Musician who's shared stage with legends owns world's largest bass guitar collection
Musician Uli Salm (Germany) has taken his lifelong love of the bass guitar to a whole other level.
With 854 different instruments to his name, he officially has the largest collection of bass guitars.
His collection began back in 1963 when his parents gave him his first Fender Precision when he was 14 years old.
Now he has bass guitars from brands including Fender, Gibson, Rickenbacker, Gretsch, Guild, Ritter, Bite and Rabenberger.
“They keep multiplying by themselves, must be hatching somewhere in the back,” Uli joked.
The 76-year-old has played bass on over 100 records, with his own bands - Leinemann, Rudolf Rock & Die Schocker and The Wonderbeats - as well as with music legends like Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Bill Haley.
Uli on stage with Chuck Berry
Uli playing with The Quarrymen
He’s even played with The Quarrymen, a band formed by John Lennon that later evolved into The Beatles.
The centrepiece of his collection is a wall of 600 photographs tracking his life and career in the music industry that has a bass guitar mounted within it.
The guitar is almost invisible amongst the collage until Uli reaches in to pluck it from the display.
In our video, Uli also proudly shows off a bass signed by Motown group The Funk Brothers, including member James Jamerson, who he described as his “favourite bass player”.
He previously told Bass Magazine: “My motivation has always been my love for bass, not for the record.”
The publication says many of Uli’s prized guitars are on display at his restaurant in Hamburg – ZWICK Home of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
The rest are safely stored away in a temperature-controlled room.
He has many rare guitars within his collection, such as a ’53 Fender Precision and a ’61 Fender Jazz.
Some of rock’s biggest names have stopped by to visit Uli and his collection over the years when they’ve found themselves in Hamburg.
Uli with ZZ Top star Billy Gibbons
Uli has had the pleasure of showing off his collection to AC/DC, Aerosmith, late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, Sir Elton John, Bon Jovi, and many, many more.