1. As the band “The Who” exploded onto the mod and rock scene in 1964, the band had a very
different approach to music with each member being very energetic and explosive with their
expression and technique they changed the face of rock music completely. And each band member
had a very specific set of instruments and they were unique each to themselves. Here is John
Entwistle’s rundown of bass guitars and the company behind these revolutionary designs:
Here John Entwistle is pictured with his avid collection of bass guitars
In 1960, he built his own bass from mahogany and painted mauve. It was created on his
grandmother’s dining table and ended up being 5’6’’ long in total. The neck was square and was
fretted in the same way as a violin bass (Double Bass) and ended up with having 9’’ of space towards
the end of the neck not fretted at all. It was apparently terrible yet he tried to copy it from pictures
of a fender precision bass.
During mid-1963 he managed to acquire a Fender Precision Bass yet he managed to part with it
because he thought it was destroying his speakers and went on to buy an Epiphone Rivoli EBV232
semi-acoustic bass (sunburst) yet regretted parting with the Precision as he found that it wasn’t the
bass that was destroying speakers.
After that he started gathering a collection of bass guitars ranging from a Rickenbacker 4000 Rose to
a MorsiteVentrues bass which featured two pickups, unusual for the time but enabled him to add
the desired tone of a lot of treble in his sound to make him distinctive along with his “Typewriter”
approach to playing and gave him the nickname “Thunderfingers”.
(http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/bass/bass.html)
Signature Series
In 1985 John decided he wanted to have his own signature bass model and had a range of ideas so
he met up with Hans Peter Wilfer, the founder of Warwick basses, to create his own personal bass.
After many design ideas pitched forward the design of the “Buzzard” was created with Hans coming

2. up with the design for the trademark “hand-grip” on the lower horn. After playing the designs and
coming up with the various basses John became curious about the benefits of graphite necks as they
didn’t induce any truss rod problems often found in the wooden necks. This allowed John to have his
preferred action level and still retain the hollow, treble based sound he has. Modulus graphite made
two Buzzard basses for John and he paid full retail for them to support the upcoming company,
Modulus then gave 6 necks to Warwick to create more Basses for John and designed them in detail.
(Modulus is now called Status)
(http://web.archive.org/web/20060404220855/http://www.warwickbass.com/news/37.htm)
Full Graphite version specifications:
John Entwistle Buzzard Bass :
· One-piece, 100% woven graphite moulding with a radical body shape
designed by John Entwistle
· Clear high gloss lacquer. Also available with red, blue, green or amber tints
· 2 x Status Hyperactive pickups
· 18 volt custom designed circuit with active treble/bass cut/boost plus variable
frequency midrange switchable for boost / flat
· 34" scale, 26 fret neck with side L.E.D. fret markers plus Roman numeral
fingerboard inlays
· Chrome, Black or Gold hardware
· The John Entwistle Buzzard is available as 4, 5 or 8 string. (On the same
neck profile)
· Supplied in full flight case
(http://www.buzzardbass.com/Prices/Prices.htm)