Five Men and a Bass: Are Three Necks Better than One?
Five Men and a Bass: Are Three Necks Better than One?
Week 12 | June 29, 2017
By the Forgotten Woman, JoOnna Silberman
Somewhere in Bucharest there is a Hard Rock Café and in that Hard Rock Café there is presently a bass hanging on the wall. Encased with the bass on the top left corner of the is “Chris Squire Yes”.
See for yourself:
Now the bass has been at different Hard Rock’s throughout the years, presently where it resides is not matter, what does matter is that it is probably one of the most incredible bass guitars ever made. Some call it indulgent, some call it spectacle, but the fact of the matter is that it was a beauty of a guitar, and amazing feat, created by an exceptional man, Ian Waller (Wal) and the bass accomplished the work and sound multiplied by three in a live performance, something which could only have been done in the studio beforehand.
Why am I talking about the Wal, and what is my interest with it? Glad you asked!
As you know, I write quite a bit about the use of sound, innovation and musicality. All three of those topics are rolled into one when speaking of the Wal Triple Neck Bass. However, the second reason is that one of my business partners Chris Adams (a brilliant musician himself I might add) has a personal connection to this instrument and the man it was actually designed for, which was not Mr. Squire, who’s music I love dearly (a favorite). While Rick Wakeman certainly did commission the bass, it was made for a man named Roger Newell, the Uncle of Chris Adams. In addition, Chris (Adams) went on to become close friends with Wal, and worked with him over many years. It all started at the Farmyard and in the early days during the King Arthur tour when Wakeman went solo.
The only directives given by Mr. Wakeman were made during a casual conversation somewhere around 1974 in a pub in Buckinghamshire, and the motive was not musical, but visual.
“Rick suggested I use something visually stunning like a triple neck bass, and he would fund the project.” ~ Roger Newell “Bassist” magazine 1999.
So, the idea was born and it was Roger who approached Wal with the idea and worked with him on the concept (Roger give complete credit for the idea to Rick). The proof of concept is all laid out in the transcript of the 1999 article in “Bassist” Magazine (no longer in publication) but published by blogger Trevor Raggatt for prosperity in the “History of Wal Basses”. There were many attempts made is a short time span to get this bass right, several of which were all knocked down by Wakeman. Even still, the bass was finally born.
“I’d met Ian ‘Wal’ Waller sometime before and was well acquainted with the short scale bass he’d made for John G. Perry, his only professionally made instrument at that time (featured in Bassist Nov ’96). Wal felt perfectly capable of manufacturing the instrument but the idea was beginning to bother me greatly, after all, I was kinda slight ‘n’ skinny (‘Budgie’ was my nickname!) so how could I cope with something that sounded so ‘large’? An evening or two designing with Wal had me feeling a lot easier. My first request for 4-string fretted, 4-string fretless and an 8-string neck was rejected (too heavy), so we came up with a basic 2-neck design on an off-set body to improve balance. Rick rejected this two neck option: Mike Rutherford of Genesis was already using a double- necked Rickenbacker, and he wanted to top that, but if weight was the problem then stick a guitar on it! I protested. I didn’t play guitar on any of the stuff. Rick, never to be outsmarted, retorted, “I’II write something…” And he did!” ~ Roger Newell “Bassist Magazine” 1999.
In speaking to Chris Adams, he conveyed to me the passion and love that went into this project, “I was a kid when I first met Wal. I loved music and started playing at a young age. First the drums, and then I would dream of being Jimi Hendrix and started playing guitar. My uncle would take me to Farmyard all the time, and I saw the story unfold before my eyes. All of the sudden there was a Triple Neck Bass, it was bloody amazing! Hanging with my Uncle, Wal, Rick and so many other iconic musicians contributed to who I am today. I was part of the history and it is part of me!”
After many attempts, one night while Roger was asleep, Wal came up with the ultimate solution.
“Guitar at the top, fretted bass in the middle, lined fretless on the bottom. Now I’d never even seen a fretless bass close-up at that time, so the thought of playing an unmarked board scared the proverbial [Blank] out of me; I insisted on the fret lines. Whether this pre-dated Jaco’s fret- stripped Fender, I have no idea, but he’d not been heard of in 1974. Whatever, we put on stock Fender parts (hard to get back then), including bridges and pickups. Four split-coil Mustang units for the bass necks and a standard pair of Telecasters for the guitar. For the huge scratch plate, I chose hand-tooled leather along the lines of John G. Perry’s as I thought that looked classy, with a natural finish the body.” ~ Roger Newell, “Bassist Magazine” 1999
They had their bass and there were a few fitting sessions just days before the 4 month King Arthur Tour was set to begin.
“It felt reasonably comfortable, sounded good – but not great – and was a complete dog electrically. There were switches for each neck, pickup switches and Volume and Tone for each neck on dual concentric pots. Frankly, it was a bloody nightmare. Wal, as ever, was totally undaunted. We discussed each problem and he came up with a solution.
Firstly, re-winding the pickups to make them much more powerful added enormously to the impact, so the sound was fixed. I was already using a massive pedal board of effects (all pre-digital), with a set of Fender keyboard bass pedals (Moog had yet to produce their outstanding Taurus unit) and I sang at the same time. Boy did I earn my money. So it made sense to dump the volume controls from the bass and put Volume pedals on the board. A further switch on the bass allowed me to choose between the basses or the guitar, helping to prevent unwanted sound from sympathetic vibration on other strings. This proved very effective and, with a final decision to tune the fretless down to D-G-C-F to accommodate the Merlin track for which I’d de-tuned my Precision on the record, Budgie and bass extraordinaire flew to America.” ~ Roger Newell, “Bassist Magazine” 1999
Well, the bass went through more changes which you can read about, and there were some hairsplitting moments.
“Rick, bless him, was right the triple-neck caused a sensation whenever I used it, which was usually only a couple of times a night due to the weight, but it sounded great. We did a long world tour and it never once let me down. It did tend to leap from my hands when I jumped into the air (an action I considered pretty cool at the time – sad, eh?), so we strapped the headstocks together to stop that. It was a great success.” ~ Roger Newell, “Bassist Magazine” 1999
(A good view of Roger with the bass at around the 5:09 mark)
However, after two tours Wakeman was persuaded to fold up the band and shortly started playing with Yes again in time for the “Going for the One” album. He offered the bass to Roger, but it developed quite the reputation and was out of his price range. So the bass literally fell to Chris Squire who later told Roger.
“The only reason I decided to use it was because of the track Awaken which along with regular fretted bass, required the use of fretless and 8-string so when it came to doing it on stage, because of the quick change-over between different sections, I knew I’d need a guitar that could produce the three sounds quickly. Rick suggested I borrow the triple-neck and as it did the job so well he eventually gave it to me. I didn’t realise it was only the second bass that Wal had ever made. I adapted the top neck to become the A, D and G string of the 8-string bass, tuned in octave pairs. I changed the nut so the strings would pair up but didn’t change any of the rest of the guitar, I just left it as it was ‘cos it sounded all right. The leather scratch plate added a lot to the visual appeal and I didn’t really change it much as far as I remember, unless some enthusiastic roadie had a go at it first, but I may have removed the cover plates. It’s very heavy, and for a 20-minute piece, of music, I needed an extra wide strap. I did notice, too, that the necks had a tendency to wave about a bit.”
It turns out that when recording the track Chris Squire had to use three different Rickenbacker’s in order to create the sound that he could with the Wal Triple Neck Bass live.
“Well, f*** me!” – Roger Newell commented upon hearing that.
Later, Mr. Squire had a copy of the Wal made in Japan by Hiroshi Kid of Kid’s Guitars (on sale now for $2900) which was easier for him to use, but funny enough he is the one who will go down in infamy with the originals association. By the way, I believe I was at that concert in 1977 at Madison Square Garden and probably saw him playing the original instrument. I think it was my Birthday present that year…odd the way life twists and turns like that. Who knew I would be writing about it 40 years later (you do the math).
What struck me the most when researching this piece, aside from the dedication and love that musicians feel when it comes to the innovation and composition of music is that there are/were 5 different musicians who were all part this Bass’s life, and each of them had their own connection as well as reaction to its ingenuity.
For Wal himself, it was the challenge and tinkering of building the instrument; for Rick Wakeman, it was the showmanship; for Roger Newell, it was being able to create a sound and do something that no other bassist/musician before him had done; for Chris Squire it was a means to an end…simply the functionality and finally for Chris Adams, it was being part of the history, and being able to learn and work with some of the most talented people in the industry and be present ; which we here at Forgotten Man Productions are eternally grateful for, because if he was not part of it, perhaps we wouldn’t have spectacular renditions of songs like “Little Wing”
Blessings and thanks to you for reading,
JoOnna Silberman, The Forgotten Woman at Forgotten Man
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