“On the bass…” Spinal Tap recruit Tal Wilkenfeld and Thundercat for Jimmy Kimmel performance of Big Bottom

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David St. Hubbins led a legion of bassists out onto the Jimmy Kimmel stage for a rendition of Spinal Tap’s 1984 track

Spinal Tap
(Image credit: Getty Images)

In 1984, Spinal Tap proved that bassists can have just as much fun as guitar players with their track Big Bottom, which featured three lead bass guitars.

Now, promoting their latest album and the sequel to their iconic mockumentary, the band have doubled down on their low-end love by playing the song on Jimmy Kimmel with Thundercat and Tal Wilkenfeld.

That’s a whopping five bass guitars in one band – six, if you count Thundercat’s Custom Shop double-neck Ibanez BTB, which has six strings on the top, and eight on the bottom.

“It’s pretty funky,” he told Guitar World of his 14-stringed leviathan. “It has its own life.”

The healthy helping of bass likely meant that their performance registered on the Richter Scale, and for those of you who hate seeing electric guitars hog the limelight, you'll be glad to know there isn’t one in sight.

“On the bass…” says David St Hubbins, a breathless number of times at the start of the performance as he introduces each band member.

The performance also doubles up as a showroom of basses, with no two musicians playing the same brand. Wilkenfeld, who's performed with Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Chick Correa, plays a Fender Precision Bass, David St. Hubbins an Epiphone Jack Casady signature, Derek Smalls a Schecter Stiletto, and Nigel Tufnel a Music Man Bongo 4. There’s a few dollars' worth of kit on that stage.

Spinal Tap – Big Bottom - YouTube Spinal Tap – Big Bottom - YouTube
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The band are back on the big screen after over 40 years away, and it turns out that Nigel Tufnel has been running a cheese shop during that period, and he’s been trading cheese for guitars quite readily.

The band have been speaking about (maybe) influencing the Beatles and having a new custom-built amp that goes to infinity ahead of the release of the film, which features cameos from Paul McCartney and Elton John. Tufnel has also been discussing all things Spinal Tap with Guitar World.

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues is out in cinemas on September 12.

Phil Weller
Phil Weller

A freelance writer with a penchant for music that gets weird, Phil is a regular contributor to Prog, Guitar World, and Total Guitar magazines and is especially keen on shining a light on unknown artists. Outside of the journalism realm, you can find him writing angular riffs in progressive metal band, Prognosis, in which he slings an 8-string Strandberg Boden Original, churning that low string through a variety of tunings. He's also a published author and is currently penning his debut novel which chucks fantasy, mythology and humanity into a great big melting pot.

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