Flea's bass on Blood Sugar Sex Magic

Mr. Krinkle · #1 03-15-2006, 04:53 PM

What is Flea's main bass that he's playing with on BSSM? I know he played a Stingray on some of their stuff and now his Flea bass, but I can't figure out what it is on that album. It sounds kinda like a P bass to me, but it really doesn't sound like a MM if that's what it is. Anyone know?

FaithNoMan · #2 03-15-2006, 05:17 PM

crapusername · #3 03-15-2006, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FaithNoMan

Wal

+1

iamlowsound · #4 03-15-2006, 06:16 PM

I think that it is a wal that he plays. There are many different basses that flea plays and has recorded with.

Stingrays
flea bass
wal
jazz bass
p bass

Just to list a few

lowsound

Dan1099 · #5 03-15-2006, 06:43 PM

I'm pretty sure it was an Alembic of some sort or another, actually, but i could be wrong.

NCorder · #6 03-15-2006, 07:05 PM

I, too, have heard somewhere that he used an Alembic Epic bass, along with a Musicman on that album.

Peter McFerrin · #7 03-15-2006, 07:36 PM

I've also heard it said that he uses a Spector in the studio from time to time.

In any case, we know now for sure that from Californication onward he's used his Modulus signature model in the studio.

Akirabanana · #8 03-15-2006, 07:52 PM

As far as I know most of BSSM was recorded with a Wal, Mother's Milk was recorded with a spector?

chilliwilli · #9 03-15-2006, 08:10 PM

whats a wal?

Peter McFerrin · #10 03-15-2006, 08:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chilliwilli

whats a wal?

http://walbasses.homestead.com/

chilliwilli · #11 03-15-2006, 08:11 PM

thank you sir

TheMightyQuinn · #12 03-15-2006, 08:54 PM

I never knew Flea used an Alembic. Way cool.

ras1983 · #13 03-15-2006, 10:21 PM

Actually i think the alembic was used on one hot minute and the wal on BSSM.

steve21 · #14 03-15-2006, 10:33 PM

Flea recorded with a MusicMan StingRay bass guitar on the Red Hot Chili Pepper's first two albums; Red Hot Chili Peppers and Freaky Styley, and appears playing it in the band's earliest videos 'True Men Don't Kill Coyotes', 'Jungle Man', and 'Catholic School Girls Rule'. This early StingRay of Flea's was adorned with various pink and green tape and paint, and he used it live for the band's earliest performances for the first two albums, adding more stickers over his own original pink and green additions towards the Freaky Styley era. An exception in this period is a Fender Precision Bass he used as a live backup, and ended up wielding in the band's 1985 Rockpalast (Germany) show, and a Silvertone, probably meant as a joke, which can be seen on some of the band's early videos.

For the recording of the band's 1987 The Uplift Mofo Party Plan album, Flea switched to using a black Spector NS bass with chrome hardware, dot inlays, J-J pickups and stickers of two reclining figures on the instrument's body horns, which he plays in the video for 'Fight Like A Brave' in addition to once more employing a StingRay for the video's day-glo paint/interior set shots. Compared to the band's earlier efforts, the superior mixing on The Uplift Mofo Party Plan and its 1989 successor Mother's Milk combined with Flea's introduction of the Spector, brought a fresh bite to the band's bottom end on these productions in contrast to Flea's prior use of the StingRay in recording. This new bass sound was consolidated with Flea's significantly faster and more advanced fingerstyle and slapping techniques, especially on Mother's Milk. Although on both of these albums the sound is distinctively that of the Spector, Flea swapped his original NS for a new one on Mother's Milk featuring gold hardware, block inlays and a P-J pickup configuration, which he performs with in the Chili Pepper's video for 'Knock Me Down'. Flea used his Spectors live at this time besides the studio, as in the 1988 live video for 'Fire' performed in Finland with the band in their classic 'socks on cocks' dress, and on live tracks from 1989 that feature on the remastered Mother's Milk and 1994 Out in LA compilation.

The bass sounds on Blood Sugar Sex Magik that influenced countless numbers of today's bassists were mostly made with a Wal Mach II bass (he played a StingRay 5 on Funky Monks and Righteous and the Wicked). On One Hot Minute he mostly used an Alembic Epic bass, although Aeroplane featured his trademark StingRay sound. For both albums' tours, however, he was always wielding the StingRay. By 1997 his signature bass by Modulus entered production, and it's been his main instrument since then. Recently however, he has been seen with a Fender Jazz Bass, mainly in Gallien-Kruger advertisements in BassPlayer magazine.

From Wikipedia.org.