blink-182's Mark Hoppus selling and auctioning gear for LGBTQ charity
blink-182’s Mark Hoppus is auctioning off the custom Fender Mark Hoppus Precision Bass (pictured above) that he used to write much of blink-182’s 2003 untitled album, and selling other gear from throughout his career; all proceeds are going to The Trevor Project, “an organization that focuses on crisis intervention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth.”
You can see photos of all the gear he’s selling and purchase the gear at Reverb.com, and you can bid on the P-Bass through July 8 here. You can also watch a video of Mark talking about the gear below, and here’s more info:
In early June, at the beginning of the annual Pride month that celebrates LGBTQ people and pushes for gay rights and equality around the world, blink-182’s Mark Hoppus took aim at the notion of a planned “Straight Pride” parade in Boston. To instead support LGBTQ communities, he pledged to auction a bass and donate all the proceeds to The Trevor Project, an organization that focuses on crisis intervention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning youth.
Today, that auction begins. The instrument up for sale is a custom Fender Mark Hoppus Precision Bass that he used to write much of the group’s 2003 untitled album (sometimes referred to as the self-titled album). And next week—on the day the custom bass auction ends—Hoppus will be launching The Official Mark Hoppus of blink-182 Reverb Shop to sell nearly 80 more instruments and pieces of gear from his collection.
“We call this plaid bass Groundskeeper Willie. I wrote a great deal of the bass riffs for the [2003] untitled album on this bass. It has the sticker of the unicorn on there and the pink Famous Stars and Straps keychain that has been on here for the past decade and a half,” Hoppus said of the bass guitar. “I’m auctioning it off to raise money for the Trevor Project, which is a great organization doing great work.”
As Mark also talks about in the video, here’s a detailed list of some of the gear:
* A Fender Precision Bass used on tour, which features a custom octopus drawing by Craig Christy of Ray Gun Tattoo
* A custom-painted Blue Microphones tube condenser mic that Hoppus says has “been a staple of my studio setup ever since Jerry Finn told me to buy [it] on Enema of the State.”
* A pair of Avalon U5 DI boxes and preamps used extensively by Hoppus. “These were the direct pre- and post-amp sound of my live show since 2001. These have been around the world several times,” he says.
* An Ampeg SVT Classic amp that sat in Hoppus’ live setup for nearly a decade. “This amp has literally been around the world. It has been everywhere, sounds great, and is well road-worn,” Hoppus said.
* A dozen API 512C preamps from Hoppus’ home studio. According to Hoppus, the preamps traveled to the UK with him and were used to record the PAWS album No Grace.
* A 1972 Fender Precision bass guitar, an Analog Systems 8000 Modular synthesizer, two API 500VPR Lunchboxes, two Chandler Limited: LTD-2 compressors, and more
Meanwhile, blink-182 are gearing up to release a new album this year and they released the third single, “Happy Days,” earlier this week. They’re also playing Enema of the State in full on their tour with Lil Wayne (including Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on 9/20, and Riot Fest). We caught them performing the album at Warped Tour this past weekend, and you can read our review. At at least one of the shows on the tour so far, Mark dedicated “Aliens Exist” to Tom.
The band also recently talked to Forbes about what songs from Enema of the State hold up best for them in 2019:
Matt Skiba: “What’s My Age Again,” as a fan and a band member. Whenever we play that song I always thank my lucky stars that I get paid to be a kid and have fun.
Hoppus: “Adam’s Song” still resonates a lot with me. I still struggle with dark times and that song is a statement about that. Going back and replaying all these songs and relearning these songs I still feel like they’re a statement as relevant today as it was back then. I feel like Enema Of The State was really when Blink found its legs and found our sound with the addition of Travis. Jerry Finn being our producer really helped us focus and try and write great songs instead of just trying to write fast songs. And it felt like everybody was really firing. I look back to the rehearsal spot in San Diego we wrote this record in and everybody came in every single day with just throwing ideas out, “What about this? What about this?” And it was everybody’s best work at the same time. So I love it.
Barker: For me everything on the album still holds true and it’s interesting and exciting to this day. There’s not a song on this set list that I don’t look forward to playing. I think it’s even more interesting to know songs like “What’s My Age Again” are played in rap DJ sets right now and it’s more popular right now in that genre of music that it ever was. Rap music and our type of music were polar opposites back when that was created. But you can go to any kind of party where there’s a great DJ and somehow he throws “What’s My Age Again” in there. You could never do that in a hip-hop set until 2018, 2019.
You can read the rest of that interview here.
And last but not least, blink-182 just put out a new teaser video for the tour called “Travis Barker‘s Pre-Tour Checkup,” with current porn star Riley Reid reprising former porn star’s Janine Lindemulder role from the album cover. You can watch that below.