Paul Weller, sometime of the Jam and the Style Council, but for the last 30 years flying high as a solo artist, is a man who knows what he wants, in bass as in all other things. Having played bass guitar throughout his eponymous 1992 debut album, 1993’s Wild Wood and the chart-topping Stanley Road also featured some fine examples of his bass work. “I get a definite satisfaction from playing on my own tracks,” Weller once told Total Guitar. “I feel I’ve done some good bass parts too. People should check out the bass on that first solo album.”
As for influences, it will come as no surprise to hear that Paul McCartney was a big inspiration: “If listening to basslines had any sort of an impact on me as a guitarist, it was from the point of view of melody, because McCartney was so melodic,” said Weller. “There was that whole thing where his style sort of changed after he’d heard the Beach Boy’s Pet Sounds album, and he started putting the final bass part down after the track was done. He’s brilliant on some of those basslines with the Beatles. I loved the sound he used to have.”
For his own album sessions Weller used a re-issued Hofner Violin bass. "The bass I played on that album and also on more recent stuff was my Hofner, which has such a fantastic sound. I just had to have one, you know."
