Graham Maby

"On tour, Maby and his trusty Spector 5-string handle the bass role on all of the album songs included in the set list (including those cut on upright by Greg Cohen)—nary an issue for the versatile veteran."

Bass Player Magazine: The second half of your career with Joe included a reunion of the original band. GM: "Yes, Joe had gotten a bit miffed at me when my commitment to Marshall prevented me from doing his Big World album, but we made up and I returned for Blaze of Glory, in 1989, which was when I got the Spector NS-5 that’s still my go-to bass. "

Maby currently plays two different NS-5s, his original 1988 one and a 1997 model.

"After unwisely selling my ’74 Fender Jazz Bass, I had just bought a 1977 Ibanez Silver Series Jazz Bass copy when we started the demos for Look Sharp."

From Bass Player Magazine Article: Basses: ’88 Spector NS-5, ’97 Spector NS-5, ’66 Fender Jazz Bass, ’74 Fender Mustang Bass, Mark Hatcher acoustic bass guitar

I love the challenge of a new design and I have been working on ideas for an acoustic bass guitar for a number of years. It is coming together now and I would like to share the story along with a build thread. I have played acoustic basses and am well aware of the design challenges and less than stellar results usually achieved, so I have reached out to every resource I can and have been very excited by all the help I am receiving. This really got going when I was approached by Graham Maby to build an “acoustic guitar”. You may be familiar with Graham, he is the bass player for the Joe Jackson band and in the early '90s toured with Graham Parker, Garland Jeffreys, the Silos, and Darden Smith, among others. In 1996, Maby joined They Might Be Giants recording and touring with them. From 1998 until 2002 he recorded and toured with Natalie Merchant's band. Maby has also appeared on recordings with Marshall Crenshaw, Joan Baez, Freedy Johnston, Ian Hunter, Regina Spektor, and Dar Williams. So I said, “Do you mean an acoustic bass guitar?” “I’ve been working on a design for a number of years now.”

The first thing we had to land on was a name for the new bass model. Let’s review: My small jumbo is called Josie. The grand auditorium is Greta The closest model I have to a parlour is Penelope Graham wants a bass. Graham’s cat’s name is Bella. There, that wasn’t so hard!

Graham says about a bass used on the 'Jumpin' Jive' sessions "I had borrowed a friend’s ’52 P-Bass, which I played in rehearsals, and it sounded just right."

Maby had a '79 P Bass which he used on the recording of 'Night and Day'.

"Once again, Joe believed in me when he could have hired a top Latin bassist, locally. I used my ’79 P-Bass on the album and I also played fretless on a track that didn’t make the final cut."

Maby used this bass live and recorded 'Body and Soul' with it in 1982.

"For “You Can’t Get What You Want,” on Body and Soul, Joe wanted me to slap. It was certainly not one of my strengths, but I think the track came out fine, and it was fun to play live. I mainly used a Steinberger on the album and the tour."