Named after the iconic White Stripes album, “Icky Thump”, this month’s Vault is our rare Fender Rhodes Piano Bass fed through Jack White’s signatures “Knife Drop” fuzz pedal.
The Fender Rhodes Piano bass has a curious history. It was introduced in 1960 by Harold Rhodes as a compact, portable electric keyboard designed specifically to cover bass lines for live performances. It was established before the Rhodes Pianos we all know and love, which were first released in the mid 60’s. Although Harold had high hopes for it, the bass version never quite made it into the mainstream and most bands preferred a traditional electric bass guitar, and once full-sized Rhodes pianos (especially in the 1970s) became more versatile and capable of producing strong bass sounds, the Piano Bass lost its practical advantage. Its tone, though created with the same tine and pickup system as larger Rhodes models, had a tighter, more percussive attack that could growl impressively when pushed through tube amplifiers. This is most iconically demonstrated through Ray Manzarek of The Doors, who played bass lines with his left hand while simultaneously performing organ parts with his right – a demanding technique that helped define the band’s hypnotic, psychedelic sound. The Piano Bass was relatively short-lived and produced in smaller numbers, making surviving models rare and highly collectible today.
We decided to feed the Rhodes Bass through the Knife Drop fuzz pedal. Eventide and Jack White collaborated to make a hybrid fuzz and analog style synth voice, capable of generating sub-octave textures and aggressive filtered tones. It was recorded right here at Crow Hill HQ, into a beautiful Neve 1073 DI.
Our as-ever intuitive GUI allows you to dial in the grimy pedal sound, control the expressive potential of the bass and play around with more concentrated FX, including AUTOWAH, CHORUS, PHASER and REVERB.
Try it out for yourself, and find out what it sounds like when you take a warm, punchy electric piano and feeding it through an absolutely monstrous pedal.