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An interesting flea-flea bass story

#22
that kinda smacks of eddie vh's switch form music man to peavey for the wolfgang guitar - odd
i know endorements are endorsements, and esp if you dont have songwriting credits ya need to make $$$ somewhere, but i love leafing thru my collection of bass player mags and watching the ever rotating endorsements by some players - sometimes in rediculous directions :p
 
#23
How do we know that this Flea story really happened? This could easily be a company guy starting some rumors trying to get a buzz going for basses he is trying to sell. If the story is true, so what? In a market society, a brand name/commodity like Flea is supposed to be angling for deals when possible.
 
#24
i dont care what flea does or does not do - i think the guy who told me was on the level, he was answering techinical questions about ti and brought up the subject in a joking manner - if he was trying to start a buzz i belive he would have been more public rather than flippantly relating the story to some guy he didnt know from adam
 
#25
Dr. Cheese said:
How do we know that this Flea story really happened? This could easily be a company guy starting some rumors trying to get a buzz going for basses he is trying to sell. If the story is true, so what? In a market society, a brand name/commodity like Flea is supposed to be angling for deals when possible.
Click to expand...
The one I said is true for sure because I heard it straight from the EB family.
 
#26
Flea is a great bassist. As for what he is like in person... you could tell me just about any story about him and it would sound plausable. I have heard some stories about someone who spent some time with him when the RHCP were in Australia. There isn't much that I'd put past him to be honest.

As far as the money thing goes... he worked hard to be one of the best at what he does. If his hard work has meant that his name is enough to increase sales for a bass company, then he deserves a cut. Simple as that.
 
#27
Got into a big discussion the other day with some fellow musicians, kind of cool when I heard all the different answers from them. I posed a somewhat similar situation as this...if you got offered as many of the XYZ brand basses you wanted, and as many sets of XYZ strings you wanted, oh yeah..don't forget the XYZ amps, to promote, play live and basically appear in countless ads saying "Brand XYZ is the best ever" would you still opt for this money saving situation? Here's the catch...brand XYZ sucks and you would never buy any of their products with your hard earned money.
I actually had a guy I know get offered an endorsement by two very well known companies...he opted to continue using his own stuff and hopefully wait for an endorsement offer from a company he likes more. He drew lots of opinions on this...mine being that I felt like it's what I would have done. Even though it's favorable in cost to accept the offer..kinda seems like selling yourself short. Opinions?

And if the rumors about Flea are true, well..like it's been said, he knows his name is worth something. Apparantly those companies didn't think it was worth that much. :smug:
 
#30
i'm not knocking flea - i'm really not.
i never hear the ernie ball story that he wanted the stingray renamed but given the unsolicited story i got from gibson/tobias i tend to belive it
which brings me to what really tickles me about this whole thing - endorsement money and free gear are nothing unusual
i just find it humorous that flea's (presumably) big sticking point is that the company name their product after him :p
 
#31
IvanMike said:
right on - no slug fest
i'm still waiting for the valenti "ivan bass" deal :p
Click to expand...

I'm still waiting for the bag end "crazy sean series" deal. Come on, bag end! Included in the line would be a 2x15 in Deep Green carpeting. Mmmm.... They could call it the Alien S215B-G cab. That would kick ass. :bassist:

On second thought, nonsqtr deserves that deal more than me. He's got like 20 of them!

As for basses, maybe I can get Ernie ball to rename the Bongo bass to the "Crazy Ass" bass. Hmmm....

Sean
 
#37
I actually had a guy I know get offered an endorsement by two very well known companies...he opted to continue using his own stuff and hopefully wait for an endorsement offer from a company he likes more. [/QUOTE]
i had almost the same thing happen to me,a well known lower end bass and guitar company's artist rep was at one of my larger gig's and wanted my contact info,i gave it to him and a few day's later i found myself at their factory right outside chicago(oop's hope i didn't give it away)after playing just about everything they had including their "custom shop "models they asked me what i wanted and i told them nothing because honestly i didn't see me playing anything they had and because the deal included being in print ad's and playing their bass's on all tv apperances i just couldn't do it.i have a friend who play's with a well known jazz vocalist and he has a deal with the same company and he told me it's the worst mistake he ever made
 
#39
True story:

Back when I was in High School (early 80's) the rhythm section and two of the trumpet player's from the original (Johnny Carson era) Tonight Show Orchestra came to the local college for clinics and a concert (another "interesting" story for another time).

I played drums/percussion in the School orchestra (Bass in the Jazz ensembles) so I also attended drummer Ed Shonessey's (sp?) drum clinics.
During the clinics he promoted the merits of "Pro-Mark" brand sticks.
Someone asked him "why?" since Ed used and endorsed "Ludwig" sticks.

"Because I get Ludwigs for free!" he replied.
 
#40
I agree with a previous poster about not getting into anything that you dont want to play..I have worked with Modulus and they only give a 50% artist discount. Which is nice, but for a custom flea bass you will still drop 800-1300 bones. The plus is that they don't care if you play other basses too....I had a rep from a huge guitar company throw me a loaner for a few weeks. The thing was an oar. He came to a show and I told him straight up that I couldnt use it...it's better that way, because the guy ended up admitting that he knew they sucked too....the main company that targets kids and numetal players offered an everything for free deal..I turned that down too and now I just went back to playing Fenders...haven't even asked for an endorsement or anything, they just rule to me....this has nothing to do with Flea except for the fact that I know he would not go after a gibson endorsement if he didnt think that growler kicked azz...and they do.
 

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