MARK IBOLD

After Jim O'Rourke's last shows with SY in 2005, they played several shows as a quartet, debuting 'Rather Ripped' material in France in April '06. However, they enlisted former Pavement/Free Kitten bassist Mark Ibold for the Rather Ripped tour, where he played bass on all songs except 'Rats', where he plays guitar and Thurston plays bass, and 'Shaking Hell', which was performed by the original quartet only. On songs where Kim sings, she typically does not play bass, but otherwise most songs feature 2 bass parts between Mark and Kim, which was an interesting dynamic compared to Jim generally offering a 3rd guitar if Kim was on bass.

GUITARS

Mark's main bass is this Fender Precision Bass. I'm not sure if it was his or if he plucked it from SY's arsenal, as Jim was known to do. It does look like the one he used in Pavement, so...

For "Rats", Mark plays this Telecaster, which Jim had used extensively during his time w/ SY, formerly used by Lee.

Around 2010 Mark switched to a red 80s Fender Power Jazz Bass Special. For the final Sonic Youth shows in 2011, the band had to send two sets of gear out due to shipping logistics within South America. Mark's main set included the red Jazz Bass, but the two "B group" sets (including the final SY show) saw Mark playing Kim's old blue P-bass.