Nikki Sixx's bass strings: the Mötley Crüe rig, sourced

Born Frank Carlton Serafino Feranna Jr. on December 11, 1958, in San Jose, California, Nikki Sixx co-founded Mötley Crüe in 1981 with drummer Tommy Lee. Guitarist Mick Mars answered a newspaper ad to join, and singer Vince Neil signed on through his high school connection to Lee. Sixx had already spent a few years cutting his teeth in the bands Sister and London, legally changing his name to Nikki Sixx during the London era.

The band self-released its debut, Too Fast for Love, on their own Leathür Records in November 1981 before Elektra Records picked it up. Shout at the Devil (1983) pushed the band to national fame, and the run through Theatre of Pain (1985), Girls, Girls, Girls (1987), and Dr. Feelgood (1989), the band's most successful record and its only Billboard 200 number one, defined the glam-metal era. Sixx is Wikipedia's own listed "only constant member" of Mötley Crüe and its primary songwriter, a writing or co-writing credit that Wikipedia's own account extends across the catalog through 2008's Saints of Los Angeles, though that specific album's credits aren't independently sourced there.

Sixx's history isn't only the music. On December 23, 1987, he overdosed on heroin and was reportedly declared clinically dead for two minutes before a paramedic revived him with two syringes of adrenaline, an event he later turned into the memoir The Heroin Diaries and the Sixx:A.M. side project. The band went on hiatus in 2002 and reunited in 2004. Sixx's own sobriety date is 2001; he marked 25 years clean on July 6, 2026, writing that "sobriety gave me a life I never imagined was possible."

Mötley Crüe is still touring in 2026. The Return of the Carnival of Sins run, 33 dates marking the band's 45th anniversary and the 20th anniversary of the original 2005-2006 Carnival of Sins tour, kicks off July 17 at the Pavilion at Star Lake in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, with Extreme and Tesla opening. Sixx has said the band's current contract runs out after these shows.

Two things worth knowing about Sixx's role in Mötley Crüe:

1. Songwriter first, bassist second. Wikipedia credits Sixx as the band's primary songwriter and only constant member across every lineup change, including Vince Neil's mid-1990s departure and John Corabi's brief run on vocals. The bass parts serve the songs he's writing, not the other way around.

2. The "Terror Twins" rhythm section. Sixx and Tommy Lee co-founded the band together in 1981 and have shared the rhythm section for most of its history, with one real gap: Lee left in 1999, and Randy Castillo drummed until the band's 2002 hiatus, after which Lee returned for the 2004 reunion. Even with that interruption, it's one of the longest-running rhythm-section partnerships in hard rock.

Strings. Sixx's signature set is the Dean Markley Nikki Sixx Helix HD SS Bass Strings (model 2620), announced by Dean Markley USA in May 2012. Guitar World's launch coverage quotes Sixx directly, "Dean Markley puts the bite back in the bass sound," and lists his exact custom gauges: .050 (first string), .070 (second), .090 (third), .110 (fourth). The set is stainless steel, built on Dean Markley's Hyper-Elliptical winding process, which shapes the wrap wire into an elliptical profile to fit more wraps along the string, adding mass and brightness without changing the string's outer diameter. It's still sold today at multiple retailers under the same 2620 model number. CYS doesn't have that exact signature set in the catalog yet; the nearest reviewed gauge is Ernie Ball's Regular Slinky Bass (.050-.105), an honest stand-in rather than a claimed match, since it lines up exactly on the top two strings and is only .005 lighter on the A and low E strings.

Current bass: Schecter Sixx Bass. Sixx's current signature model has been in Schecter's lineup since January 2013. Per Schecter's own product page: neck-through construction with Ultra Access, mahogany body, 5-ply maple/walnut neck, 34-inch scale, rosewood fingerboard with 24 X-Jumbo frets and dot inlays, EMG P/J pickups, a Graph Tech Black TUSQ XL nut, volume/volume/tone controls plus a kill switch, Grover tuners, and black chrome hardware. It ships in Satin Black or Vintage Sunburst, with a left-handed option in Satin Black.

Earlier signature: Gibson Blackbird. Before Schecter, Sixx's namesake bass was the Gibson Blackbird, a heavily customized Thunderbird built to his specs and produced from 2000 to 2003. Dealer and collector listings (the instrument predates Gibson's current product pages, which no longer carry it) consistently describe the same spec sheet: flat-black finish, ebony fretboard with pearl iron-cross inlays, black chrome hardware, an "opti grab" handle added to the bridge, and electronics stripped down to a single on/off kill switch for the two humbuckers, renamed "Deep Sixx" pickups for the run.

Documented strings. Ernie Ball Regular Slinky Bass (.050-.105), the closest CYS-reviewed gauge to Sixx's own Dean Markley signature set.

Bandmate. Tommy Lee, Mötley Crüe's drummer and Sixx's co-founding rhythm-section partner since 1981.

Bassist hub. Bassists index. Glam-metal and hard-rock bass canon parallel: Lemmy Kilmister (Motörhead), Duff McKagan (Guns N' Roses).