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| Background information | |
| Birth name | William Sheehan |
| Born | March 19, 1953 Buffalo, New York, United States |
| Genres | Hard rock, heavy metal, Progressive Metal, instrumental rock, progressive rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Bass guitar, guitar, vocals |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Associated acts | UFO, David Lee Roth, Mr. Big, Richie Kotzen, Marty Friedman, Tim “Ripper” Owens, Talas, B’z, Steve Vai, G3, Niacin, Glenn Tipton, The Winery Dogs, Gus G, Philip Anselmo, Kerry King, Dave Lombardo, Scott Ian, Frank Bello, Gary Holt, Charlie Benante |
| Website | Billy Sheehan on Myspace |
| Notable instruments | |
| Attitude Ltd.II Billy Sheehan signature bass | |
William “Billy” Sheehan (born March 19, 1953) is an American bassist known for his work with Talas, Steve Vai, David Lee Roth, Mr. Big, Niacin, and The Winery Dogs. Sheehan has won the “Best Rock Bass Player” readers’ poll from Guitar Player magazine five times for his “lead bass” playing style. Sheehan’s repertoire includes the use of chording, two-handed tapping, right-hand “three-finger picking” technique and controlled feedback.
Billy Sheehan’s first electric bass was a Hagström FB, which was soon joined by a Precision bass similar to Tim Bogert’s. After acquiring the Precision bass, he removed the frets from the Hagström. Over the years, he heavily modified the Precision bass as well, adding a neck pickup and additional support for the bolt-on neck, which Sheehan considers its greatest weakness. The neck pickup was added for what Sheehan referred to as “super deep low end” modelled after Paul Samwell-Smith of the Yardbirds. The Gibson EB-0 type pickup in the neck and the original split Precision bass pickup each have their own separate output jacks on the bass itself, allowing for control of the tone via the bass. This bass has been retired, but he affectionately refers to it as “The Wife”. Sheehan’s signature Yamaha bass is patterned after this instrument. Sheehan also uses two amps to achieve his signature tone, one with full distortion and notch filtering to sound more guitar-like for solos, and one super-clean for the low end of the neck pickup.
The fabled Sheehan bass and equipment arsenal has stabilised recently. The racks of gear are now much reduced, with Hartke LH1000 and HA5500 amps powering AK115 and 410 cabinets and a relatively modest pedal-board featuring two EBS Billy Sheehan Signature Drive pedals, two MXR M87 Bass Compressor pedals and an EBS Octabass pedal. “I may have been the first bassist with a rack of gear,” he muses. “They looked complicated but they were simple. If something went wrong mid-show, I knew my rack like the back of my hand because I built it, I opened every case, looked at all the electronics, and did all the wiring between the units myself.”
Bass Stuff 