Marshall Lytle's '40s Epiphone B-5

there's one thing we have in abundance around here, it's reverence for the tools of rock 'n' roll. Guitars, drums, basses; we think all that stuff is great. Every once in a while, though, we come across an instrument that's so historic, so iconic, and so badass, that it truly blows us away. This is one of those pieces. It's a late '40s Epiphone B-5 upright bass that belonged to Marshall Lytle. Marshall was the bass player for Bill Haley and His Comets during their 1950s heyday, and he used this bass to record such classics as "Rock Around the Clock", "Shake", "Rattle and Roll", and "Rock the Joint". Think about that for a second. Those three songs were the beginning of a cultural earthquake whose aftershocks are still rumbling in the 21st century. The lexicon of early rock bass playing was written by Marshall on this very instrument. It's currently on display at the Hard Rock Cafe in Orlando, Florida.