Pink Floyd, MJ & Madonna’s Bassist?- The Guy Pratt Interview

“Bass players are ten a penny, but a good wit is hard to find, so we hired him.” The ‘we’ refers to rock royalty Pink Floyd, and the bass player in question is Guy Pratt. Guy became a household name when David Gilmour asked him to join Pink Floyd in 1987, but his CV as a top session player includes the likes of Roxy Music, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Tom Jones, Sophie Ellis Bextor, Iggy Pop, The Pretenders, Ronan Keating, Electronic, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Orb, Natalie Imbruglia, All Saints, Elton John and Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets.

In today’s video the celebrated bass session star tells us about his stint with Pink Floyd, studio dates with Madonna and Michael Jackson, and finding his own voice with a 1964 Jazz Bass that he got from John Entwistle.

Guy’s Jazz Bass (christened ‘Betsy’) has been one of his go-to instruments since 1987. He bought it from the legendary John Entwistle after guitarist and co-songwriter for the Smiths, Johnny Marr, insisted that if they were going to play together Guy needed a Fender. And so Guy collected it from the Bass Centre’s Wapping HQ in London, after a set-up by the store’s long-serving, in-house tech Chris Ward.

In 2019, The Bass Centre released the Guy Pratt Signature Betsy Bass, which like its namesake comes loaded with EMG pickups, a Burgundy Mist finish and mint-green pickguard. Other features include a maple neck, Macassar ebony fingerboard, and vintage-style hardware.