Tim Commerford, Timmy C, Tim Bob. Tim.com
Y dot Tim dot K, Simmerin'T moniker and
Timbo Tones - Ok I made that one up .
Whatever you call him. Tim Commerford - the groove master behind Rage Against the Machine,
AudioSlave, Prophets of Rage as well as countless others.
Is a man of few words.
Lets try and answer some of these age old
mysteries. That just won’t go away on TalkBass.
Intro by Letter box - Hey Sailor
The story starts with Zach De la Rocha. The would be frontman in Rage.
He and Tim met at school around 1976 in Irvine California in the third grade.
By the 6th grade aged around 11.
Zach had inspired Tim to become a musician.
And taught him how to play bass parts on a
nylon guitar.
"and Zack knew how to play guitar and i started playing on a regular
nylon string guitar. Like learning how to play Never Mind the Bollocks"
Tim would attribute his love of music to Zach. Mentioning
"I gotta credit Zack to inspiring me to wanna play music, and play the bass guitar.
I wouldn't be here today if it weren't for
him.
Tim’s earliest run in with a bass was at
Rancho High School in San Joaquin California.
He was inspired by the schools annual rock
show
See, you had guitar players and drummers.
Yet the school caretaker usually filled in
to play the bass.
Tim noticed a unique opportunity “
Given that few people played it, I thought
it would be easier for me to get into the
bands if I played The Bass.
His first bass was a Gibson G3.
And took influence from the attitue of Sid
Vicious from the Sex Pistols
and the technicality of Rush’s Geddy Lee.
In 1986, around about the age of 18. Tim acquired
his first Stingray
After taking inspiration from an instructional
video by Louis Johnson.
He also hinted at playing a Rickenbacker and
a Fender Jazz bass prior to Rage.
But neither show up in videos of early performances.
Rage Against the Machine formed in August
1991.
With their first public performance 2 months
later at Cal State university.
The 2 band natural finish stingray was Tims
main bass
and used to record 1991’s self titled album.
He removed the pickguard and added a small
plastic thumb rest between the pickups.
Thumb rests like this one continually appear
throughout all of Tim’s basses.
A second Stingray in black was included on
tour in 1993 as a backup.
He wasn’t much of a fan of this bass citing;
“Every time I cracked a string on my old
bass, I started to panic.
"Oh, no, now I have to play the one black
again, which does not sound so good."
Tim held onto the main Stingray until 1995.
Where he was approached by Fender who asked
him if he’d like to try one of their Jazz
basses.
Arriving in a natural finish it too had the
pickguard removed and a thumb rest added.
In fact. In some of the festival footage during
1994 you can see what looks like a natural
finish Fender Jazz sitting behind the amps.
Jazz
This natural finish bass then took over the
main duties and was used to record 1996’s
Evil Empire.
Until it met its fate at MTV VMA’s in 2000.
Is it over? I can’t watch.
One other interesting part of this bass is
its pickups.
Fitted with a pair of 1970’s split coils
found in England.
He then he rewound them by hand.
Exclaiming they give him more sustain and
feedback.
“I’m not looking for the cleanest sound
in the world; I like that edgy, dirty tone.
If you use different wire on your pickups,
you’ll absolutely get a different sound.
After the battering of this bass
Tim salaved the pickups and had Fender Custom
shop create copies.
These were then used later down the road.
Which we’ll come back to in a bit.
Jazz basses were seen live from 1996 until
the last Rage show in September 2000.
Apart from the natural finish there were two
others.
Mostly used as back ups and to switch tunings
between songs.
There was a standard black Fender jazz. Seen
a few times in 1997.
and what looks like a cream coloured 70’s
Fender jazz.
Features include a maple fingerboard with
black bar inlays
and a skunk stripe down the back of the neck.
You know me by now. I like to find answers.
However, I must admit. This bass has kind
of stumped me.
As far as I know there has only been one interview
where it’s been said Tim uses a 70’s Fender
Jazz. It’s hard to verify just one source
as they do make mistakes.
So I’m not sure if this is a reissue of
some sort or the real deal.
I’ll let you be the judge.
You’ll also see a sunburst jazz briefly
in the music video sleep now in the fire.
Interestingly, it was cited in an interview
that Tim used an 8 string Rickenbacker recording
Evil Empire. This is the only piece where
the bass is mentioned.
Also revealed in the interview was Tim’s
love of Jazz.
Being inspired enough to buy two upright basses
but nothing about their make or model.
“I actually played upright bass for a while.
They’re beautiful. It’s a sport.
It takes muscles that need to get developed
and practice every day. He cheered.
“I brought it to a Rage rehearsal – and
plugged it into an amp,
it immediately started this low-end feedback
and blew the front of the bass off the body.
So it lasted all of five minutes and it was
just destroyed and I had to have it repaired.
And it has since gone back into storage. ”
Shame
Zach left the band in October 2000.
Blaming a communication breakdown between
the group for his departure.
He concluded "I feel that it is now necessary
to leave Rage because our decision-making
process has completely failed.
Shortly thereafter the album Renegades was
released in December the same year.
And mostly consisted of covers.
By Spring 2001.
The remaining members of Rage sought to continue
their musical direction without Zach.
As timing would have it. Ex-frontman Chris
Cornell was finishing a solo tour.
Producer Rick Rubin suggested an ice-breaking
jam session together.
Cornell stated in an interview dated on 2003
“Within ten minutes of us just making stuff
up and playing,
it sounded incredible, we sounded like a band
that had been together for a long time".
And after some initial disagreements with
management everything soon worked out.
That was that. Audioslave had arrived.
It was Chris who came up with the name Audioslave
after talking to Tom Morello on the phone.
“We’re all on two way pagers now “ he
pondered “… It got it, Audioslave”.
Don't ask me why he has a British accent
Recording took place that summer with the
self titled album “Audioslave”.
A Sadowsky Vintage Jazz was loaned and used
on the record.
Which was released on November 19, 2002.
The bands’ first live debut came a few days
later.
Performing a brief concert on the roof of
New York City’s Ed Sullivan Theater for
the Late Show with David Letterman.
Timbo returns to light with a black jazz bass
fitted with a chrome pickguard and a rosewood
fingerboard.
Following this we next see Tim-Bob in the
video release for co-she where Tim plays a
second black jazz with a white pickguard and
a maple fingerboard.
The following Audioslave videos vary between
the Jazz basses already mentioned.
The cream jazz is seen in like a stone and
show me how to live.
The Be yourself video is quite interesting.
As it shows the vintage cream, a black and
a natural finish bass sitting in a stand.
This looks to me like this is the original
natural jazz bass. Now fitted with a pickguard
Only on this bass did Tim have different types
of pot controls.
Sure the bass was dinged pretty hard *clip*
but it didn’t break in two.
And it’s clearly not “destroyed” as
Tim stated in the past.
The Audioslave world tour between 2003 and
2004 was more of the same.
With Tim mainly playing the black chrome jazz
and the natural bass for alt tunings.
For the Out of Exile tour, there were some
additions.
A Fender Jazz sunburst with a black pickguard
and a jazz in olympic white with a tortoise
pickguard.
The black jazz with the tortoise pickguard
returned with a reverse headstock from a Precision
bass.
This bass was tuned BEAD and Tim believed
extending the length of B string would give
him more sustain.
Additionally the precision necks was used
for a larger spacing between strings.
In an interview with Fender Tim stated “I’ve
been playing Jazz basses with Precision Bass
necks. and I’m almost thinking that I want
to switch to Jazz Bass necks, because … it’s
the most
comfortable one for me”
It’s hard to tell with certainty which necks
were Precisions and more importantly when.
As Tim admits “I'm always changing up stuff
and reevaluating what I’ve done.”
At the conclusion of the Out of Exile tour.
Recording commenced for the bands third and
final album Revelations.
Said to be used on the record is a Fender
custom shop double neck Jazz bass.
The top half is tuned BEAD and the bottom
E standard. It’s never been used live.
Cornell mentioned in an interview with Blabbermouth
that he wanted to let fans
“spend some time with the album” before
touring.
A several month break of inactivity then ensued.
That was until January 22nd , 2007,
Rage Against the Machine announced plans to
reunite for one show only,
at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival,
which would take place that April.
Less than a month later, on February 15th.
Cornell officially announced his departure
from Audioslave,
citing “musical differences” - yeah they
always do.
Rage took to the Coachella stage on April
29th 2007.
Tim returned with a two tone (or Sunburst
to you and me) Lakland Joe Osborne signature
model with a tortoise pickguard.
Not to be confused with the Fender model which
also appeared on the show with a black pickguard.
More shows ensued, ramping up into 2008 with
appearances at festivals throughout the world.
Further Lakland basses joined the ranks. All
of which were Joe Osborn signatures or what
Lakland now call Vintage J’s.
Speaking of Lakland … I like your new Geezer
Butler page. Some of the grammar mistakes
remind me of me own … Just saying.
"And not a drink in it for me. Not even a thank you card".
There were two sunbursts, the second had a white pickguard.
A black jazz with white pickguard.
Natural finish or translucent blonde as Lakland
calls it
Candy red
And an Inca silver.
There was no real rhyme or reason as and when
these basses were played.
These basses all had different options and
a full list can be found in the show notes
linked up above and down below.
Even though Rage returned to a hungry audience.
None of the band considered Rage their main
musical focal point.
With Tom Morello going as far as saying
“The Nightwatchman is my principal musical
focus as I see it, for the remainder of my
life”
Rage Against the Machines last, last show
was performed in 2011 at the L.A. Rising festival.
When asked about the future of Rage Tim responded;
"“ It could be tomorrow; it could be 10 years from now”.
Since then in 2014 Tim has co-founded Future
User.
A Steinberger L2 can be seen in the video
Mountain lion and on the cover of 2015’s
bass player magazine.
It was additionally used in Wakrat which i’ll
get to shortly.
Tim stated in an interview that this band
was more about making art
He continues, “You can take these beautiful
synthesizers and we can connect them to the
computer to make these incredible modulated
keyboard lines we couldn't do before.
It's inspiring, it's an incredible tool.
We’re making what I would consider progressive
electronic music -- we call it "progtronic."
If you haven’t listened to Future User take
a listen to Mountain Lion it is brilliant.
Wakrat is a band Tim was asked to play for
in 2015.
He sings lead vocals and plays bass.
Laklands were used to record the album and
can be seen in interviews and early performances
of the band.
By summer 2016 Tim was offered to try the
new Musicman Stingray special.
Stating he was approached by Brian Ball, grandson
of Ernie Ball
Who wanted to make him a bass.
They’re rebuilt from the ground up and improves
upon the Classic Ray 4.
Featuring improved neodymium pickups, 18 volt
preamp and body contours.
Since then he’s grown to collect 10 Stingrays
… Why you need that many I’ll never know.
Stingray specials can be seen at the The Prophets
of Rage shows and the One off Audioslave reunion
in. 2017
These early wave of basses saw the HS model.
humbucker - single configuration.
Tim also states he modified his adding a string
through bridge and mute pads.
In more recent times you’ll see the HH models
instead.
The Prophets of Rage album also saw Tim using
a Rickenbacker dated February 2017.
He’s seen holding two different Rick’s
and the extent of their use has not been confirmed.
More details for these basses can be found
in the show notes.
Before Tim started to Rage Against the Machine
he was rocking a Fender 2x15 cabinet with
a matching Fender Bassman head.
In one of the first public performances with
Rage we can see two SWR Goliath 4x10 cab.
It most likely had a matching the SM900 head
and he used this rig until May 1993.
Following this, we next see the appearance
of an Ampeg 8x10 and two 1x15’s
Hidden out of view are two Ampeg SVT2 Pro’s
and a third as a backup.
Now is a good time to talk about Tim’s general
style with these amps.
See, they’re not there just to look cool
and be loud.
Although they’re kinda awesome.
No, no. This actually fulfills an artistic
purpose.
“I started realizing that my role had to
do with how I'd play when Tom would solo-which
he does quite often-or when he's making weird
noises.
The bass was left alone as the only instrument
playing melody, and I wanted it to be heard,
so I knew I couldn't just keep one tone happening
through every song.
I had to have some way of jumping it up and
making it more exciting.
so my role has been trying to fill the gap
that a rhythm guitar player and bass player
would normally fill.
When recording Evil Empire.
Tim was adamant that dubbing rhythm guitar
over solos didn’t sound right.
They decided they needed the bass to occupy
the same space as a guitar.
However, when Tim hit his distortion pedal,
There was a clear loss of bottom end in the
sound.
Producer Brendan O’Brien suggested Tim get
an A/B rig.
Meaning the one amp when punched in is solely
dedicated to the distortion
and the second amp always clean.
He can then fulfill the whole sonic spectrum
with his bass during solos instead of a second
guitar.
Tim beamed at this discovery in an interview
.
“When I hit the box, it’s like a second
bass player joining the band.
Every other bass player who hears it, they
just go, ‘Oh, my God, that’s the most
awesome sound I have ever heard.’
I only wish I would have done this five years
ago.”
If you’re into aesthetics, It’s around
2000 (and 2010) - the final Rage shows
Where the speaker cabs become torn and his
amplifier rack holding the SVT 2’s are spray
painted.
Amps - AS
During Audioslave, he makes further changes.
Using two Ampeg 4x10s, one 4x10PR/HF and one
1x15.
Eventually the 15 inch was removed leaving
behind the three 4x10s.
You’ll notice this rig is a bit lopsided
as one of the cabs has a bass reflex port.
It was around this time Tim played with the
idea of improving the A/B set up.
Adding a third SVT2 for another level of drive.
Encompassing a clean sound, mild overdrive
and full on distortion.
By early summer 2003,
Tim started experimenting with a Mesa M-Pulse
600 for his clean sound
Praising;
“The M-Pulse is sick for a clean tone, it
is a great amp.
I was having a hard time getting the B string
to stand out and be as proud as the E on a
regular bass.
I now have an amp that can handle that low
frequency.”
Regarding his distorted sound, he continues;
“I also got a new amp for distorted sound,
the Ashdown ABM 500RC EVO.
I keep the master volume at three-quarters
and the gain up all the way so the VU meter
doesn’t move; it’s hilarious.
They sent me another one that’s a little
hot-rodded so it can handle being in the red
for the whole tour.”
During the Rage reunion era he went back to
the two 8x10s and SVT2s
Shortly thereafter in 2008, the amps were
swapped for a pair of SVT VR’s now sat on
top of his amps
A reissue of the early 1970s “Blue-Line”
SVT .
Which is built pretty much identically to
the original amps.
Tim’s a tinkerer so it’s believed these
heads are modded.
Placing a big emphasis on the types of tubes
he uses. Namely Telefunken.
After a few years of use these specific heads
would be sold off by 2016.
Wakrat released an Introduction to the band
video in 2015.
In this video, the SVT2’s would make a return
for a third time.
In place of the VR’s was a now a pair of
original classic SVTs.
Which Tim dates to 1975 but other sources
claim a 78.
The cabinets meanwhile were a throw back to
the Audioslave era
with two Ampeg 4x10s and one PR410.
By the start of 2016 the Prophets of Rage
had rose to bring about “an elite task force
of revolutionary musicians” as Morello puts
it.
That summer, British amplifier company Barefaced
released a photo of Tim’s new cabinets just
in time for the Prophets of Rage summer tour.
It consisted of an 8x10 powered by the 75
SVT for the clean sound
a 4x10 with an SVT2 for mid distortion and
a 2x10 with an Orange AD200 for the noise.
This was added september 2016 in place of
one of the SVT2’s.
Tim explained that;
I have an Ampeg head bare faced 8x10 bass cabinet then I have another Ampeg SVT 2 pro
With a gain control and through a 4x10 barefaced. And then the Orange head.
This head is an increadible head for just going to that next level
overdrive.
When I want to push it into a higher end,
not going crazy but more into the white noise and the higher distortion.
This head is a great amp for that.
It wasn’t uncommon for Waktrat to open the
show for the Prophets.
If you take a look behind the Wakrat rig.
You’ll see the Barefaced rig sat behind
it. Meaning Tim uses a different rig for both
bands..
Finishing up in present day - 2019. You’ll
find Tim continues to uses the three tier
Barefaced rig in its entirety.
There is only one pedal Tim uses and
that’s the Commerfordulator.
No? No, didn’t think so.
As most Commerford fans know already, Tim
is absolutely silent about disclosing his
tonal secrets.
Even going as far as saying;
"I'm like the Pablo Escobar of bass,
If a dude works on my gear, it's almost like
I have to kill him after he's done.
I don't (that’s great Tim) ,
but more than a few times I've told people,
'if you let anyone know what you've done to
my gear, I'm coming back.'"
Yeesshh.
Some even believe he puts decoy pedals on
his board to throw off would be copy-cats.
So, without angering Timbo Commerbar. Let’s
try and get some answers.
Tim’s mentality when playing the bass is
like a sport.
He has a role to fulfill and knows how to
do it.
We've touched on this briefly with the A/B
rig.
Tim’s main goal is to fill the sonic space
of both bass and rhythm guitar, during Morello’s
guitar solos.
Originally, he did this by using a Marshall
Guv’nor pedal.
Used to replicate the classic Marshall tube
Amp sound.
This was the first guitar pedal designed by
Marshal and was released in 1988.
In addition to this, Tim feeds his midrange
sound with an Ernie Ball Jimi Hendrix distortion
pedal
Up until Evil Empire these were primarily
the only pedals he used in conjunction with
a second driven SVT2.
Now, we have three issues.
Number One, he never talks about his pedals.
Number Two, he changes them frequently. Which
has frustrated me deeply.
And number three. He puts tape over the brand
name of pedals as not to give them unwarranted
exposure.
Any chance of pinning down everything is nigh
on impossible.
… But I’m not calling defeat just yet
- sorry Tim.
Some pictures have emerged here and there
of his board in different phases.
As well as some video footage at festivals
but let’s be honest they’re a blurry potato.
I can tell you what’s on said boards … mainly.
But how the signal chain is constructed. Your
guess is as good as mine.
Looking at the pictures available, in every
shot the order of the boards change so there’s
no consistency.
Typically when building your own effects board.
A good rule of thumb is to build it in an
order that won’t interfere with the other
pedals.
For example dynamic effects go first -- like
a compressor,
then distortion, modulation like a chorus,
time effects like a delay and volume pedals.
With this in mind, here's my take on Tim’s
gear.
It’s around 1999 in Rage Against the Machine
you see an actual pedal board.
The silhouettes show about 6-7 pedals in total.
In the center is a homemade distortion box,
commonly referred to as “fear this”.
Tim has stated in interviews “it started
off as a wah pedal and became a distortion
pedal”***
Above this a homemade switcher.
One loop of effects goes to the clean amp
and the second to the distortion cab.
In the clean amp side you’ll find a Boss
OC2 and DD-3.
Finishing up with a Wah and on occasion an
Ernie Ball volume pedal.
In a 2017 interview Tim mentions that his
custom boxes sound better with the help of
an MXR micro amp.
Micro amps or line boosters regularly make
appearances throughout his boards.
So it’s likely the pedals on the right side
of the board are just that.
As you’ll see they change very frequently.
When Audioslave rolls around we actually get
some definitive answers.
First off you’ll notice the two dunlop bass
wahs with a small plank over them.
They’re weird in parallel meaning one goes
to the clean amp and the other to the distro
amp.
The orange unit at the top is an Aphex Punch
Factory compressor,
then a micro amp and the fear this box.
In the middle of those is a homemade ABY switcher
as well as a looper.
Finally In the top left and top right are
the outputs to the amps.
You can just make out “in” and “Amp
1” on the left and Amp 2 on the right.
A Peterson 5000 strobe tuner is typically
seen on top of his amps.
This picture comes from the inner cover of
Out of Exile released in 2005.
The only real addition comes from the new
Boss Super Octave, an upgrade from the OC2
And a Sadowsky preamp. The rest remains the
same.
In 2010 Tim appears on Dave Grohl's documentary
Sound City
and we see a brief glimpse of his pedals used
at this time.
You got a tuner, a POG 2 octave and an Electro
harmonix octave multiplexer. Clearly. Taped.
Over. That was a difficult one Tim, I’ll
give you that.
There also appears two new homemade loopers.
Which look like this.
As well as two DI’s pre and post board.
The rest of the gear you already know.
As both of these images were taken during
the recording sessions they could very well
be situational.
Gearing up into Wakrat around 2015. This was
Tim’s initial board.
You got your DI, Tech 21 Bass Driver and Ampeg
SCRI with a preamp and overdrive option.
And towards the back looks to be a Keeley
C2 compressor.
More footage of the band came out the following
year with another glimpse of his board.
Sighted was an MXR Blue Box, an octave fuzz
and a Soundblox 2 Bass Multiwave.
This was supported in interviews and a Facebook
post at the time.
When Wakrat started touring, Tim finally spoke
openly about his gear.
Firstly in a written interview.
It states the usual gear as well as a return
to the Marshall Guv’nor and MXR Phase 90.
Neither of these pedals are seen in the wild
so to speak. So it could be studio based.
The touring board consisted of a return to
the Ampeg SCRI primarily used for in ear monitors.
an EBS compressor,
his backup DIY distortion which is very similar
to the “Fear This” box.
The ABY box but he states he only uses one
channel.
An MXR Line driver
A TC helicon vocal preamp
Dunlop mini bass wah And the handmade A/B
looper box.
At the same time as this was going on.
The Prophets of Rage were starting to gain
traction.
The primary focus of the Prophets is Rage
Against the Machine songs.
As a result, Tim has come full circle and
uses some of his original gear.
Speaking of full circle, we’re straight
back to blurry potato pictures too.
With that said.
The bands social media accounts and appearances
helps to fill in some of the details.
He returns with Fear This. Two full sized
bass wahs,
the Boss OC2 and DD3.
With a new addition of an Orange two stroke
distortion.
Although this looks to be swapped out for
the sound blocs.
In a 2018 video for Ernie Ball, we have another
glimpse of Tim’s board with the only addition
being an MXR 10 band EQ.
Looking at Prophet shows from this summer
2019.
The board lay out seems to remain the same.
Wakrat has been in the studio this year and
these photos were released on their facebook
page.
As you can see he clearly uses different boards
for both bands.
Apart from the pedals already mentioned.
This board contains an MXR ABY pedal
And a custom Analogue Octave made by COG effects.
They also made Tim a Bass fuzz which I haven’t
come across in picture.
We’ve done pretty good so far, I hope you’ll
agree.
You may notice a couple of pedals I haven’t
pointed out.
And there’s a good reason for that. I don’t
know 100% for certain what they are.
So, I hope you don’t mind me speculating
for just a moment.
This pedal looks like an Ampeg Scrambler.
It’s size, shape and features are consistent
with the pedal on this board.
Note the jagged edges around the knobs and
placement of the text.
As Tim has used the SCRI it isn’t too much
of a stretch to try the pedal version.
It’s possible there’s a second one at
the back of the board.
The pedal to the left of this matches a similar
profile to the Way Huge pedals.
Big knobs and a large footprint … I know
what I said. It’s not funny.
The Purple Platypus, jesus really? - What
has this channel turned into.
The Purple Platypus when turned to grayscale
seems to fit here.
In addition to this there’s a second pedal
matching the Way Huge footprint.
Same knobs size and blue LED.
It’s hard to see in this picture but there
are very faint hints of red and pink which
leads me to believe this could be a Red Llama
20th anniversary pedal or possibly a Green
Rhino.
I’m done speculating! Do you disagree? What
do you think they are?
Strings and misc
Let’s take a look at strings and things.
And some other miscellaneous stuff.
For strings it looks like Tim has primarily
used Ernie Ball Slinkys .105 from the beginning.
During the Audioslave era he cited in a 2005
interview that he’s gone through “a bunch
of different string gauges” And used a .130
B on the first record.
Kings X bassist Doug Pinnick suggested to
Tim he use a lighter gauge instead.
Dropping down to a .110 recording Out of Exile
followed by a compromise of .120 when live.
“Now I feel like my J-Bass sounds like a
J-Bass should, just with lower strings.”
This string right here is a lot thicker than what I used to use in Rage
Look at that, long after you quit seeing it move it'll still be sustaining right now it's thundering if it's in a PA system
We can't even talk right now.
When recording Wakrat in 2016. Lakland basses
were strung with Rotosound Tru Bass black
nylons (.065–.115).
Tim explained; They’re the ones Paul McCartney
used. It’s a cool sound and I was planning
on using that live.”
Until he got those new Stingrays then it was
back to Ernie Ball!
We touched briefly on pickups.
The original Jazz pickups Tim used get a lot
of attention and as I said earlier.
They were sent to Fender Custom Shop to be
replicated.
In an interview with Fender. Tim expressed
that he still has the Fender made pickups.
When he’s having pickup issues he tends
to try those out first.
“they’re always cool; they always work
out. But I remember when I was A/B-ing them
with the original ones. There’s something
about those original ones that made them better
than anything else. Those are the best two
that I have.”
It could be construed that he uses these as
“control” pickups for testing new basses.
The Lakland vintage J’s have their own stock
pickup.
A few of the other Lakland basses looked like
they could be fitted with barolini single
coils.
As Bartolinis tend to come stock on other
Lakland models.
Tim’s new Stingrays, depending on when you
see them. Tend to have the new neodymium's
or Nordstrand Big mans.
Other gear you’ll see Tim with are Hipshot
tuners.
These replace the stock tuning key on your
headstock with a little lever.
When switched it will automatically drop the
string to a designated position.
For Tim this would mean dropping from E to
D.
You can tune back up to E and carry on by
returning the level back to its starting position.
Most of Tim’s Fender Jazzes started out
with Badass 2 bridges and were eventually
replaced with Gotath bridges.
With Tim stating how he’s not a fan of stock
bridges and the Gotath’s were solid.
Only one of the Laklands had its bridge replaced
and the rest remained stock.
The same is mostly true for the Stingrays
but a couple in his collections had modifications
made to add a string thru bridge with old
school string mutes.
Take a look at the show notes for everything
mentioned today
And all the little details I haven’t been
able to include.
I had a lot of fun learning about Timmy C
and I hope this helps to put some of those
age of questions to rest.
Timmy C, if you’re out there. Drop me a
line and tell me how I did. I’d love to
hear from you.
In the next episode of Know Your Bass Player.
We’re going to be looking at Dave Ellefson
from Megadeth … but if you’re not into
Dave.
Leave me a comment below and tell me who you
do want to see.
Thank you very much for watching and I’ll
see you next time.
