Mike Mills
R.E.M. bass player
Role
Role
Mike Mills' Bass Guitars
In this photo, Mike Mills can be seen playing a Fender Precision Bass.
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R.E.M. live on the tube 11/18/83. The whole video you can see Mike playing the jazz bass through the bridge pickup.
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Used in the "mid-70s", as stated in this July 13, 2017 Music Radar interview.
His mid-70s bass setup was modelled after that of a local hero, Allman Brothers Band bassist Berry Oakley. “I had two Fender Dual Showman reverb amps: one cabinet with two 12s and one cabinet with four tens,” he remembers. Although Mills is most often associated with the Rickenbacker 4001, he went through a series of basses before finding the Rick.
“I played a beat-up Hofner for a while,” he says. “Then I played an Ampeg Dan Armstrong clear acrylic bass, followed by a Fender Musicmaster, and then I found that ’71 Rick.”
The 4001 remained Mills’ instrument of choice “until one of the horseshoe pickups went out. We couldn’t find another one.” He got a factory-replacement pickup, but wasn’t happy with it, so he went through another series of basses - an Ibanez and Guild among them - before trying out a 1970 Fender Precision he calls Old Yeller after its original finish.
“I had sort of resisted the P-Bass,” he says, “because everybody played them. But then I found out why. It was because they’re the best, especially for live shows. They’re just so durable, and they don’t go out of tune. They sound fantastic, and they feel good to play.”
Eventually, though, Mills’ bass tech located a working vintage horseshoe pickup, and the 4001 was returned to active duty. It’s actually a 4001S with Rick-O-Sound stereo output. “But I’ve never used it,” laughs Mills. “We tried it, but it was more trouble than the sound was worth.”
Mills has made a point of avoiding bass guitars with more than four strings. “I can’t stand them,” he says, admitting that five-string basses “just confuse me.”
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Mills can be seen using a Hofner 500/1 Bass in this photo.
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Mills can be seen playing a Rickenbacker 4001 in this photo.
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In this image, Mills can be seen playing a Godin Shifter Classic 4 Bass.
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Mike Mills using this bass during R.E.M's "MTV Unplugged"
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Seen on the cover of "And I Feel Fine... The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987"
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This is a community-built gear list for Mike Mills.
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Discography
