Steely Dan – Aja

Per this press release from The National Museum of African American Music (NMAAM), dated Aug. 14, 2025, the most detailed history of Chuck Rainey's original Precision Bass, the one heard on all those classic tracks in the '70s, is revealed:

In 1961, when the electric bass was only 10 years old as an instrument, Chuck's mother purchased this '59 Fender using her sofa as collateral. Eventually, her sofa was repossessed when Chuck stopped making payments - a mother's sacrifice for her son's musical dreams. Decades later, that same bass would be stolen, lost on an exit ramp, shattered into pieces, and painstakingly reconstructed over two years by craftsman Jimmy Coppola. It's still being played today.

There has been conflicting info for years as to exactly what factory-year Precision Bass this was, and when Chuck purchased it. Given the bass has now undergone a forensic reconstruction, I think we can finally be sure that it was, indeed, a late 1959 Precision Bass. I can't find any documented cases of Precisions leaving the Fender factory with rosewood fretboards before 1959... so the various claims that this bass was a '57 or '58 were always at odds with the physical evidence.

Interestingly, this bass was originally blonde, as seen here, which means it very likely had an ash body (chuck has claimed as such, elsewhere) as well. All the scars from the reconstruction probably made a semi-transparent finish a non-starter.

Note: there's an earlier entry on Equipboard for the 1957 American Vintage Reissue Precision Bass that Chuck played in more recent times, but this submission you're reading now is for "the bass (he) rode in on"... the OG instrument that went missing years ago... and has somehow (amazingly) been returned and forensically restored.

A shortlist of albums featuring Chuck on this particular p-bass:

• Every Steely Dan Album between 1974 and 1980, including 6 of the 7 tracks on Aja.
• That Aretha Franklin album you didn't know you loved, and also that one in the church.
• A whole lot of prime Quincy Jones
• Marvin Gaye? Yes, of course.
• Donald Byrd's Places and Spaces
• aaaand a few thousand more...

Basically, if it was recorded in the 70s, it's funky, and you're not sure who is playing bass, there's a good 75% chance it's Chuck, and most likely on this exact 1959 Precision Bass.

Fagen is known to have used two different 8078s in his career. The first, owned and later sold by him, was used to record and mix Aja, according to this May 2019 Reddit post.

ColbyKill I can currently enrolled in The Blackbird Academy in Nashville, Tennessee. If you haven't heard of it, should definitely check it out. So this console used to belong to Donald. John McBride, Martina's husband, had bought it from him a few years ago now. It has been slightly modified, but it is pretty much exactly how it was while they were using it to record Aja. Its amazing to be able to get to be in the same room let along get to work on it as well. Figured y'all would enjoy seeing this.

The second was the in-house console at the now defunct Clinton Recording Studios. It was used to record and mix Morph the Cat, as stated by Fagen and mix engineer Elliott Scheiner in this August 2006 Sound on Sound interview.

Scheiner adds that he 'seldom' uses EQ during the mix, and that Morph The Cat was recorded via Clinton's Neve 8078 directly to analogue 24-track. Straightforward recording to analogue without much processing is now Fagen's favoured approach, says he. "It's the sound I like. It's not necessary to have the latest equipment. Today I think that I could use any studio, and any equipment, and all I need is good players and it will sound good. I like the sound of jazz records recorded in the late 1950s. I love the sound of Rudy van Gelder's records for Prestige. I can't imagine anything sounding better. Van Gelder's jazz recordings definitely influenced the Steely Dan recording and mixing style."

The guitar can be seen in Steely Dan's sixth studio album, Aja. "A 1957 Fender Duo-Sonic electric guitar which is being played by Walter Becker in a photograph used in the liner notes to the 1977 Steely Dan album Aja. The original finish has been stripped and left natural, the guitar is also equipped with a maple neck and fretboard, anodized aluminum pickguard and later 6- saddle bridge. The neck plate is impressed with the serial number -20617. Accompanied by the original hard shell case and a copy of the album." to quote the cite.