reportedly used on Quadrophenia Soundtrack.
  • Completed 25 January, 1979. Only one ever made.
  • Bound body;
  • Quad pickup only, no humbucker installed in second route (a cream DiMarzio humbucker was later added in the open route);
  • 21-fret rosewood set neck; custom double- and triple-dot markers.
  • Sold in 1988 for £1,100.
  • Serial no. 0139
  • More info and pics at 12stringbass.com.

Amplification

1976

• Custom Gelf amp rack
  • Customized Alembic IN-1 pre-amp/splitter with electronic crossover, feeding mids/highs to one preamp, lows to another.
  • Two German-made Stramp 4120 stereo preamps, which split their outputs to one power amp each.
  • Four Sunn Coliseum Slave 300-watt power amps (two for low frequencies, one for mids, one for highs/full-range).
  • At least three of these Gelf racks built by Kenny Flegg of Gelf.
• Speaker stacks:
  • Two Sunn 412L 4x12 cabs (outside top)
  • Two Sunn 312 3x12 cabs (inside top)
  • Two Sunn W 1x18 reflex bins (inside bottom), with 18″ Vega speakers
  • Two Sunn 1x18 cabinets (silver-grille), with 18″ Vega speakers (outside bottom)

1977–1979

• Custom Gelf amp rack, as above
• Three or four speaker stacks:
  • Four Sunn 412LH 4x12 cabs (top)
  • Two Sunn W 1x18 reflex bins (bottom), with 18″ Vega speakers
  • Two Sunn 1x18 cabinets (silver-grille), with 18″ Vega speakers

1979

• Custom Gelf amp rack, as above
• Three or four speaker stacks:
  • Sunn 412LH 4x12 cabs (on top)
  • Sunn W 1x18 reflex bins (on bottom)

1979–1982/1985

• Custom Gelf amp rack, as above
• Speaker stacks:
  • Three Sunn 412L 4x12 cabs (top)
  • Three or four Mega 1x18 cabs (bottom), with Gauss drivers
  • Miked with Sennheiser 421 microphones

Selected quotes

All quotes and references are copyright their original owners and are included for reference only.

From the August 1989 Guitar Player

Although [John] was happy with the bright, clear tone of the Alembics, and assortment of inconveniences ultimately forced him to move away from the instruments after more than a decade. “Unfortunately, the basses were very sensitive to the climate changes on our tour schedules, and I’d spend as long as a half-hour before every gig making adjustments. Also, I grew tired of the bloody 5-pin Cannon jack and transformer box I had to use with them. What finally put me off was when we did Live Aid. Right before we were to play, my main bass went dead because I’d accidentally crossed some wires while changing the battery. I ran for the backup bass but couldn’t tune it because there were no transformers backstage. At that point we were introduced, and I barely managed to get back onstage in time to start ‘My Generation.’ If you listen closely to the video, you can hear me tuning the D string as we go. I just about got it in tune in time for the bass solo. I sold the main bass to the Hard Rock Cafe — that was its punishment.”

From May 15, 2002, Guitar Center interview

I eventually changed to using Sunn 300-watt Coliseum Amps powering four 18″ PA bins plus additional 12″ cabinets (up to sixteen 12″ cabinets at one point).

From the November 1977 Guitar Player (read an excerpt of the article):

John Entwistle’s amps are the responsibility of Bill Harrison, who stands to the rear of the bass cabinets when the Who are onstage. Each of the two signals of John’s stereo output is sent to its own Stramp 4120 stereo preamp, where they are again divided and relayed to one of four Sunn Coliseum slave amps. The Stramps are turned all the way up, the Sunns set at about 5 or 6. The current speaker array includes a pair of Sunn W bins, each with an 18″ Vega speaker; two standard Sunn enclosures, each with a Vega 18; two Sunn 4x12s; and two Sunn 3x12s. Entwistle describes his goal: “Mainly the sound qualities that I am looking for in this particular amping system center around the fact that I like separation between low and high notes. I can have four different sounds going on at once, with the equalization of the preamps and four amp heads. Just flicking two switches on the preamps allows me to select which sound I want at any given point.”

Resources and Information

Contributors

Thanks to those who have made this page possible:

• Paul Winkler (pw_lists@slinkp.com)
• Brad Rodgers (whocollection.com)
• Jesse Pollack (quarryman88@yahoo.com)

Additional Information:

• Brad Rodgers at whocollection.com
• Rock Stars Guitars, rockstarsguitars.com
• Sotheby’s May 2003 auction: sothebys.com
• Dr. Tube’s Schematics: drtube.com/guitamp.htm
• Unofficial Sunn Equipment: sunn.ampage.org/site/museum/
  • Includes “museum,” schematics and history.
• The Sunn Shack: richbriere.com/The_Sunn_Shack.htm
• Bass Culture, by John Entwistle; forewords by Roger Daltrey and Rick Nielsen. Published 2004 by Sanctuary Publishing.

Manufacturer’s Sites

• Alembic: alembic.com
• Rotosound Strings: rotosound.com
• Sunn Amplification: sunnamps.com