In a new interview with Bass Player, former Metallica bassist Jason Newsted gave details about his instrumental choices and his main issue with performing during his time with the band. The musician, who recently restarted his Newsted project for a May 20 performance at Revolution Live, mentioned a rule that he had for his guitars.
Saying that he needed to take safety measures while on stage with his former band, the bassist explained:
“The Spectators were built really well, played well, and sounded excellent, but I had a lot of trouble with sweat getting inside. All of my instruments had to be salt-water proofed.”
He stressed his point by giving an example:
“We’d done an outside show on the last tour. And by the end of the gig, there was one functioning bass out of six – bad news. And when a bass going through 250,000 watts of PA all of a sudden shorts out, people are not happy.”
Due to this problem, Newsted started a relationship with Sadowsky Guitars around the time Metallica started their 1996 tour, ‘Poor Touring Me.’ Behind his decision to work with Roger Sadowsky, there was a test he performed on the guitars that were built for him.
About the test, the former Metallica member told BP:
“When I was trying to figure out who was going to build my basses for the tour, I’d have to test each bass. I’d fill up a big tub with super hot water, dump in some salt, and submerge the bass. Then, I’d take it out of the tub and put it in front of a coil heater for a few minutes.”
Explaining the results, he went on:
“I’d repeat this same process three times with each bass. Then I’d beat the crap out of it for a while in my studio, and finally, I’d let it sit on a stand for a couple of days. Usually, the bass corrodes and doesn’t play anymore. None of the basses passed that test except for the Sadowsky.”
You can click here to see Jason Newsted’s statements.
