here's the machines I work to make the low flow
2021 reverend guitars "wattplower" mark II bass
this design is a total joe naylor/mike watt collab. short (30 inch) scale neck, twentyone frets, passive volume/tone controls, joe naylor designed "p-blade" pickup, hipshot 'a style' bridge w/solid brass spacer, strings are loaded through the body, hipshot 'ultralite' tuners, via three way switch is wattplower mark I mode (low strings pblade pickup closer to the neck on) + reversed mode (low strings pblade pickup closer to the bridge on) - the high strings pblade pickup is always on in these two settings. the third setting is for the neck pickup which is a rio grande pitbull pickup w/alnico magnets (the pblade pickups have ceramic magnets which have more mids than alnico magnets) strings: d'addario nyxl (40-60-75-95), weight: 8.2 lbs
2024 reverend guitars "wattplower" mark II bass
this is a wattplower mark II I modified in 2025, short (30 inch) scale neck, twentyone frets, front pickup replaced w/a curtis novak bisonic/darkstar in a paf case,back pickup replace w/a lindy fralin 1951 pbass single coil (big thanks to joel morrison for the routing/install job!), pickup selector switch replaced w/five-way strat type, series dummy coil for front/back pickups in control cavity w/push/pull bypass on tone tone control. by the way, reverend now has this bass w/maple fretboard instead of rosewood, strings: d'addario nyxl (40-60-75-95), weight: 7.4 lbs
1956 fender precision bass
got this in hermosa beach, ca from beatle bob real econo cuz it was missing its pickup, got a curtis novak "pbird" pickup replaced missing one, another added at the bridge ("pbird"is a split pbass pickup in a thunderbird case, curtis created at my request!), this has a 'v' neck and also has "thunderbroom" carved into the back of the body. opened up a beastie boys early 90s tour using this w/fIREHOSE, signed by tony 19 who was a huge influence on me, 34 inch full scale, strings: thomastik-infeld jazz, round wound set jr344 (43-51-68-89), weight: 8.6 lbs
1997 moon jj-4-240b (larry graham model) bass
I got this bass in the mail from chicago, il - yeah, the fucking mail... never it played (only time I ever did that) but well worth the dice-roll though cuz I really love it! replaced the original bridge w/a hipshot kickass 4, replaced neck pickup w/split alnico V/III from sadowsky, replaced bridge pickup w/split jazz from lindy fralin and removed original onboard preamp, now running passive w/controls like a orig fender j. moved the output jack to the front, where I much prefer it. 34 inch full scale strings: la bella low tension flats ltf-4a (42-56-75-100), weight: 9.4 lbs
1966 gibson thunderbird II (non-reverse) bass
"bluey" - my main bass from 1995 - 1999 got in nyc at 'we buy guitars' on 48th street while on tour, first gig w/it: snapped its headstock off so had to have it grafted back on and replaced original tuners w/grovers. I recorded my first opera "contemplating the engine room" w/this! also did first stooges reunion gig w/it at coachella in 2003 and after didn't play it again for eighteen years, crimony! then when we lost bassbrother dusty hill I had curtis novak wind me a fender 1951 pbass-type pickup in honor of him to replace the humbucker (tore out all the preamp stuff I had in before also so now it's passive), hiwatt scott out in rochester, ny made me a pickguard to go w/it (MUCH respect to him! he also flowed me a replacement bridge that's fuckin way bitchin) and along
34 1/2 inch full scale strings: thomastik-infeld jazz round wound set jr344 (43-51-68-89) "bluey" is back in the ring for recording w/watt again who is MOST grateful, truly! weight: 8.2 lbs
2015 hofner violin ignition bass
got this china-made version of what hofner calls their violin bass expressly to do the "whistle blower" tour for tav falco as one of the panther burns in the fall of 2015 and took off the pickguard. also had to flip the jack plate over so the jack nut would screw down tight. real fun bass to play sits right next to me where I konk at my pad, ready to translate my ideas into bass! baby's got curtis novak pickups now instead of the ones it came w/ peetzo made me a new control plate out of brass and I replaced orig controls w/v-v-t like a fender j short (30 inch) scale strings: la bella 760FHB2 "beatle" bass stainless flats (39-56-77-96) weight: 4.4 lbs
early to mid 70's gibson les paul signature bass
replaced original pickup w/a curtis novak humbucker version of his 'dark star' pickup and wired it directly to the output jack after removing all the original controls and then replaced the original bridge w/a hipshot. years ago I got les paul to sign it behind the bridge, joke is on me though - ironically, it says "to mike, keep on pickin' les paul" (I pretty much lost being able to play w/a pick!) this is the bass I keep at casa hanzo got it on tour in smyrna, ga 34 1/2 inch full scale strings: d'addario half rounds (40-60-75-95) weight: 8.4 lbs
early to mid 70's gibson sb-450 bass
this was a gift from very kind bassbrother jeff ament. he had the original pickups replaced w/mike lull tbird ones and he also replaced the original bridge w/one from hipshot. I keep this bass also at casa hanzo, am using now (feb
2024) to record the next missingmen album "static" 34 1/2 inch full scale strings: d'addario nyxl (40-60-75-95), weight: 7 lbs
1965 gibson eb-0 "the dan bass"
given to me by a very kind man named dan after all the stooges stuff was stolen in 2008. one rio grande pitbull (original pickup removed), 'bass bridge 2000' from schaller, custom pick guard (to cover hole where original pickup was), special wiring by mr shimmmy (arigato!), short (30 1/2 inch) scale, weight: 6.8 lbs
watt's rig for most gigs he does these days
one forte hp2x amp (weight: 6.6 lbs) and one nxtse212 (a special edition of the nxt212) speakerbox (weight: 62 lbs w/casters that I added myself and cover [not shown here]), bof of these are from bergantino audio systems
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