Mike Rutherford - Bass/guitar Playing

Bass/guitar Playing

Rutherford's bass playing involved the bass with high treble, use of a pick and a fuzz box in songs like "The Knife" and "The Return of the Giant Hogweed". Rutherford was noted for his use of the 12-string guitar. A distinctive sound of early Genesis recordings was the double acoustic 12-string playing of Rutherford intertwined with that of Anthony Phillips, and, later, Steve Hackett (additionally, keyboardist Tony Banks would occasionally throw his own 12-string into the mix). Early Genesis recordings often featured simultaneous 12 string guitar and Dewtron "Mister Bassman" bass pedal synthesiser playing by Rutherford. He used Moog Taurus bass pedals as well by the Trick of the Tail Tour. Often, bass guitar, 12-string guitar, and bass pedal playing would feature in different sections of a single song, "Supper's Ready", "Firth of Fifth", and "The Cinema Show" being good examples of this. He often played a double necked instrument, custom built from a separate Rickenbacker hollowbody 12-string and 4001 bass. Rickenbacker later issued double neck bass/guitar combinations with 4080/6 and 4080/12 models. However, Rutherford had the guitar in the top position rather than the 4080's stock guitar on bottom. He later had a custom Shergold double neck made with the body modified so that each neck could be detached and played as a standard single-neck instrument.