Flea on The Mars Volta

jmcdan3 · #1 03-06-2008, 12:23 PM

Gotta love his playing on Deloused. Anyone know what his rig was like then? That is Flea at his finest-very tasteful melodic playing....Awesome!!!

sgfender85 · #2 03-06-2008, 12:37 PM

Flea and Mars Volta? huh?
but anyways I know Flea usually plays GK rigs thorugh a J Bass

stoo · #3 03-06-2008, 12:41 PM

http://mixonline.com/recording/inter...io_mars_volta/

Quote:

Can you give me the details on recording Flea for this album?

For the bass, we had Flea play a beautiful '64 Fender Precision P bass through an SVT bass head and 8×10 cabinet. I used a Neumann FET 47 on the cabinet and a Demeter DI. I compressed with LA-2As on both channels. It was a slightly different sound for Flea, but he is such a talented musician that he fit in perfectly. The bass needed to be full and present, because, essentially, the bass was the foundation of every track.

JustOpenYourMind · #4 03-06-2008, 12:43 PM

For the Mars Volta album, he used a precision bass through an ampeg rig. He came to the recording session with his normal gear but Omar (the guitar player that also does all the composition) had a specific sound in his head and asked him to play that gear. The result is pretty neat actually, it's pleasent not to hear flea with his usually pretty thin sound.

edit

oops wasn't fast enough

AN0INTD · #5 03-06-2008, 12:46 PM

I'm going to see them in April...heh

jmcdan3 · #6 03-06-2008, 12:47 PM

i love my precision!!!! he probably uses roundwounds on the album tho

flareaga · #7 03-06-2008, 12:59 PM

I've usually seen him with MusicMan's.

JustOpenYourMind · #8 03-06-2008, 01:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jmcdan3

i love my precision!!!! he probably uses roundwounds on the album tho

I know that on Frances the mute, Juan Alderete used a fretless precision with flats.

Tbirdbassist · #9 03-17-2008, 06:18 PM

Deloused was all flats from what I could tell. Take The Viel Cerpin Taxt man have been fretless P... not sure. Flats make it a bit confusing.

Juan used his 70's fretless P with J pickup and fretted 70's P (which he recently sold on ebay) on Frances. Mya have had rounds on one or two songs.

Matt Till · #10 03-17-2008, 07:41 PM

Does anyone else think it pointless that Flea played on that album? Omar told him what to play... why didn't Omar play?

Deluge Of Sound · #11 03-17-2008, 09:00 PM

Because then they couldn't say "LOOK! FLEA PLAYED HERE!"
my guess is that it was a kind of a built in audience deal.

But I find Frances The Mute superior in almost every way, so what happened on Deloused doesn't really bother me.

asherthemachine · #12 04-02-2008, 07:51 PM

thats the thing with the mars volta.. omar writes it all, so why not have him play every instrument on every song? because he may be able to write every part, but theres a certain feeling each member puts into the music, regardless of if they write it. when i first heard that omar pretty much controls the band i was a little bit bothered. but whatever works for them, works for them. they are one of the greatest bands alive today, so as long as they keep writing and performing amazing music, thats all that matters to us lowly musicians. cheers

mooney · #13 04-02-2008, 07:59 PM

Omar liked what Flea did enough to continue to work with him. i find it hard to believe there's not a little bit of embellishing on the record. the bass feel is pretty different on this record compared to the other Volta records.
sorry to say but this is the last record Flea played on that i liked.....

basskababble · #14 04-03-2008, 07:45 AM

1. I just saw TMV last night at the Miami Beach Filmore. I had seen them in NY when they first started touring for this new record. They're getting better (if that's possible) They throw in some jazzy jams and are ever more comfortable with interrupting their own songs with energy and tight perfection only to come back in in 10 minutes. Cedric kept asking for the bass to be turned up. Good thing too. Chest cavities started shaking after that...

2. If I'm not mistaken their bassist died while on tour with RHCP. I would be more inclined to believe that they had Flea play because he offered and is an incredible musician. I doubt they wanted/needed to say that they had Flea play on the album. few people who don't read these forums even know that.

mooney · #15 04-03-2008, 08:25 AM

no it was their "Sound Manipulator" that died, and it was after Deloused was released....

cathal · #16 04-05-2008, 10:50 AM

he was at the drive in guitarist

i think flea on deloused was solid but too quiet, and was not as effected as i
juan and omar are

Halftooth · #17 04-11-2008, 11:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt Till

Does anyone else think it pointless that Flea played on that album? Omar told him what to play... why didn't Omar play?

Completely agree...Omar is a total spaz and thinks he's way better than he really is! He seriously one of the sloppiest players I've ever seen!

Tbirdbassist · #18 04-11-2008, 11:45 PM

For the record, Juan writes his own parts.

Omar does mostly everything... except the bass parts.

thombo · #19 04-14-2008, 03:18 PM

i completely disagree with those who say that omar should play it all. that's like suggesting becker and fagan should have played everything on steely dan stuff.

this line of thought suggests that guitarists can do anything bassists do, which i strongly disagree with. i know that there are solid guitar/bass doublers out there, but this does not apply to everyone: they are different instruments. typically, violists don't play to play violin, trombonists don't play trumpet... even organists can tell when a pianist is on there instrument and vice versa. though electric guitars and electric basses are similar, one must study the idiosyncrasies of an instrument to be truly proficient (not all electric bassists can play fretless electric bass or upright well, not all electric guitarists sound good on acoustic). why should omar be expected to play bass just because he wrote the part (especially with flea's execution)? as someone who is weak on just about every other instrument (guitar included), i give props to omar for having a "bassist" interpret his idea.

flea & frusciante are friends with omar & cedric... this is the same reason that friends ask me to do sessions. also, omar may know that he is sloppy, and bassists can't be sloppy on his hyper-groove music.

moreover, i see omar's recruitment of flea (and later juan) as a recognition that flea adds something to the music through the his translation of omar's lines (groove?).

though the mars volta is kind of a two headed beast (cough, steely dan, cough...) they keep that band vibe going by not playing it all... for me, the product speaks for itself.

moatilliatta · #20 04-14-2008, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tbirdbassist

For the record, Juan writes his own parts.

Omar does mostly everything... except the bass parts.

Usually it's Omar writing the bass actually... From http://www.bassplayer.com/article/ba...ck/mar-05/3354 :

"I work out certain structured things, like lines that are going to be looped, in advance with Omar. My role is then to interpret those parts as I see fit, to give them what I feel they need. For some parts, though, he actually let me write the bass lines. Of course, anything that’s improvised is straight from me."