Bass FX

Funk is made out of LOVE and has something cocky into it that makes you wanna… dance on the groove. It was put up front with the famous performer: James Brown in the seventies. Another major figure of funk is George Clinton - known for two major funk bands The Parliament and Funkadelic.

In this vintage video, there’s a great performance by Bootsy Collins (one of the main characters of Funkadelic). He plays in his band called Bootsy’s Rubber Band. At 02:35, you can’t hear the sound well due to the lack of the recorder capting sub-low frequencies - he is using an Octave Divider by Mu-Tron. A greateffect to have on the bass.

This is a great performance from Bootsy Collins. This isn’t in the seventies though, it’s in our time (about year 2000 maybe). As you notice, there are a lot of effects in his signals (he has about 4 track of different signal tone all together to get this funk). He seems to be using an auto-wah, probably the Q-Tron - it’s ancestor was the Mutron-III designed by Mike Beigel (click here for more info). At about 01:20, the tone seems to get really high - it is probably created by the great Digitech Whammy pedal.

On the top comment videos, bouncymike999 says: “It takes skill to be the center of attention when theres a grown man in a diaper on the same stage as you.” =)

I like this funky solo - there’s a string that breaks in the middle of the solo (@ 02:45) but this just seem to bring Victor into a frenzy. I think this occured at the Montreal Jazz Festival, correct me if I’m wrong.

One thing that happened way too many times to me was to lose control of my instrument because the strap decided to remove itself from the guitar. I’ve bought some straplocks from my local music store and it cost around 25$. It’s not that expensive but when you are short on money you really don’t feel like paying for this issue.  Make sure this doesn’t happen to you. I found a great tutorial on YouTube explaining a very cheap way to make your own, and I think it actually looks freaky stylie.

1. The reliable kid: Someone you pay to go get you everything you want.

2. Tour Manager: An experienced fellow who concentrate on touring and organizing schedules.

3. Engineer: An objective scientific mastermind who can turn lead into gold – audio mixing and live sound expert. He also fixes any problems efficiently.

4. Agent: Deals.

It’s also a good idea to DOCUMENT your recording sessions (ex: in a studio with the band for an upcoming album). For this, ask someone that is friendly and with who you feel comfortable around. Hint: It may or may not be the Reliable Kid.

Written by Anthony Kiedis, the singer of the band. I’m on chapter 3 for now, which has been about his early life; it’s talking about girls and drugs. I’ll re-write this post as I go along the book. The book is called Scar Tissue, just like this popular song from the band.

One of the most favorite bass solos made by the man himself.

He still uses his 1976 Roland (not Boss Jet Phase, a Mu-Tron Octave Divider, a Digitech Whammy and even more fuzz.

When I find myself talking about getting a great tone. I always think about pickups. You want to pay attention to those little magnets. They are the microphones of your instrument and will be considered important for the overall TONE coming out in the band. You want pickups to sound clean and rich. Currently, I use a set of Bartolini 8s on my Precision Bass and I’m really satisfied. If you’re here because your curious about the pickups, write me a comment here and I will post a sample of them. They are used and have been used by many many profesionnals. You can view a list of musicians using bartolini pickups  here.

Bartolini pickups are professional pickups and helps to get your instrument a professionnal tone. They have been one of the biggest brands for pickups since the early sixties!

Stanley Clarke, one of the most innovative electric bass players of the past three decades — an artist and a creator in the truest sense of the words — examines the emotional sweep of war in The Toys of Men, his new album set for worldwide release on Heads Up International / Roxboro Entertainment Group on October 16, 2007.

The last question of the interview (@ 03:25) he tells us about the gear he uses for playing music. He uses Alembic basses, SWR Cabinets, Crest amplifiers, TC Electronic reverb stomp box. That’s pretty neat.

I wonder why I always come back to this video.  We got good vibrations coming out of Wooten’s Fodera bass.