Pictured above: Bassist Garry Gary Beers displaying several of his new G.G.B. Basses at the 2024 NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA. Photo credit: Bob Steshetz

Writer Robert Kinsler and photographer Bob Steshetz recently got to spend time with famed INXS bassist Garry Gary Beers during the 2024 NAMM Show. Beers has just launched G.G.B. Basses, an incredible line of standard, fretless and even 5-string bass guitars available to own.

Bassist Garry Gary Beers holding an Olympic White over Lake Placid Blue XS-1 instrument.

As a founding member of celebrated Australian rock outfit INXS, bassist Garry Gary Beers helped chart the groundbreaking band's career through a parade of hit singles and albums in the 1980s and 90s; indeed INXS has sold more than 50 million albums making it one of the most successful Australian acts of all time.

INXS pictured in a publicity shot in 1983.

Throughout INXS' incredible career, Beers was able to showcase his talents fusing rock, soul and funk stylings. In developing his new line of G.G.B. Basses, Beers is allowing other musicians to benefit by playing an instrument able to deliver on stage or in the recording studio. His colorful basses also capture the rich history of the bass guitar and some of the world's great players who inspired him and countless others.

And it's best not to confuse Beers' line of self-designed instruments with a so-called "signature" instrument where another manufacturer uses the fame of an artist to market their own line.

"It's more than a signature (bass), I build the things," Beers said. "I design them and I built all the prototypes and I have a company in Carlsbad, California that handles the (manufacturing of) basses for me now... it's a culmination of my 50 years of playing bass."

"They have for me what I think is for me the most exciting pickup out there. I started designing it (the "Quad" pickup) in the late 1990s in Australia and continued it when I moved here (Beers lives with his family in Southern California)." 

Beers noted that he actually began designing what would be the perfect bass in the early 1990s. The perfect bass is not only balanced and comfortable to play, but is stylish and sounds phenomenal. Beers' patented "Quad" pickups and timeless custom color choices were among the final key elements in what makes his G.B.B. Basses so special.

With his "Quad" pickup, a single bass guitar can create "five different bass sounds." This means a bassist can use a single instrument on stage rather than having different instruments on hand depending on the style of music or song they are performing.

Beers noted his favorite and most influential bass player was James Lee Jamerson, who was an uncredited bassist who performed on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s. 

"That Motown style is what I tried to put into my playing."

In addition to his launch of G.G.B. Basses, Beers has continued to make music. His latest top-tier project is AshenMoon, a band he formed with wonderful Australian singer Toby Rand (Juke Kartel, Rockstar Supernova) in the summer of 2019.

To learn more about Beers' G.G.B. Basses and AshenMoon, visit Beers' website HERE.