Jennifer Finch Loans Legendary “Ghost” Bass to The Punk Rock Museum TO BE PLAYED BY YOU.

Las Vegas, NV – [February 25, 2025] – Punk history finds a new home as Jennifer Finch, bassist of L7, donates her iconic “Ghost” bass to The Punk Rock Museum for a three-year loan.

This isn’t just any bass—it’s an instrument that has fueled decades of raw energy, rebellion, and musical innovation. From freeing California Hardcore from the burden of “only boys make hard music” in the 1980s to helping define the grunge era this bass was instrumental in creating the heavy sound that reshaped the 1990s and ultimately changed everything.

This donation comes with a unique request: the “Ghost” isn’t just for display—it’s meant to be played by YOU. 

It will be installed in the now-famous Punk Museum Jam Room alongside instruments donated by Tim Armstrong (Rancid), Joan Jett, and Fat Mike (NOFX).

“The Ghost isn’t meant to be locked away behind glass—it’s meant to be in someone’s hands, touched, plugged in, and my hope is that after a few years, it will return to me, carrying with it the experiences of everyone who has played it,” says Finch. “It’s a part of history, it is magic and that magic is not over yet.”

A 1984 Fender Hybrid with a near-mystical presence, the Ghost bass has been a staple of Finch’s career, from the clubs of the 1980s to defining the sound of L7 through years of relentless touring and recording. This bass is more than just an instrument; it’s a relic of cultural movement, an artifact of sweat-drenched clubs, sold-out venues, and historic festival stages. Over the years, it has been borrowed and played by legendary musicians, including Krist Novoselic of Nirvana, adding to its storied legacy.

Visitors to The Punk Rock Museum will have the opportunity to experience the Ghost bass in a way that’s rarely possible in traditional exhibits. The museum’s ethos of making punk history interactive means musicians, fans, and history lovers alike can witness and even play a piece of music history.

In addition, Jennifer Finch will be giving tours of The Punk Rock Museum on February 28 and March 1-3. Tickets are available here: bit.ly/PRM-Jennifer-Finch.

——————- ABOUT ME

Jennifer Precious Finch is a musician and visual artist living in Los Angeles, CA. She became a member of the legendary group L7 in 1986, has an extensive body of work as a photographer documenting the punk, art, and queer scenes in Los Angeles throughout the 1980s, and is currently the writer and podcaster behind Sh!T My Rockstar Says, where she creates commentary on media, culture, self-reflection, and more. Sign up for her NEWSLETTER to get all the juicy details: https://jenniferfinch.substack.com.

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🎸 We NEED TO TALK at the Punk Rock Museum 🎸

Walk and Talk with Me as Your Trusty (Sometimes Crusty) Tour Guide
📍 February 28 – March 2, 2025 | Punk Rock Museum | Las Vegas, NV

What Makes Punk More Than Just Hot Skinny Guys in Vinyl Pants Or Blue Jeans?

When I’ve led tours in the past, I’ve focused on more than just my own story. Punk wasn’t created by a few hot, skinny guys in vinyl pants and torn shirts sparking a cultural revolution in the ’70s. Punk is an energy—a movement that swept through and changed everything. It didn’t start in the ’70s. I’d argue it began before World War II, gained momentum through post-colonial England (God Save the Queen / New Rose), and drew energy from post-capitalist America during the Vietnam War. From politics to psychology, philosophy to art—and, of course, music—punk rocked the world to its core.

Who Gets to Tell the Story of Punk Rock?

But here’s the thing: Punk is about breaking systems, yet whose voices are included in these stories?

• Who gets to be in the archives?
• Whose voices are heard, and whose are left out?
  It’s time we ask ourselves these questions when we visit spaces like the Punk Rock Museum. Can we live with the irony of a Punk Museum? Isn’t putting punk in a museum inherently un-punk? Can a museum like this truly capture and portray the raw, rebellious energy of punk through “stuff”?

Women’s History Month: Do We Still Need It in Punk Rock?

🎤 This March, in honor of Women’s History Month, I’m diving headfirst into these questions—and I need YOUR HELP. Do we still need to put women’s involvement at the forefront just to stay relevant?
“Why the Fuck Do We Even Need a Women’s History Month in Punk Rock?”
Let’s tackle this head-on. I’m not scared—are you?

Questions We’ll Explore During the Tour

💥 Here are some of the key questions we’ll dig into together:

• Who gets written into punk rock history—and who gets left out? And why?
• Is the museum doing a good job of telling punk’s story and including its diverse voices?
• What barriers have women broken to make space in the punk scene?
• How have women’s contributions redefined punk’s rebellious spirit—on stage and behind the scenes?

What’s Included in Your $100 Ticket

💥 When you join me, here’s what you’ll get:
✅ All-day access to the museum, bar, upstairs galleries, and jam room.
✅ An intimate 1.5-hour guided tour, packed with raw stories, punk rock history, and a little chaos.
✅ A Q&A session to dive deeper into the themes and answer your burning questions.
✅ Time for photos and autographs to capture the moment.

Why Women’s Contributions to Punk Rock Matter

🎤 Women in punk weren’t just participants—they were creators, instigators, and innovators who reshaped the genre. Let’s challenge the narratives that sideline their contributions and amplify the voices of the women who built punk rock from the fucking ground up. Bring your curiosity, your questions, and maybe a little attitude—we’ll celebrate, question, and rebel together.

Secure Your Spot Today

Don’t miss out on this exclusive tour experience during Women’s History Month.
🎸 Tickets are $100 and include full museum access, guided tours, and more. Let’s make some noise about why women don’t just belong in punk rock—they’ve always been its backbone.

The Birth of a Mystery Bass (Acts like a ghosts, looks like a ghost, it’s a ghost?) 👻 .

At some point in the distant past—let’s call it the later mid-80s—a black Fender bass, a hybrid Jazz-Precision, came into my possession, just appearing, like a ghost. Far from being considered top-shelf, its low-end quality made it the perfect instrument to experiemnt with as a “canvas.” With each of those early L7 shows, I would add to or subtract from its menacing look. Over the first year, I spray-painted it, masked out stencil designs, and sanded away the sticky, gross finish to expose the raw wood.

Murder Ink and the Crimson Ghost 💀

Around 1989, I was working in a screen-printing shop called Murder Ink. We provided silkscreen shirts to many local LA bands as well as touring bands from the UK like The Damned and GBH. Among the designs we created, there was one featuring the emblem of the Crimson Ghost—a figure from a serialized film from 1946. The punk band The Misfits had famously adopted it for a flyer in 1979 and the haunting skull-like image became a logo for the group.

I liked The Misfits (the band) well enough, but by the late ’80s there time had come and gone and their records were impossible to find…HOWEVER what I really loved was how they had collaged kitschy, iconic images, like the Crimson Ghost from pop culture and repurposed them to create their own aesthetic and mood. This kind of “borrowing, recycling and repurposing is what interested me the most in music, art, life, whatever…

The Birth of “The Ghost Bass” ☠️

One evening while screening the Crimson Ghost image in sticky white ink onto black cotton T-shirts, I asked my friend Karl, the owner of Murder Ink, if he thought the screen print could be applied to my Fender bass. He said probably not, but we tried anyway. Slowly, we pushed the ink through the screen, rocking it carefully to lay flat against the bass’s curves. And… it worked, perfectly. “The Ghost Bass” was born.

The Evolution of The Bastard 👻💀

That bass went everywhere with L7. However, I quickly grew tired of the design, wanting a flatblack canvas again to apply stickers and paint, but wanted to preserve the ghost image so I tried covering it with a vinyl film. By 1992, not just the images or stickers on the Ghost had become cobbled together, but most of the hardware was now “frankenstiened,” with tuning pegs replaced multiple times of different shapes and colors and a bridge missing critical components.

That year, L7 had an amazing road crew, including a talented guitar tech who kept our instruments in working order. They respected that I played this Kludged together bass, but couldn’t resist teasing me about it. at one point I told them they could do whatever they wanted to the Ghost, and they took me up on it. They bolted on the craziest pieces of metal for the strap holder and installed tuning pegs that looked straight out of Mad Max. To top it off, they renamed her “The Bastard” and wrote it on the headstock where the Fender logo would normally be.

“The Bastard” Makes Its Mark 💀

Now as The Bastard, this bass toured the United States and Europe. It even made an appearance in a memorable moment on French national television, Canal+ show “Nulle Part Ailleurs” (watch the video) where my amplifier broke mid-performance. In frustration and humor, I threw The Bastard off the edge of a cliffside stage into the sand below while I danced. The bass stuck upright like an anchor, and though the moment shocked many, including the show’s producers, it became legendary. Actor Will Smith later told me he’d always remember that moment, laughing at the chaos while others saw it as a disaster. The Bastard was fine, retrieved that same day, and went on to finish the tour.

A New Chapter for The Ghost/Bastard ☠️

After leaving L7 in 1996, I turned to singing, playing guitar, and keyboards full-time with Other Star People and put The Ghost Bass in a case under my bed. Eventually, it was moved to my garden shed, where it sat for ten years. When we gals in L7 started talking about a reunion, I was certain I wouldn’t be able to revitalize The Ghost/Bastard. I had left the strings on and a 9-volt battery in the pickups, which I assumed had corroded the insides. When I finally opened the case, I was both surprised and hesitant. As I plugged her in, I discovered not only was the battery still working, but the tuners still moved, the strings weren’t even rusty, the bridge was intact, and—unbelievably—she was still in tune! I took her to our first L7 reunion practice, and no one even suspected.

The Return of The Ghost Bass at No Values Festival 👻

During the reunion, I removed the black vinyl covering the Ghost design but re-covered it for the 2024 No Values Festival, where L7 played alongside The Misfits. I didn’t want to come off like a suck-up, so the Ghost remained hidden under the vinyl for that show, although some of the black vinyl had started to peel off.

The Legacy of The Ghost/Bastard 👻💀☠️

So, this is the tale of the bass whose origins I cannot recall, that appeared as “The Ghost” and has proudly persisted as “The Bastard”—seen so much and still standing strong.