Black Sabbath’s Geezer Butler Celebrates Fender’s 75th Anniversary of the Precision Bass by Telling Us What He Loves Most About It
· Vice
This year, Fender is celebrating the 75th anniversary of its iconic Precision Bass. As part of the big festivities, I had the chance to ask legendary Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler a few questions about his instrument of choice.
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Now, because I’m basically a fake music journalist, I don’t actually know much of anything about the bass. I tried to learn to play it once, but I was not very good. So, I reached out to my oldest friend in the world, Chad Hoxie.
A longtime bassist, Chad has played in numerous bands and is currently the bass player for North Carolina prog-rock band Abstractionist. I knew that he would know exactly what I needed to ask Geezer, and I could not have been more right. Read on!
Vice: What, overall, attracts you to the P bass style?
Geezer Butler: For me, the P bass is what I learned to play on. It’s my go-to bass, whether it’s a Fender or a Lakland P bass. I find it has the perfect balance when playing live; the controls are simple but effective, and the fretboard is the ideal width for my fingers. It’s just a well-thought-out, great-sounding bass.
When it comes to choosing things like neck shape and pickups, what goes into your consideration these days that maybe you wouldn’t have thought about in Sabbath’s early days?
Well, the neck shape was what influenced me the most in the first place, so I prefer the wider neck/fretboard of the P bass. I have found over the years that too many pickups and tone and volume controls can be superfluous. I like to keep things simple. After all these years, I still prefer the no-nonsense design of the P Bass.
Vice: How do you decide what string brand you prefer to pair with the P Bass?
Geezer Butler: I use DR bass strings exclusively. I used to suffer with blisters when we’d start a tour, as I play much harder at live shows than when writing or recording. It used to take me 4 or 5 shows for my blisters to burst and harden. With DR strings, I have never had that problem. The way the core of the strings is wound somehow helps me avoid blistering.
Also, DR is without doubt the best string company as far as listening to and providing strings to my spec is concerned, even down to the colors of strings I want. They were the first company to make black strings for me, to match my basses, and recently made my claret and blue strings [my football team’s colors] for me to play at the ‘Back To The Beginning’ show, which was held at the Aston Villa stadium, home to my football team.
Vice: In terms of P bass-to-amp tone settings, where do you like to set your EQ?
Geezer Butler: I always have my bass volume and tone controls on full [11], and my usual amp settings on half mid, treble around the three-quarter mark, and bass around the three-quarter mark, but it all depends on which particular song I’m playing or recording.
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Geezer is featured in Fender’s new video series, Lowdown on the Low End. The series includes Geezer sitting down with Foo Fighters’ bassist Nate Mendel to trade stories about their basses, discuss how the P Bass shaped their playing and sound, and revisit the instruments that defined their earliest records.
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