Yamaha BB300

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The bass used on The Marked demos, and at the very first SP show on 1988/07/09. It was autographed and auctioned off (for $8850) by Billy in 2009 for the Backwards Clock Society benefit concert for Laura Ann, who was in charge of SP fan mail during the band's early days, after she injured her foot in a motorcycle accident.

A few words from Billy about the bass:

My father bought this bass, a Yamaha BB300, sometime in the early 80's, so I sort of inherited it as the family bass when I was living with my dad between 1985-1989. I used the bass to record my home demos while I was in the band The Marked, and subsequently began writing the songs that became the first Smashing Pumpkins songs. When James Iha and I first started working together in 1987, he would come over to my dad's house and play his telecaster guitar and I would play the Yamaha bass and that's how we first started. So it was this bass that I used at the very first Smashing Pumpkins show on June 9th, 1988 at Chicago 21. It also would be the bass that D'arcy would use when she would come over for practice in the first days of the band, and for a while it served as a spare backup bass for the Pumpkins as she was also playing this same model Yamaha, albeit black. So, as you see, there is a lot of good history in this bass.