John Entwistle Gear: Endorsements and Signature Series

Table of contents

• Strings
  • Rotosound
  • Maxima Gold
• Amplifiers
  • Sunn
  • Simms-Watts
  • Ashdown Engineering
• Bass Guitars
  • Alembic
  • Lakland
  • Status Graphite
  • Warwick

Strings

Rotosound Strings

John helped design and endorsed Rotosound RS 66 Swing Bass roundwound strings (.045 – .105) from 1966 to the mid ’80s.

From April 1995 Bassist interview

How did the link [with Rotosound] evolve?

“It was in 1966 and I was looking for that Danelectro sound again. I tried everybody’s strings but the E and the A’s just didn’t work. It was the same with Rotosound but there was something about them that was almost there but not quite. To solve the problem I got in touch with James Howe[sic] and told him his D and G strings were great but the E and A didn’t vibrate properly. He told me to take my bass along to Rotosound and have some strings made until they got it right. After a couple of hours, we realised that the problem wasn’t in the wire winding, but in the core of the string. You could see that the strings vibrated in a big circle and that was wrong; the core needed to be thicker. We also made the overall gauges a bit heavier and they sent me away with 12 sets to use. A couple of days later they called and asked if I objected to them putting my name to the strings and selling them commercially. I told them I didn’t mind as long as they kept me supplied with free strings! But then we had to do the same with medium and short scale strings because I had loads of different basses by then. Those strings, the RS 66 sets, were the first that vibrated properly other than the Danelectros.”

Rotosound Strings: rotosound.com

Maxima Gold Strings

From 1989 to 2001, John used and endorsed Maxima Gold gold-plated handmade strings.

maxima-lines.com/stringsmain.htm

Amplifiers

Sunn

John began using Sunn amplifiers in 1967, and came back to them in 1971. The Who and John endorsed Sunn amplifiers beginning in 1967.

Sunn Amplification: sunnamps.com

Simms-Watts (1972)

John appears in this photo endorsing Simms-Watts amplifiers. No other information available about this endorsement.

For more information:

Dr. Tube Schematics: drtube.com/guitamp.htm#Simms

Ashdown Engineering

In 2001, Ashdown Engineering introduced the following products:

• Ashdown John Entwistle Signature bass preamp
• Ashdown John Entwistle ASS 112 1x12″ reflex bass cabinet
• Ashdown John Entwistle ASS 212 2x12″ reflex bass cabinet
• Ashdown John Entwistle ASS 115 1x15″ bass bin

Ashdown also produced a 100-watt practice amp named after John, the Five Fifteen.

From Ashdown press release:

Ashdown Unveils John Entwistle Bass Preamp

January 18, 2001

U.K. bassamp specialist Ashdown Engineering is unveiling a limited-edition John Entwistle bass preamplifier at NAMM 2001. With only 100 units available, the custom preamp is a special, alloy-fronted version of Ashdown’s groundbreaking RPM1, used by the legendary Who bassist on the band’s hugely successful recent world tour, and features the “Bass Player of the Millennium’s” signature.

Entwistle’s current touring rig is all Ashdown, comprising three RPM1 preamps and three PM1000 power amps, feeding 3,000 watts into 2 pairs of Ashdown ASS115 and ASS212 cabinets. “In four decades of bass playing, I’ve never heard anything quite like it,” he says. Catch one of the remaining Who shows if you don’t believe him!

“John is a true legend and the man responsible for bringing bass playing into the foreground,” comments Ashdown’s Mark Gooday. “We’re naturally proud to be powering a musician for whom great sound remains of the utmost importance.”

Ashdown Engineering

Bass Guitars

Alembic Spyder bass

In 2002, Alembic designed this bass after John’s custom Alembic Explorer (Exploiter) bass guitars, though not exact replicas.

These were limited-edition items, with 50 four-string models and 25 eight-string models produced.

For more information, see Alembic: The Spyder Bass.

Lakland John Entwistle Signature ‘Fenderbird’

Prototype only of John’s infamous “Fenderbird” — Gibson Thunderbird bodies fitted with Fender Precision Bass necks.

From John MacDonald:

This bass was to be a tribute to John’s custom Fenderbirds, but when John died the project was canceled. This is the prototype, briefly owned by Steve Barr (vintagebass.com and p096.ezboard.com/bthedudepit), and now owned by private collector.

Measurements for this prototype were taken from a Gibson Thunderbird I would borrow from my friend’s store whenever my Alembic was being repaired. The bass was sent to Lakland for this project.

lakland.com and
vintagebass.com and
p096.ezboard.com/bthedudepit

Status Graphite John Entwistle Buzzard Bass

Status Graphite, the third company John worked with on the Buzzard concept (the concept he used on stage from 1989 to 2002 from different manufacturers), offers the Status Graphite John Entwistle Buzzard Series 1 and Series 2 models.

The Buzzard Series 1, based on John’s stage guitar from 1996 to 2002, features:

• Four-string woven graphite one-piece instrument
• Natural graphite with gloss lacquer
• 34″(864mm scale), 26 frets with zero fret
• Phenolic fingerboard with Roman numerals
• Red side LEDs
• Chrome hardware
• Two Status soap-bar pickups
• Custom three-band EQ with midrange sweep control
• 18-volt power supply

status-graphite.com and
buzzardbass.com