Close-up of the back of the headstock, showing the Hip-shot tuner mechanism.
Close-up of the body, showing the years of wear, sweat, love, and blood—This bass has seen some things, that’s a fact.
Garry with Old Faithful at his rig from the INXS concert at Wembley Stadium, UK.
Old faithful: 1958 Fender P-bass
I first met Old Faithful in 1985 backstage at a theatre gig in Chicago. I had a local vintage guitar guy bring in a handful of 58’s to look at. They went from really beaten up to pristine and the prices reflected that. Right in the middle of the pile was my future bass with the right amount of wear and the perfect P bass sound.
She had a very interesting wear patterns already- she was obviously a part of the Chicago R&B scene, played with a thumb while the previous owner’s finger nails dug into the anodised guard while anchoring the hand under the thumb rest. Plus a decent gouge where someones long thumbail dug into the body when they switched to fingers. The neck wear showed that a heavy handed player owned her before me, and that most of the tunes he (or she) really dug in on the E string.
I plugged her into my Ampeg rig and that was that- the perfect bass for my head, my heart and my music. A very special guit.
I set her up with some new Rotosound rounds and then turned the bridge saddles over to dab a drop of nail polish to set the screw heights and that was that. The neck never moved, the action stayed the same with string changes every gig and she never let me down.
So it’s a no- brainer for me to offer and Old Faithful replica with my unique electronics and design touches. She will be an amazing new instrument with the feel of some history about her and I hope that she will hit you like she hit me back in the day.
She will be the XS-58—and she will be a special order.
Thank you Leo for putting my soul mate bass in my life. I hope I can do the same for you players out there.
— GGB
What about a replica?
Garry has been asked many times if he will be be releasing a replica of Old Faithful.
He made a version of his iconic live bass in the XS-2 body style- Sunburst / Maple neck and it has been his 1# live bass since.
But we hear the request and will make a small number of P-bass shaped replicas of her but with Garry’s patented pickups and controls.
We will call this bass the XS-58.