Gibson EB2, Les Paul bass, Les Paul Signature
FlyGuitars You basses are usually quite heavily customised - do you do your own tech work on your basses?
Mike Watt I do a lot. Sometimes, I take them to World of Strings in Long Beach and Eric's guitar shop in Van Nuys (both in California).
FlyGuitars What other Gibson basses do you have, and what modifications have they had?
Mike Watt 1959 Gibson EB-2: pickup replaced with Dimarzio model-1 pickup. "Baritone" push button switch bypassed after new control pots/cap added (had a little carve out under the wood, under the bridge, filled with wax called a tone dampener to get rid of the tone). It even has banjo tuners. It's a '59 I got it in Maryland for $200.
FlyGuitars I understand you own a rare Les Paul Signature and a Les Paul Recording/Triumph /Professional bass. Can you tell me about them?
Mike Watt mine's a Les Paul Signature, in fact he (Les Paul) was playing near here and I went backstage to get him to sign it and he wrote, "keep picking Mike". I don't really use a pick (in kind of a depressed voice).
I got it for a couple of hundred bucks. I got the Professional in Georgia. I snapped the headstock off, of coarse, repaired it. I put in a Preamp, with the low impedance pickups - no output. Really neat neck, really thin from front to back. It's really heavy. One had a big pickguard on it, mine has a little one, I think it's a 1969. It's got chrome rings. I use an ESP preamp for Strats. It works good. It's weird on the pickup selector switch it has a big rubber grommet. A big giant rubber grommet in a big hole. I don't know what they are thinking. A great bass. Real close string spacing. I use it with my oldest band (20 years), Dos Sound, a band with two bassists.
Thanks to John (Redbird) Fertig and Mike Watt for making this interview possible, and to Peter Whitfield for use of some great Photos
Why not check out some of these other sites
Mike Watt's homepage
Iggy Pop / Stooges homepage
Kelly Clarkson homepage
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