Paul Simonon - Musical Equipment

Musical Equipment

Paul is known for using white Fender Precision basses and Ampeg amplification although he has also used Sunn amps. He is also known for decorating his own basses with paint and stickers, and his basses often had a text on the upper horn of the body.

Paul started off playing through a small unknown head-amplifier and a pink 4x10 cab, but in 1978 he began using Ampeg cabinets and amps and has since used Ampegs. His first bass was a "cheap knock-off", as he called it himself, that he used through 1976 and early 1977, which he splattered in paint. In 1977, during the recording of The Clash, he received a black Rickenbacker from Patti Smith, which he also decorated in paint, but he didn't quite like the sound of it as it sounded too thin, and he also thought it was too lightweight (he's stated that he prefers heavy basses, as they seem more resonant and robust). After that he got hold of a white Fender Precision Bass in 1978, and since has only played white Fenders live.

Later he received a new Fender from CBS which he has used for many years. CBS used to give him a new bass every now and then. It was another P-Bass, and this one is known for having "Paul" scratched into the body. The pick-ups were black on all of his Fenders, but he changed the ones on this bass to white. This bass was used mainly throughout 1978 and used as a backup in 1979. He played a Wal JG Custom Bass during the recording session for Give 'Em Enough Rope in 1978, because the producer Sandy Pearlman suggested it, but Paul disliked it because it had too many switches.

In 1979 he got a new Fender, which was the one he smashed on the cover of London Calling. He strongly regretted that move, because it was his best sounding bass. This bass now resides in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. After it was smashed, it was back to the old Fender, which he used until he got a new bass in 1980 (there is a small possibility that this is the same bass as Bass, before it eventually got modified). All of his Fenders up to then had maple necks.

However, in 1981 he got a Fender Fretless Precision with a rosewood fingerboard. He played this through 1981, but went back to using fretted Fenders in 1982. He then got hold of a Fender Precision with a black headstock, rosewood fingerboard, and white pick-ups. He then also changed the neck on his PAUL-bass to a neck with black headstock and rosewood fretboard.

The last two electric bass guitars were mainly used as backup basses, and still are to this day, and the Fender Precision Bass, showed on the picture of him at the top of this section, is still his main bass, heavily worn and beaten up. He had a sunburst Precision in the last years of The Clash, but this one was only used as a backup and by Joe Strummer during the song "The Guns of Brixton".

He had a sunburst Epiphone Rivoli, which can be seen in the videos for "The Call Up" and "London Calling", but he was also seen with it in the earliest days of The Clash. It had probably belonged to Joe Strummer, Mick Jones or someone in their former bands: The 101'ers (Strummer) or London SS (Mick Jones). He used an Ovation acoustic bass during the recording of The Good, the Bad and the Queen.