Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Discussion of vintage Jazzmasters, Jaguars, Bass VIs, Electric XIIs and any other offset-waist instruments.
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Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Wed Aug 18, 2021 11:29 pm

No idea of the provenance but I thought this was pretty interesting, and completely new to me...

Image

Even he seems doubtful about its origin but he loves the thing....and strangely, so do I.
I did a quick image search but couldn't find any pics of Sly Stone holding anything like this.

There are so many dodgy psychedelic paint jobs out there but this one actually works, in my humble opinion anyway.
You think you can't, you wish you could, I know you can, I wish you would. Slip inside this house as you pass by.

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Re: Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Post by JSett » Thu Aug 19, 2021 12:09 am

PorkyPrimeCut wrote:
Wed Aug 18, 2021 11:29 pm

There are so many dodgy psychedelic paint jobs out there but this one actually works, in my humble opinion anyway.
I agree, I actually really like this one. It works pretty well with the flow of the guitar design
Silly Rabbit, don't you know scooped mids are for kids?

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Re: Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Post by UlricvonCatalyst » Thu Aug 19, 2021 6:01 am

The Y is actually a lower case F - it belonged to Stiff Little Fingers.

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Re: Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Post by cestlamort » Thu Aug 19, 2021 8:33 am

Did you search for Sly Stallone?

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Re: Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Post by Larry Mal » Thu Aug 19, 2021 8:43 am

I've seen that Bass VI before, I'll say that.

I can't say I definitely have seen Sly with that.

But, I was looking a bit, and I came across this quote:

The bass in Family Stone tracks—usually handled by Larry Graham, who went on to form the group Graham Central Station—played a crucial role whose evolution listeners can track through the chronologically organized Higher! In 1979, Brian Eno noted that “f you listen to records from the '50s, you'll find that all the melodic information is mixed very loud. ... and the rhythmic information is mixed rather quietly. ... from the time of Sly and the Family Stone's Fresh album [released in 1973], there's a flip over, where the rhythm instruments, particularly the bass drum and bass, suddenly become the important instruments.”
Back in those days, everyone knew that if you were talking about Destiny's Child, you were talking about Beyonce, LaTavia, LeToya, and Larry.

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Re: Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Post by Bradley-Jazz » Thu Aug 19, 2021 10:20 am

Graham Coxon mentions it here - no more provenance though. https://www.musicradar.com/news/graham ... s-me-to-do

Looks to match this thinline Tele too…
https://www.slystonemusic.com/news/exc ... rworldcom/
All the cheeses....

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Re: Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Post by PorkyPrimeCut » Thu Aug 19, 2021 11:55 pm

Interesting!

I found a short discussion on the Tele with a YouTube link that no longer works.

The fourth comment down...

"...I used to own Sly's Fender Bass VI, it looked like it was painted by the same guy....The base coat was white opalescent. Sold it back to the guy I got it from."

So the Bass VI was definitely passed around with the same story attached.

Here's the part of the long Graham Coxon video where they discuss the bass.

Quite funny how the guy next to him, probably his tech, discusses Mastery making a replacement for the bridge, or "these crappy things", as he puts it. He goes on to talk about Pete Townsend replacing the offset bridge saddles with ones off a Les Paul, and that it's a drop in replacement.

Here's that Tele in action. It's a great Soul Train clip actually, with a groove slowly built up around the keys & drums. There's even a guy playing violin through a Wah pedal :freako:
You think you can't, you wish you could, I know you can, I wish you would. Slip inside this house as you pass by.

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Re: Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Post by Highnumbers » Fri Aug 20, 2021 11:02 am

Yeah I really love a good period psychedelic paint job.

Wouldn't want one done today, but I've seen a few originals (even ones not owned by anybody hugely famous) that were super cool and seemed to tell a great story.

What a fantastic Bass VI, would be nice if more details related to its supposed Sly Stone connection could be unearthed.

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Re: Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Post by beauzooka » Fri Aug 20, 2021 3:50 pm

Amazing instrument!
Sly & the Family Stone were such a great and important band.

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Re: Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Post by Mechanical Birds » Fri Aug 20, 2021 5:20 pm

That finish is criminal jesus

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Re: Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Post by FEXII » Sat Aug 21, 2021 4:35 am

I think it looks terrible.

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Re: Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Post by SignoftheDragon » Mon Aug 23, 2021 8:51 am

Criminal or not, I'd rather it stay in this altered state now, given its history.

(I don't like the paint job, but I kinda love it.)

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Re: Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Post by countertext » Mon Aug 23, 2021 9:44 am

I am 100% down with that paint job and that VI.

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Re: Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Post by invisible man » Mon Aug 23, 2021 12:29 pm

A lot of the more refined tasteful psychedelic art takes cues from Art Nouveau.
https://soundcloud.com/billy-gashade

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Re: Graham Coxon with his Fender Bass VI - "owned by Sly Stone"...

Post by Flurko » Mon Aug 23, 2021 12:50 pm

It's a pretty cool looking partial refin, the way the sunburst shows in "windows" is nice.

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