What kind of bass did Billy Cox use when...

[theactor19]

he toured with Hendrix from 69-70?

[Trandy]

P-Bass IIRC.

[TwoTubMan]

Looks like a Jazz to me.

http://www.wtv-zone.com/ruexperienced/visitors/BillyGypsys.jpg

[fakeox]

Sure does. I thought pbass also.

[Pekka]

He also used a Telecaster bass. At least at Woodstock festival.

[mjm59]

A quick search through Google images reveals that Billy used all of the above in the context of playing with Jimi.


Mike

[tomnottom]

Just 4 strings Baby!

[Eric F]

A Fender.

[Bassomatic]

Just 4 strings Baby!

C'mon, for all we know he'd have chosen a 5 (if they, like, existed).

[The Golden Boy]

C'mon, for all we know he'd have chosen a 5 (if they, like, existed).

They did.

Although with a high C...

http://www.vintageguitars.org.uk/graphics/fender68p8.jpg

[Bassomatic]

Forgot about that one (for some reason). ;)

[monstermike]

Jamerson bought one. He never really played it, but he did buy one. Isn't there a picture of John Paul Jones with a Fender V, too?

Found it:

http://www.led-zeppelin.org/images/gear/FenderBassV_2.jpg

[Bassomatic]

Jamerson bought one. He never really played it, but he did buy one. Isn't there a picture of John Paul Jones with a Fender V, too?

Found it:

http://www.led-zeppelin.org/images/gear/FenderBassV_2.jpg

Now that's a rare shot. Maybe the moment when he realized he needed a few more than 15 frets?

[theactor19]

so are we going with P-bass, or Jazz Bass?

[BeowulfKingsley]

I've seen pictures of him with both Jazz and Precision.

[theactor19]

were these pics from specific concerts?

I love his bass tone at the isle of wight and berkeley.

Any idea which concerts you saw pics of him with the certain basses? Lemme know.. thanks! : )

[GA19RVT]

Billy Cox started jamming with Hendrix in May, 1969. Hendrix announced Cox was new bass player mid-June (Redding had no knowledge and was understandably incensed). Noel's last gig with hendrix was June 29, Denver. First gig for Cox was on the Tonight Show, July 7, 1969.

--At Woodstock Cox played a recent Fender Telecaster bass with single-coil pickup.
--In the months following, Cox played a Precision in the studio
--By the Band of Gypsys show Dec. 31, 1969, Cox was playing a sunburst Jazz

For the most part, the sunburst Jazz was what Cox played up until the last Hendrix gig, Sept. 6, 1970. By this time, Cox was completely done. He was exhausted and in the throes of a nervous breakdown triggered by a bad acid trip. In an interview Sept 21, Hendrix said he was "definitely" looking for a new bass player.

I'm not a Cox fan. I found his lines to be heavy and plodding. I think he made Hendrix comfortable, but he did not inspire or drive the music. On a lot of concerts and boots, you can barely tell he's there--he just plods along in the background. I think he was a really good blues bass player, but definitely not a rock player, and nowhere near as creative as Redding. I believe Redding created about 85% of his bass lines.

[josegundo]

^ I would respectfully disagree with that. Redding was a guitar player first and foremost. He was hired as a bass player because Jimi like his hair style. Many of the books I've read credit Jimi with many of the bass lines used on studio recordings. Billy got his experience on the chitlin circuit, playing blues, r&b, soul, etc. Listening to him on the Band of Gypsies album, I can hear him following Jimi as he improvises lines and grooves. Billy may not have been playing a loud fuzz bass, but he was definitely there holding down the low end and pushing Jimi.

[mikelb7]

I too will have to respectfully disagree. I feel like Billy locked in with Buddy to create a fairly tight R&B-flavoured rhythm section. They came from similar musical backgrounds, played relatively the same music. I'd say they were much tighter than Noel and Mitch who were rock and jazz players respectively. Mitch loved to play off and around the beat and Noel liked to jam around also. We all know Hendrix is all over the place and I feel this made Experience concerts rather unpredictable. If they were on, they were ON and making revolutionary new music. If they weren't, well... haha I'm sure we've all heard some crappy bootlegs.

I personally feel that the "earthy" gutbucket funk of Billy and Buddy provided a more consistant backbone for Jimi. You can hear the effects easily... longer and more together jams and the Experience covers they did (namely Purple Haze and Voodoo Child (slight return)) reaaalllly take off. I feel like this made the BOG recordings (I have all 4 newyearseve/newyearsday shows and the MSG show where Jimbo walks off after 2 songs) as special as they were. Sure, Billy may have been "just plodding along" underneath but if you take a careful listen on a decent/FLAC bootleg, his phrasing (articulation for lack of a better word) is about as deep in the pocket as you can get. It just oozes funk and he's absolutely relentless. Listen to any version of Message to Love, Power of Soul or Stop that the BOG played and it's easy to tell they really were on a different trip than the Experience was.

To conclude, both bands were different and set out to accomplish different musical goals (both sonically and financially/managerially speaking) but I feel like I connect much better with Jimi's BOG work compared to anything else he's done... studio or otherwise. Part of what we're hearing could also be two different sides of the same coin. The positively-connotated flipside of "plodding" and "not creative" could easily be what I've described as "consistency" and "relentlessness." Perhaps our differential preferences of bass players speaks of the inner preference we all as guitar players have of our 4-stringed bandmates...

Please keep in mind, all of this is said bearing a "different strokes different folks, YMMV, IMHO yaddayadda" attitude. Two different bands, one isn't "better" than the other.

To stay ontopic and actually discuss bass guitars... I will concur in saying Cox has been seen using all three basses described (P, J and Tele). As mentioned earlier as well, he played the sunburst J almost exclusively around the Dec31,69/Jan1,70 concerts which is where the material for BOG album and later-released 2 disc set was drawn from. To the poster who mentioned he liked the Isle of Wight and Berkeley tones... both of those concerts were filmed and released on video I do believe. Should be pretty easy to check what Billy was playing ;)

[jay42]

There's a youtube thing that starts out indicating that it was either one of his last gigs, or the actual last one. It looks like Mitchell on drums...seemed to be better/tighter than with Buddy Miles.

[theactor19]

yea, after BOG went under, mitch was back on drums with Cox on bass. I feel that was the best combo as I love mitch's jazzy feel, and cox's soulful funkiness.

The concerts on videos rarely show Cox, as the camera is usually on jimi and mitch.