Nate Mendel

"I played all of Wasting Light on a Lakland [Bob Glaub Signature]. We tried a few different basses, but we found the sound that worked best. We’d change the EQ to get the bass to fit in the mix. I love Lakland basses, and I’m using them on tour for drop-D tunings right now. But I’m a bit more comfortable playing Fender basses, so I’ve gone back to playing those for most of the set." This can be read at this link. http://www.bassplayer.com/artists/1171/nate-mendel-with-the-foo-fighters/26511

In a February 28, 2013 interview for MusicRadar, Nate Mendel had this to say about his signature P Bass, based on his 1971 P Bass:

"I found this 71 Fender P-Bass back in the early 90s and I loved it. I discovered that it was this rare model that they'd made in 1971 with a different type of neck - it was like a thinner version of the P-Bass neck, perhaps a little bit closer to the Jazz Bass. I really liked it, it was super easy to play and it was just a great sounding bass and I played it on 10 years-worth of records.

"[Eventually] Fender made some copies for me, just in case something happened to that one. Then a couple of years ago I thought, 'This is a great bass, maybe they'd be interested in making some more of them and maybe stamping my name on it...' So I called them up and they were receptive to it and we got to work on all the details."

In 2012, Fender caught up with Nate Mendel to talk about his signature bass on YouTube.

In this Foo Fighters' video we can see Nate playing a Fender Precision Bass

In this YouTube video at 4:53 Taylor Hawkins shows the Steinberger Spirit XT-2 of Nate Mendel.

For the video of "Best Of You" Nate uses a Gibson Ripper Bass

In the video to the Foo Fighters new track "The Sky is a Neighborhood" Nate can be seen with an ampeg AEB-1 Scroll bass many times throughout the video.

Can be seen using this bass throughout the video.

Nate Mendel was spotted playing the Duesenberg Starplayer Bass for a few songs during the Foo Fighters concert in Paris on June 19, 2026.