Mike Watt

Michael David Watt (b. December 20, 1957 in Portsmouth, Virginia) is a bass guitarist, singer and songwriter, probably best-known for co-founding punk rock bands The Minutemen and fIREHOSE; as of 2003, he is also the bassist for the reunited Iggy Pop & The Stooges. He is also a member of the art rock/jazz/punk/improv group Banyan.

Equipment

Basses

Watt has vaulted primarily between Gibson and Fender basses for most of his career. He does not do compensated endorsements for any particular guitar brand as of June 2005, usually preferring to buy used basses that he discovers in instrument stores, pawn shops or via classified ads. Watt frequently modifies his basses by adding active electronics, and for luck and inspiration he likes to put pictures of favorite people and/or things on his basses.

Related Topics:
Gibson - Fender - Pawn shop

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He initially started with a mid-60's Gibson EB-3 bass; he switched to a Fender Precision Bass in 1982, feeling that the Gibson was causing him to play too many notes at the time; his first Fender P-Bass was purchased from former Fear bassist Derf Scratch; the bass, which Scratch used on Fear's classic debut album The Record, would also end up being heard on the second Minutemen album, What Makes a Man Start Fires?.

Related Topics:
Fear - Derf Scratch - The Record - What Makes a Man Start Fires?

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Around 1984 he found a Fender Telecaster bass, which became his main bass for the last two years of the Minutemen's existence as well as much of fIREHOSE's; the bass had pictures of Kira and of Watt's favorite singer, Madonna, on the instrument. Close to the end of fIREHOSE's collective life he started using a late 60's Gibson Thunderbird bass; this ended up being his main bass after the white Telecaster was stolen from his apartment sometime in 1995.

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After his recovery from the emergency surgery on his perineum, Watt semi-retired the Thunderbird (he did use it again for his first ever gig with the Stooges at the 2003 Coachella Festival), and switched back to his Gibson EB-3 bass, citing the short scale as being easier on his hands after not touching a bass for the entire time he recovered from surgery; he decorated the bass with photographs of his deceased best friend and Minutemen bandmate D. Boon and jazz legend John Coltrane. This has been his primary bass for live performances but he has also used the bass to record his contributions with Gov't Mule, The Stooges (in their Live In Detroit DVD and a live album recorded in Tokyo), and on J Mascis' December 2000 John Peel radio session. Watt feared that he would have to temporairily shelve the bass in July 2005 when a crack was discovered in its headstock during a 2005 Stooges European tour; fortunately, he was able to have the instrument repaired in time for the next leg of the tour.

Related Topics:
2003 - Coachella Festival - D. Boon - John Coltrane - John Peel - July 2005 - 2005

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In 2005 he acquired a second EB-3 bass as an alternate instrument for live gigs. He initiated the bass during Dos' annual Christmas benefit show, and first used it extensively during a brief six-date spin on the 2005 Vans Warped Tour.

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Over the past few years, he has also started to acquire some custom-made instruments, including basses made by guitar craftsmen Tim Thelen, Mark Garza and Darrin Huff. On "The Secondman's Middle Stand" Watt initially recorded the basic tracks with a Telecaster-style bass built by Tim Thelen, but later recut the basslines with a Moon Larry Graham model bass, which he also used on a 1998 European tour. A yellow Telecaster-style shortscale bass built by Garza and nicknamed "The Bananaplower" can be seen in the "Tied A Reed 'Round My Waist" video and heard on Banyan's Live At Perkins' Palace CD.

Related Topics:
Tim Thelen - Mark Garza - Darrin Huff - The Secondman's Middle Stand - Larry Graham

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Two of his many basses feature autographs: a budget-line Alembic bass he acquired during the early fIREHOSE days and later had spraypainted green features the autograph of Los Angeles Lakers star basketball player James Worthy, and a mid-70's hollow body Gibson Les Paul Signature Bass features, appropriately, Les Paul's signature with the salutation, "Keep on pickin'".

Related Topics:
Los Angeles Lakers - James Worthy - Les Paul

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Amplification

Not much is known about what amplification Watt preferred in the Minutemen days. Pictures (including those in Double Nickels On The Dimes gatefold sleeve) have him using Ampeg SVT amps. In 1985 Watt switched to a Gallien-Krueger amplifier driving Cerwin-Vega speaker cabinets; a photo of this rig can be seen on the back cover of fIREHOSE's Ragin' Full-On].

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During his time with J Mascis and The Fog, Watt played through Marshall amps at the direction of Mascis.

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For his solo works and with Banyan, Watt uses Eden amplification, for which he is an endorsing artist. When he performs with the Stooges, he usually plays through gear rented by the promoter according to the band's contract rider - usually two Ampeg SVT amplifiers and cabinets.

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Accessories

Watt uses and endorses D'Addario strings. He previously endorsed DW strings during his early solo career, and mentioned being a Rotosound user in a fIREHOSE newsletter around the time of Flyin' The Flannel. During his stint with J Mascis and The Fog he used Dean Markey strings on occasion since Mascis was an endorser of that brand and thus could obtain bass strings for Watt free of charge.

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Watt rarely uses effect pedals in the studio (two notable instances pre-2004 were a DigiTech Whammy Pedal on Dos' "'Till The Blood Ran" (Justamente Tres) and an envelope filter on "Tell 'Em Boy" (Ball-Hog or Tugboat?), and until 2004 never used them in live performance. On The Secondmen's Middle Stand he used the Whammy Pedal and a variety of distortion units and other stompbox effects to help illustrate the album's storyline. For the tours in 2004 and 2005 behind The Secondman's Middle Stand Watt used a Boss pedal board with four different effects and a Korg stompbox tuner.

Related Topics:
2004 - DigiTech - Whammy Pedal - Justamente Tres - Ball-Hog or Tugboat? - The Secondmen's Middle Stand - Distortion - Stompbox - 2005 - The Secondman's Middle Stand

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