John Tout of Renaissance

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Tue Apr 23, 2002 2:24 pm

I saw a photo of John Tout, the very talented bassist for Renaissance. The photo appears to be from the mid to late 70's. He is playing a 4001.

It looks like a white 4001 with a black pickguard. The photo being in b/w makes it hard to tell if it not a Mapleglow.

Can any Renaissance fans out there elaborate?

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Sat Apr 27, 2002 7:34 am

NOOOO!! John Tout was the keyboardist!! You saw a picture of Jon Camp!

Jon played a white 4001 from 1973 to the early '80's. In the later 70's, he also played a Dick Knight custom double neck whick was actually a 4001 grafted to a 6-string. In the '80s he switched to a Vigier bass.

Jon Camp was so influential to my love/obsession with "the" sound. He was quite a melodic player.

Apparently, Renaissance toured once with Return to Forever. Stanley Clarke approached Jon and said something to the effect of, "I may be a better player technically, but I'll never be as melodic as you!" Jon took this completely as a complement.

Tone-wise, even compared to Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, Gary Strater etc., Jon IMHO was able to produce the most awesome sound from his Ric.

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Thu May 02, 2002 11:16 am

Jon,
Thank you so much for clarifying things, the photo I was referring has the wrong name. It has only been recently that I have been exposed to this group.

Your description is spot on, Jon Camp was very melodic. The only way to describe his playing is "casually brilliant". He is one of the few bassists that had all the four T's Taste, Tone, Time & Texture.

Thank you again for the info.

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Mon May 06, 2002 1:44 pm

Hi Ed,

"Casually brilliant" is a wonderful way to put it! Glad you came across Jon and Renaissance.

anonymous · Post by **anonymous** » Tue May 07, 2002 9:23 am

I had the pleasure of seeing Jon with Renaissance 3 times in the 70s, what a great band. While I love Squire and McCartney I must say Jon Camp was my favorite RIC bassist and the most influential on my playing style.

"Casually brilliant" I like that a lot.

wints · Post by **wints** » Sun May 25, 2003 4:07 am

Check out e bay U.K. JC,s white 74 Ric bass is up for sale...not too sure about the mod,s though...

mortivan · Post by **mortivan** » Sun May 25, 2003 6:55 am

Oh man!

I don't like the look of the pickup mod, but I know for a fact this bass sounds awesome! Wish I had the cash right now...

The Great White for sale

Thanks Andrew.

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Sun May 25, 2003 8:10 am

that bass will probably sell for a lot of money. Over here in the UK, Rickenbackers are suprisingly scarce. I bought my rick secondhand in london for £900. Its a 91 and while fantastic its not exactly special.

I spotted a 4001 the same as "The great White" (tho of course not modded) - same year, colour, condition.

The asking price was £1300.

wints · Post by **wints** » Sun May 25, 2003 9:01 am

It,s hard to tell from the 1976 pics on this site if the bass has the pick up mods done. It possibly looks like the stock treble P/U. Anyone got a better pic... and the headstock is still white, not black like it,s being sold now...

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Sun May 25, 2003 10:05 am

theres 2 pages of pics

ojobob2 · Post by **ojobob2** » Sun May 25, 2003 10:07 am

http://www.stthomasu.ca/~pmccorm/research/camp1.jpg

looks like it is the same bass

wints · Post by **wints** » Sun May 25, 2003 10:59 am

Fast track to 1982..Thanks Owen..The headstock,s changed colour and the DM,s with what looks like a pick up cover are now visible. Still can,t see if that 76 pic has the original treble Pick up/cover though. Still, JC has been one of the best sounding and melodic players of the Ric bass.

jps · Post by **jps** » Wed Jun 11, 2003 8:47 am

When I saw Renaissance in '79 the bass was in it's original condition as I got a very close up look at the instrument and after the show my girlfriend at the time, who was real big fan of Annie, and I had a nice discussion with Jon and Annie, although given my condition at the time I don't remember it too well

Jon was a real big influence on my playing, bass and writing wise compositionally, along with Chris Squire and Mike Rutherford.