“I didn’t mean to break up my bass, but we don't play music to get full cans of soda thrown at us”: Pearl Jam’s Jeff Ament recalls the wild night that brought his custom “NBA” bass to a brutal end

Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam .

Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament has owned plenty of memorable bass guitars, but few have a story as wild as the “NBA” basses built by renowned Seattle builder Mike Lull. The distinctive custom basses became some of Ament’s most recognizable instruments – and some of his most spectacularly ill-fated.

On a special edition of NBA Soundsystem, Ament explained: “I wanted to be inspired 100 percent of the time I was playing music. And by putting the names of my most inspirational pro basketball players on the bass, at any given time, if I felt like the mojo was slipping I would look down at the bass and see Nate Archibald’s name and get fired up.”