Flea

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Tuesday Dec 19, 2006

Flea kicks ass.

Bag · Post by **Bag** » Tuesday Dec 19, 2006

"First, I'll put some whipped cream on it" - old sKool on molesting Bag's Overkill CD."

Sapo · Post by **Sapo** » Tuesday Dec 19, 2006

bassist_25 wrote:Flea kicks ass.

you know i never liked his playing...

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Tuesday Dec 19, 2006

Sapo wrote:
bassist_25 wrote:Flea kicks ass.

you know i never liked his playing...

It's funny. People always go on and on about Claypool, and I never dug his playing. I always thought that he was just way too atonal for atonal's sake, and I could never get into his slap style. I also always thought that he had the second worst recorded bass tone in history (the first worst being Geezer Butler's on the first couple of Sabbath albums).

I've always loved Flea though. Even though there are cats more technical than him, Flea has a great pocket and he always plays from the heart. Different strokes and all.

Sapo · Post by **Sapo** » Tuesday Dec 19, 2006

so true. i don't like his clean modern tone and i don't like slapping. the best bass tone i've ever heard on record is dug pinnick on "dogman"...especially on the song "pretend." best live tone...dug pinnick. truly amazing.

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Tuesday Dec 19, 2006

Doug's an amazing player, and I truly hope that King's X gets all of the recoginition that they deserve. I've never heard his live tone, though he does the clipping Ampeg sound (I believe that he uses a SansAmp to get it), which I've never liked at all.

I love the clean, modern hifi tone. SWR was one of the best things to ever happen to bass amplification, IMO, because they introduced rigs that could repoduce the clarity and upper register of bass, which was great for cats who were into slapping, tapping, chording, harmonics, and all of that great stuff. Obviously, companies like Epifani, EA, and Glockenklang have surpassed SWR in terms of hifi bass reproduction, but for me, it all started with SWR. Personally, I like Eden and Aguilar because they are hifi, but aren't "too hifi," and can still retain the warmth and fatness of the older rigs. I think that if I had grown up a few decades earlier, I would have been an Acoustic player or perhaps a Sunn player, because those companies were pretty hifi for their day. It's still weird to think that Hartke was considered pretty cutting-edge back in its day.

Anyways, the QSC that you sold me is still running like a champ (I consider it one of the two best gear purchases I've ever made), though it will be going to backup status once my PLX comes back from the shop.

Sapo · Post by **Sapo** » Tuesday Dec 19, 2006

glad to hear the qsc is still kicking. they are very reliable amps. i have a plx 1602 and its great. i'd love to get a spare.

the key to doug's tone in the past was an old traynor tube amp that was running his distortion. he puts something on his distortion...i'm not really sure what...that makes it magic. it may be a hint of flange. and he mixes a clean and dirty signal. in the past he has used ampeg stuff...i've never seen him use sansamp gear. his setup is complicated...he's one of the reasons my rig is overly complicated!

i'm definitely not into the hifi sound. i do like overdrive and compression so i can get some good harmonics...natural, tapped, or pinched. i like playing chords too and they articulate pretty well. i can appreciate a good modern tone...its just not my cup of tea.

if i'm ever in the neighborhood i'll try to catch you live and check out your tone!

Baceman Spiff · Post by **Baceman Spiff** » Tuesday Dec 19, 2006

bassist_25 wrote:It's funny. People always go on and on about Claypool, and I never dug his playing. I always thought that he was just way too atonal for atonal's sake, and I could never get into his slap style. I also always thought that he had the second worst recorded bass tone in history (the first worst being Geezer Butler's on the first couple of Sabbath albums).

Ease back on Gezzer brother. I love his playing and his tone. He recorded Sabbath's first album, playing through a guitar amp. That's why it sounds the way it does. Basically because he couldn't afford to buy anything better at the time. But I love it just the same. Warm with a growl.

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Tuesday Dec 19, 2006

Sapo wrote:
the key to doug's tone in the past was an old traynor tube amp that was running his distortion. he puts something on his distortion...i'm not really sure what...that makes it magic. it may be a hint of flange. and he mixes a clean and dirty signal. in the past he has used ampeg stuff...i've never seen him use sansamp gear. his setup is complicated...he's one of the reasons my rig is overly complicated!

I was checking out Guitargeek to see if they had Doug's rig, but they don't. I wish they would post more bass rigs on that site. I think I did read somewhere that he uses a SansAmp, though I could be mistaken.

But there's nothing wrong with having an overly complicated rig. I've been contemplating a switching system for a while...or should I say that I've been contemplating a psuedo-switching system. I'd like to add a warmer and fatter preamp to use with my BBE. My plan is to run an A/B box after my rack-tuner to go between two-preamps. I would run both preamps into the same power amp and cabinets. The main problem I see is that I don't want to be a primadonna and expect two channels at the board, so I'm trying to find some solution so I can run both preamps into a single DI type of box that will send a post-eq signal to the desk. Of course, matching gain stages may be a little bit of a pain in the ass. I'm just wondering how well it work in a real life situation. I'm worried that they may be some added noise or "pop" when I switch between preamps. But I'm probably not going to spend the money on that stuff right now anyways. It's just something that I've been thinking about.

Ease back on Gezzer brother. I love his playing and his tone. He recorded Sabbath's first album, playing through a guitar amp. That's why it sounds the way it does. Basically because he couldn't afford to buy anything better at the time. But I love it just the same. Warm with a growl.

It wasn't a slight on Geez in anyway, but I still think that his early tone was terrible. When I think of the bass fills at the beginning of War Pigs and then I think of that tone...UGGGG!!!

MeYatch · Post by **MeYatch** » Tuesday Dec 19, 2006

I like it when political threads turn into bass gear threads. that should happen more often.

that said flea never did anything for me.

Sapo · Post by **Sapo** » Tuesday Dec 19, 2006

Dug's rig (go to rigs - dug's rig):
http://www.12stringbass.net/master.htm? ... t/News.htm

I run two preamps simultaneously. there's a closeup pic of my main rack at my myspace pics. the piece of gear I use to make it happen is the Rane MLM-42. It is a great unit! You can run up to four signals in, mix them, and then send one balanced and/or unbalanced line to the house, amp, or whatever.
http://www.rane.com/mlm42.html

Banned · Post by **Banned** » Tuesday Dec 19, 2006

Sapo wrote:Dug's rig (go to rigs - dug's rig):
http://www.12stringbass.net/master.htm? ... t/News.htm

Wow. Doug/dUg is one hell of a talented dude, but he's not looking so hot in that picture.

That's like a Keith Richards level of skeletal scariness. To be fair, Pinnick's a lot older than people probably assume (56), but still. Eat a Twinkie, dude!

(Let's see how long it takes for someone to quote the "Eat a Twinkie" line and make a joke about Pinnick's sexual preference.)

Sapo · Post by **Sapo** » Tuesday Dec 19, 2006

yeah, he's a little skinny! superhuman voice though. i've been a king's x fan since 1989 but i never realized he could hit those high mariah carey (or however you spell it) squeals until i saw them live. he does that on the live all over the place album. i don't think that squeal has anything to do with twinkies...

did i say that!? that was horrible. dug's the greatest.

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Wednesday Dec 20, 2006

Todd, I dig the rig shots, especially the one with the Ampeg 4x10 and 2x10. You have me pretty intrigued with the Rane, and I'm thinking that one of those may be the solution I'll be using when I do this switching system. I'm thinking of using an Eden Navigator as a second preamp, something a little more colored than the transparent BBE that I'm currently using. I'm also interested in using a tube front end. I love lots of clean SS power, but I do like a tube front end. Also, I'd like to maybe use a SansAmp RBI for dirty sounds. Like I said, I don't really dig the clipped tube amp sound, but sometimes there's cover material that would really benefit from it. Big Jim was kind enough to let me try a SansAmp Bass Driver for a while, and even though it was a very cool unit, it wasn't entirely true bypass and still colored my tone. A seperate RBI would work great for that.

Sapo · Post by **Sapo** » Wednesday Dec 20, 2006

Paul, you can't go wrong with Rane gear. One thing that will work for your proposed setup is this: If you are driving your power amp with the mixed signal from the Rane - it will keep the level constant whether you are running one preamp or two. I don't notice a volume difference when I drop a preamp out. I also think that my preamps sound better when my signal goes through the Rane than when I run them directly to the power amp.

The unit was a little pricey, if I recall its in the $300 range, but its really become the heart of my system. Its funny, you said you didn't want to ask soundmen for a second channel; I initially got the unit because I had gotten tired of fighting with soundmen over that very issue! I decided I'd do the initial mixing of my tone myself and give them one signal to work with.

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006

Cool, my bass techie talk is back, now with its own thread!

Anyways, yeah the Rane seems like an excellent solution. I had already priced them when you brought them up. Most likely when it comes time to implement this, I'll probably be looking on the used market first. As it stands right now, I'm going to need a bigger rack before I do any sort of upgrades. For what I'm envisioning, a ten space rack is probably going to be my best bet. Or I've also thought about using two racks: One with all of the essentials like my main preamp, power amp, and rack tuner, and one with the extras when I use the switching system. That will keep things more light weight, though on the negative side, it will be an extra trip to the car at the end of the night.

I'm in my junior year now; I'll be applying to grad schools next year, so I'll probably not be making any major musical purchases for a while. But I've had the idea of a switching system for a while, and I wanted to keep it simple. I'm not running different FX or seperate amps, so a Bradshaw or a Switchblade system would have just been a waste of money; all I wanted to do was to go between a couple different preamps. I think that the Rane is just what I was looking for.

MeYatch · Post by **MeYatch** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006

bassist_25 wrote:Cool, my bass techie talk is back, now with its own thread!

your bass techie talk threads always leave me with "bass amp envy"

I've been debating getting an all tube head for the past few months, I'd love to get my hands on an orange, but those sure don't come cheap.

MeYatch · Post by **MeYatch** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006

bassist_25 wrote:It's funny. People always go on and on about Claypool, and I never dug his playing. I always thought that he was just way too atonal for atonal's sake, and I could never get into his slap style. I also always thought that he had the second worst recorded bass tone in history (the first worst being Geezer Butler's on the first couple of Sabbath albums).

I've always loved Flea though. Even though there are cats more technical than him, Flea has a great pocket and he always plays from the heart. Different strokes and all.

I prefer claypool over flea for the same reasons you like it the other way around.

I like claypool's midrangey atypical slap tone, and Flea's playing to me has always seemed "cookie cutter"

I realize he was one of the first (if not the first) to play funk influenced slap lines in popular music, but he and other people have influenced a whole generation of bass players that could replace or even improve on flea.

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006

Mitch, yeah we've definitely talked about the Orange head. As I said, I've learned when it comes to equipment, where there's a will, there's a way. It sucks though with a boutique company like Orange, because there isn't exactly a myriad of their stuff on the used market. There are of course all of those Orange offshoot companies like Green. I don't know how they would compare to the original thing.

Of course, don't discount the Fender that you were talking about (which is actually just a Sunn 300T with a different nameplate). Those are great heads. Aguilar makes a hybrid head called the DB750, which is very "tubey" sounding. Of course, the price of a brand new one would put you about where the Orange is, but the Aggie is way much easier to find on the used market. Aguilar also use to make an all-tube head called the DB359. They've been discontined (use to retail for over $3k

), but now there's a lot of those on the used market too.

MeYatch · Post by **MeYatch** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006

as far as overly complicated bass rigs go, here's my hypothetical one.

I'd run a splitter into my main rig, and a tube(ish) bass amp or guitar amp, and cut the lows to the second rig, which I would add a hint of overdrive too, and possible other effects if the situation called for it.

I wouldn't go bi-amp because I don't want to take the chance of losing my precious midrange.

My Fleishman fretless has two outputs for some reason, and I used to run one into my amp, and another to a little crate guitar amp. The distortion sounded much better than just distorting the whole signal.

Of course this is the kind of thing I'd never do without an armada of roadies at my disposal. I'm of the opinion that simpler is better when it comes to playing typical bar gigs. I'm not concerned with getting the perfect tone, I can save those headaches for recording.

MeYatch · Post by **MeYatch** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006

bassist_25 wrote:Mitch, yeah we've definitely talked about the Orange head. As I said, I've learned when it comes to equipment, where there's a will, there's a way. It sucks though with a boutique company like Orange, because there isn't exactly a myriad of their stuff on the used market. There are of course all of those Orange offshoot companies like Green. I don't know how they would compare to the original thing.

After being totally and completely blown away with the orange half stack at Pianos and Stuff in pittsburgh, and having my ideal definition of bass tone defined in one note. I came home and fiddled with my rig, and came to the realization that its definately "in the ballpark" Which basically means that nobody but me, and some other bass geeks would ever know the difference. It makes it extremely hard to drop $2500 on a rig.

My peavey/accoustic rig has the same essential voicing to it, just without the gorgeous tube warmth, I may consider a tube preamp, or something for the time being.

I'd like to audition one of those fender heads. They didn't have any at guitar center when I looked. As fender is completley not respected as a bass amp manufacturer, nobody wants to carry a $1000+ bass head.

What I have learned about Green amps, is that they are made by the guy that started Orange, and they seem to be very similar, and sell for very similar prices. Frankly, I dig orange (the color, note how its no longer capitilized) more than green, so I'd have to go with them.

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006

It's funny that Fender isn't respected anymore as a bass amp company. Back in the day, the Fender Bassman was thee quitessential bass amp combo. The funny part is that guitar players loved those things. Did I ever show you my old Fender catalog? They have some interesting amps in there. They made this crazy cabinet with a single 18 and a folded horn.

MeYatch · Post by **MeYatch** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006

bassist_25 wrote:Back in the day, the Fender Bassman was thee quitessential bass amp combo.

back in the day the Fender Bassman was the only bass amp of any size shape or form. But maybe you are talking about a different "the day"

Its my understanding that the old Fender amps just can't really keep up with todays music. Even though they bought Sunn, it will still take some time (and some truly kickass amps, and probably some high profile users) to turn their reputation around.

the bassman 300 is definately on my short list of amps to demo. I'm just looking for tube warmth, and I know I don't like ampeg (not even a little, ok maybe a really really little, if I want to play some rage against the machine or something)

ToonaRockGuy · Post by **ToonaRockGuy** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006

Gotta chime in, even though I'm a drummer. Flea is the kind of busy bass player that any pocket drummer (read: me) would die to play with. His groove is just unbelievably fat, and he's very tasty. And I do have to say that locally, Jason Ebersole has that Flea type of fat-ass pocket going on. He was always one of my favorite players to share a stage with.

Claypool, just in my own opinion, can just never pick up a bass again. God, I completely and utterly hate his playing. It's frickin' hilarious to me that he needs a 6,8, or 12 string bass to do what Billy Sheehan can do with 4.

bassist_25 · Post by **bassist_25** » Thursday Dec 21, 2006

Yeah, I have nothing but respect for Jason. He's a monster player, but he still has a lot of groove going on. Some cats have all of the chops in the world, but they still can't lay down a solid pocket. Jason can do both. He's a very cool cat, personality-wise, too.