Friday 14 January 2011

Peter Cook Axis Bass and Guitar. . . . .

I was going to do the Axis and some of the music press stuff, from
that period but I now find that I have all sorts of extra Axis Stuff.

"At this time I also developed and made the ‘Axis’ guitar and bass
with an active, on board parametric tonal system" . . . . . .


Apart from supplying me with some of the images that are here,
Peter didn't really expand on the above.
From our conversation and emails, it seems that there were only
around eight basses and eight guitars made.
Below are images of serial number 200 and 216, so perhaps the
first and the last?









I know the owner of the one below and he is a very proud custodian
of his Peter Cook Axis.










The one below is slightly different to all the others I know of, as
there is only one additional switch.



This is Peter, an Axis Bass and someone who Peter knew very well!



A "workshop shot" with an Axis Bass.



Peter at one of the Trade Shows, along with
a couple
of well known people from the industry.
He is holding what I believe is my Axis Bass.

From memory, Peter said that he thought all but
one of the basses
had XLR sockets - mine was
the only one with a Jack.




There was a Power Pack option - how advanced was that, for
it's day?? This fed power to the active circuit and connected
the guitar to the amp, via a Jack Plug.

The owner of this unit, who used to own an Axis some years
ago, has now incorporated it into a Ray Cooper, Custom Bass,
which he says, is still reliable all those years later.





George Ford, the bass player who used to play with Steve Harley had
one, as he appeared on stage with one with The Shadows.
Look carefully, you can just about see it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vft1hF-5p-w

This one is mine, serial number 208.









That's all for now, back next week with more.

Cheers. :)





2 comments:

Johnny H said...

Hi Eric, i have a Peter Cook Bass which i think is a prototype, it has no logo on the headstock & its serial number is 50. Its cherry red.

Flat Eric said...

Hi.Would love you to get in touch with me. It would be great to add it to the list. contactflateric@gmail.com