Doug Rauch - Equipment

Equipment

In the 1960s and for some of his work with Santana, Doug can be seen using two stock pre-CBS era Fender Precision Basses with perloid block inlays in the neck (a.k.a. "block neck"). One was colored sunburst, and the other white.

However, the main bass Doug used for the majority of his career was a heavily modified pre-CBS era Fender Jazz Bass. The instrument was one of only a handful custom modified by various technicians in the early 1970s. It contained 3 passive pickups instead of usual two as seen on a stock Fender Jazz Bass. The 3 pickups were a Gibson EB0 neck humbucking pickup (a.k.a. "mudbucker") in the neck position, a stock Fender Precision Bass humbucker in the middle position, and a stock Fender Jazz Bass single coil bridge pickup in the bridge position. A non-original knob and two white switches were also installed above the jack plate. Around 1974-1975 Doug was seen with blue lights installed in the neck. It is unknown if the lights were a modification to the original instrument, or in fact a new instrument altogether.

Another key element of his sound was his frequent use of a phase-shifter effect.

Later in his career, Doug Rauch was one of the first bass players to use a tube power amp made by McIntosh for live gigs. Notably, Jerry Garcia and Phil Lesh of the Grateful Dead also San Francisco based musicians used Mcintosh power amps for their live shows around the same time.