It's no surprise that Bootsy Collins' larger-than-life persona (and equally impressive career) extends to his gear – with his quintessential Space Bass, and its many iterations, becoming almost as iconic as the bassist itself. In fact, the star-shaped bass guitar has become so ingrained in music (and gearhead) lore, that both Washburn and Warwick have created their own versions of it throughout the years.
The Space Bass' origins hark back to 1975, when Collins had a dream – and a sketch – of a star-shaped bass. But, alas, no one wanted to have anything to do with it.
“Everywhere I went with the picture, the same picture that I showed Larry Pless that I drew, I would show it to ’em, and they was like, you know, it was something evil. ‘No, we can't do that. We can't sell that,’” he tells Reverb.
Collins recounts how he would go up and down 48th Street in New York, asking different luthiers and music stores whether they knew anyone who could bring his drawing to life.
After many failed attempts, the renowned bassist decided to ditch New York in favor of Michigan's music stores – in the hope that someone, anyone, would help him on his space-tinged quest.
“I just happened to be in Warren, Michigan. This is like my last straw,” he recalls. “And it said Gus Zoppies [music store], and it had an accordion. And that didn't even faze me about it just being an accordion shop. I went in there because I wanted some info.
“And then I showed it [the drawing] to the guy. He was an older guy, and he said, ‘We don't do that kind of work here. But I got a young guy in the back. He makes guitars.’ And I was like, ‘Can I meet him?’ He's like, ‘Sure.’”
As luck would have it, the ‘young guy in the back’ turned out to be Larry Pless, an emerging guitar builder who had spent a couple of years at the shop repairing and building custom guitars.
“He said, ‘What you got? What you want me to do?’ And I showed him the picture that I drew, and he started getting a smile on his face, and he was like, ‘I've been looking for something like this to do.’ When he said that, I knew it was on.
“He said, ‘Come back in about two weeks, and I'll have a rough down for you.’ And sure enough, two weeks, [and] he had a rough down for me. I was so ecstatic like it's already done. That's how I met him. I mean, he was the cat that stood up when everybody else was like, ‘Can't do it.’”
The original Space Bass – with a neck shape modeled after Collins’ go-to Precision Bass, a mahogany body, maple neck, and dual outputs – was delivered just in time for the Stretchin’ Out in Bootsy’s Rubber Band photoshoot.
And while that original bass was later stolen, Pless built him another – until the original was eventually found in a pawn shop in Ohio and returned to Bootsy.
As Pless later wrote, “Who would be dumb enough to steal such a recognizable guitar as the Space Bass?”
In more recent Bootsy Collins news, the funkateer talks about his stint with James Brown, how LSD helped him become a songwriter, and why he’s finally embracing the five-string bass.
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