Zen and the Art of Bass Amplifier Management
Phil Simon
2005-02-04
For the last few issues we have been tackling some heady shows- from an introduction to management issues for bands and a visit with Strangefolk's manager Allen Ostroy to a study of studio production and a visit with Jeff Mosier and Captain Soularcat. These are cerebral causes for sure, so I wanted to get back to some nuts and bolts issues this month. I feel like opening the basement door and jumping down into the practice space- mess with some chords and amplifiers, talk some gear with someone who knows gear and playing. So I sat down and spent some time with my buddy Freekbass from Ohio. Freekbass is a great band and a rising star in the bass world. Having just garnered the Cincinnati Music Award for best R&B band and hitting the touring circuit, Freekbass has earned the attention of everyone from the Grammy nomination committee to Bass Player magazine. The band Freekbass has elements of floor driven funk the likes of Parliament or Deep Banana Blackout but also the technical mastery and low end wizardry of more compositional artists like Les Claypool or Victor Wooten. The man Freekbass is a protégé of Bootsy Collins, who manages the band and produces the albums. I figure if anyone knows a thing or two about gear, it's Freekbass. So we kicked back and swapped some stories. Jambands Business School: So, What bass guitars are you using lately? Freekbass --I use these crazy looking custom basses by MDX Guitars. We had this design together for a bit and I met Dwight (owner of the company) at a gig down in Mississippi. He said he wanted to hook it up and he did an amazing job. The basses are made out of swamp ash so they have a ton of low-end. I had the yellow one first and then a year or so later he made the reddish one for me. Jambands Business School: What bass amplifiers are you using? Freekbass --I use the Groove Bass Amp by Kustom. The 2 cabinets I use with the head are Groove Bass cabinets each having 2 x 15" speakers and horns. The whole setup is really nice because it puts out a ton of low-end and bottom, but you still get the high-end cut so your notes still come through. That's always a common battle for bassists in getting a real nice low end, but still getting your definition of the notes you are playing to come through. The GrooveBass amp was the rig that covered all of that so it was an honor to hook up with them. Jambands Business School: What pedals and pedal board set up do you have? Freekbass --The pedals I use live are an Electro-Harmonix Q-Tron ( I use an original Mu-Tron III in the studio, bit since it is vintage it doesn't like the road too much), a DigiTech Whammy Pedal, Line 6 Filter Pro (in my amp rack) , a Boss MT-2 Metal Zone (with the low EQ boosted), Electro-Harmonix Bass Micro-Synthesizer, a Boss SYB-3 Bass Synth Pedal , and a Boss TU-2 tuner . Jambands Business School: You have recently acquired some sponsorships. Notably the D'Addario Bass strings sponsorship has yielded some interesting opportunities for you. Tell us all about that. Freekbass -- D'Addario is great. They took me on when I was just starting to make a little noise. I always used their strings anyway so it was great to be able to get that going. After working with them a couple of years ago they got in touch with me about these new bass strings they were coming out with (the ProSteels). They were going to be including a CD in all of the packages of the 4-string sets of strings of different bassists they work with. They asked me if I could throw something together to be included on the CD, so I put together a track that was almost all bass (with the exception of our drummer). I have never been too good at being subtle so I just threw a gang of bass on the track. The track is titled "Minute To Forever" and is also on our CD The Air Is Fresher Underground. The whole D'Addario CD is really nice with other artists such as Oteil Burbridge, Michael Manring, Gary Willis, Jimmy Haslip, and Dave Ellefson to name a few. Jambands Business School: We are used to big rock stars getting their own signature amplifiers (Eddie Van Halen). But you are a big spokesman for Kustom amps out of Cincinnati. How is it that someone without a major label deal has been able to gain their attention? What demographics do they see you capturing that big stars aren't? Freekbass --That's a real good question and you probably have to talk to Kustom to get the full picture. I am guessing that with the amp being called the GrooveBass Amp it seemed like a good fit and they are trying to tap into musicians who are working at it from a grass roots level. Or it could be they just like bassists who wear snazzy faux-fur jackets. I had been approached by a couple other amplifier companies, but Kustom was really great about making sure I felt comforatble with the exact specs I wanted with the rig. They had me come out to their factory and try every combination of speaker setup until I heard the one that help me get the sound I am going for. Jambands Business School: How have you used these equipment sponsorships and the opportunities that they have presented in your whole marketing and publicity campaign? Freekbass --The live music communtiy and the musician community are pretty tightly knitted so it all works together pretty nicely. I am guessing the kind of person who goes out and sees a lot of live shows will read Relix, Rolling Stone, Spin, etc., etc. and also check out mags such as Bass Player, Guitar Player, Mix Magazine. Jambands Business School: What interesting events have coincided with your sponsorships? Have certain opportunities been brought to the table strictly as a result of your sponsorships? Freekbass --Kustom brought me to the Summer NAMM show in Nashville, TN last summer to demo the GrooveBass amp at the convention. They had me playing a couple of times each day which was really nice. They had a nice booth and stage set up and I would just get up there and bang on my bass a bit and folks that attended the convention could come in and check it out. The NAMM show is always pretty special because it is like being a kid in the candy store if you are a musician. Every music company/manufacturer in the world is there. Plus it is great because you get to rap with a lot of other musicians from all levels doing their thing and see how it's working. --Also couple of months back I attended and gave a clinic on funk bass playing in New York at an event called Bass Player Live sponsored by Bass Player Magazine. It was a trip being around that many bassists who I grew up listening to all at once. Will Lee from Letterman's band was the keynote speaker, and the vibe was so incredible both with meeting bassists who we've all heard of, but also meeting so many bassists who were there because they are working players too, or there just because of their love of the instrument. Jambands Business School: You seem to have a good funk and college crowd developed. But it also seems true that you have developed a following of gear heads. I've noticed that people come up to you at shows to talk about equipment and playing and that is helping to feed your fan base. Tell us how that came about? Freekbass --Great question, but that's a hard one to answer without sounding really pretentious or like an idiot. But since I am a bit of an idiot I'll give it a shot. We all put a lot of thought and practice into the playing and execution side of the songs. On top of practicing as a group, everyone works individually on their playing technique and their sounds all the time. I know for me if I even take a few days off from playing I notice it because as well as being very mental, it is very physical too. Plus we are all looking for that perfect stomp box, amp, or cymbal to get that perfect sound. It gets a little obsessive and I am sure there is a clinic out there somewhere just waiting for us to check in. That intensity about playing music is translated to the crowd, and hopefully they can feed off of it. Jambands Business School: In the past, guitar players and drummers have gotten all the glory. But in the last five years we are seeing bass players coming out as band leaders. Les Claypool, Oteil Burbridge, Victor Wooten- tell us how you have been effected by these guys in your playing, as well as their bass player band leader mentality. Freekbass --I teach bass lessons a couple of days a week and I always tell my students at their first lesson that we bass players are the glue that pastes the drummers to the guitarists. Part of our brains are drummers, and part of them are guitarists. So with that said I guess they couldn't keep us in the back forever . I think the fact that there are so many bassists fronting bands now is good because it puts the focus back on the music and not the novelty of a bassist being out in front. Obviously, Les Claypool, Oteil Burbridge, and Victor Wooten's styles are all very original and independent of each other so you can't pigeonhole them as "Bass music" or music just for bassists. Just like you couldn't do that to Stanley Clarke and Jaco, or Bootsy and Larry Graham. On that point, I think how all of those bassists have influenced me is, although the bass is a dominant part of all of their sounds, the song itself remains the main focus. In the coming months Freekbass will be hitting the road, dragging his gear with him. Check in with his website at www.Freekbass.com for more information about his album the Air is Fresher Underground, and upcoming tourdates across the country. Thanks for stopping by Freaky.
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