Fachblatt Musikmagazin

Fachblatt Musikmagazin

An article detailing Pearl Jam’s equipment is featured in this issue. Stage manager George Webb provides much of the behind-the scenes information about the amps and guitars used on stage:

Interestingly, Jeff Ament's bass equipment is far more modern than that of his more traditionally minded band colleagues. "When we're preparing for a gig, I'm the stage manager, but during the soundcheck and the show, I'm the bass tech," Webb explains. "I haven't had to spend much time on this job, though, because the bass system has been very consistent and reliable so far. It doesn't need any extensive maintenance. Unlike Mike, Jeff Ament doesn't break anything, so all I have to do is change the strings. Jeff plays some Hamers - just today I talked to the president of the company, Jol Dantzig, who will be sending us a new fretless bass. In addition, we have an 8-string and a 12-string from Hamer. There are about nine basses available for the show, including an electric double bass by Carruthers, a fretless five-string by Wal, a four-string by Zon and an old fretless that you can see in the EVEN FLOW video and that was designed by Mike Lull - maybe Jeff's favorite bass. The "N.B.A." four-string by Lull was decorated by Jeff with his own artwork and the names of his favorite basketball players.”

“We have three different pre-amps: One SWR 900 and two Pearce B2Ps. Because Jeff uses both 12-string and normal basses, he wants a different sound for each one. He also uses distortion on all sounds, the degree of which he varies depending on the instrument and song; for example, he likes distortion on the twelve and eight-string for songs like JEREMY, DEEP, LEASH, WHY GO and REARVIEW-MIRROR. That's why I use a system that allows me to switch back and forth between the pre-amps before each song, although he also has a foot switch on stage that allows him to change this himself if he wants to. With the help of our soundman, I recently rebuilt Jeff's rack. We spent three nights rewiring last year's gigantic rack and made three smaller ones. Everything was hard wired, and only the umbilical cords (see Rivera's guide in this issue) and the speaker cables come out - it's very easy to set up.”