Pete Jones endured John Lydon's antisocial antics long enough to do Public Image Ltd's Commercial Zone album. He also performed on several Martin Atkins Brian Brain releases, but time hasn't been kind to those records, as Jones is the first to admit. Gearwire's Patrick Ogle found Jones to be far more accessible and easy to talk with than you'd expect a Lydon band vetern . . .

What was your first bass? Looking back on it what do you think about that old bass now?

There was a music shop where I lived and in the basement they had all the latest guitars on the walls and my mates and I used to hang out in there looking at them all and dreaming. There was a clear Perspex bass (can’t remember the make) that I dreamt of owning. I ended up buying a Jedson bass, the cheapest in the shop, and it was crap! It was a short scale warped neck badly intonated instrument but it served its purpose for a few years while I learned the rudiments. I used to play that through a Vox AC30 that I shared with the guitarist in our fledgling band - wish I had that amp now, we bought it for £30 or about $60.

What do you play now? And why?

I have one bass now that I’ve owned since 1976-- A sunburst Fender Precision fitted with a Jazz Bass neck, Badass bridge, and I just love it. I can’t really see the point of having a huge collection of guitars, unless you’re some sort of kleptomaniac or something. My bass has traveled the miles, has been in airplane holds and on the roof racks of cars whilst on tour, been dropped kicked and spat at. And most of the paint is worn off where my arm rests and the back is shredded from where I used to wear a belt with a large buckle. It needs re-fret, it buzzes and hums but it’s all I need, it’s my old workhorse and never let me down. I saw the video of the nine-string bass on your site, what the heck is all that about!! Four strings is all ya need!

Is there a bass out there that you'd love to have but don't? If there is give details (if there isn't--why the hell not?)

Well, I was a big fan of Chris Squire when I was young (still am) and I used to spend hours learning his bass lines from Yes records so I really wanted his Rickenbacker 4001 model 1999. I used to love his sound. I once had a local guitar maker build me a black Ricky copy which took about 2 years for him to finish. When I plugged it into my amp for the first time it sounded real shite so I sold it! But I love the shape of the Ricky.

What would you tell a kid, just starting out, who is looking for his or her first bass? What qualities should they look for?

I would say save up $200-$300 then go and spend a night with a hooker, then start saving for the guitar!! Seriously, just buy a cheap Fender Squire or something because whatever you buy it will sound shit until you learn to play it. And no matter what you buy, check the neck or get someone else to check it for you then get the shop to set it up properly, buy decent strings too. Rotosound for me.

Is there any difference in playing style between your current project

I’m not anal about playing bass these days, a lot of stuff I do doesn’t have bass guitar on and I will use bass synth instead. With PiL and Brian Brain the bass was more a feature instrument, where now I more use it just to hold the bottom end together, functional. I never slap bass these days, pretty much a dated and overplayed technique; I play more with the fingers whereas I always used to use a pick with BB and PiL.

Has your gear, your amp, your bass, changed in any way to accommodate?

Like I say, I use just the same old bass as I have since 1976. Having said that, I did get two different Fender Precision basses when I joined PiL but left them in New York after I left the band, I also had a Steinberger on loan for a while which I liked but gave back. As I don’t play live, I don’t own a bass rig, always going straight into the desk or through a Line 6 bass pod when recording. I just try to get a decent signal down on disc then play around with it afterwards. I might copy the bass track in Pro Tools and add distortion to one and leave the other dry for example or make big EQ adjustments for effect, perhaps double up a sub bass synth line and so on.

I noticed you do not like playing live. Is this all about the piss smelling dressing rooms and wankers you run into ad nauseum or is it also about the sound you get? Recording you have so much more control over your sound?

Well its soooooo f**king boring, apart from the time on stage when if it clicks, it's magic. Some of the best moments were playing the opening bass line to “Public Image” and seeing the reaction from the crowd. But you have to put up with so much shit just to get that 90 minutes of elation and my ego doesn’t need the sycophantic back slapping either. The live bass sound I did enjoy; standing slap bang in front of a nice Ampeg rig and if you had a good drum sound on stage to go with it…superb! I met some nice people too playing live, but generally if someone is going to lug their way backstage just to tell you how wonderful you are, then it makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

Tell me a little about how you work now musically? I see you are big on collaborations? what sort of sound are you aiming for? How do you work long distance?

I have a small Pro Tools equipped studio at home in my basement, nothing fancy, just functional. I use Reason v.3 to play all the drum loops, synths; samplers etc (a superb bit of software by the way) and I have second PC which houses my effects for guitar, bass and vox.

And I just experiment with that, just trying to do things a bit different without being totally off the wall. I rarely have a pre-conceived idea when I start out. I would normally start with perhaps a drum loop or guitar line and build on it. I play all the parts on my own songs myself apart from collabs. If the creative juices don’t flow, then I switch it all off and take the dog for a walk or something. Nearly always, whatever I start out with turns into something completely different by the time it’s finished, nearly always experimentation provides the element I’m after.

The collaborations have been great; a lot are with unsigned bands or artists to whose tracks I have added parts or given a different direction. Most of this I do without any payment. Some are more developed and have resulted in co-written tracks. These start with swapping of an .MP3 or two to agree on what to work on. Then, individual tracks are sent as wavs via YouSendIt or similar, and worked on in Pro Tools before sending back again.

Sometimes I swap whole tracks for remixing. I’ve worked with some really cool people from the USA, Australia, France as well as the UK and only met two of them face to face! I think Its great, very liberating to be able to work over such distances and I’ve been able to help a lot of people with their tracks in a way that would have been impossible only a few years ago. I like working on my own too, I can work as and when I feel like it without it being a pressure, no worries about studio time costs and I can play as many bum notes as I want without anyone noticing!!