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Flea's 1985 rig?

D

DarkStar90

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Feb 4, 2008
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#1
I've watched a couple videos of early RHCP performances and a video of a rehearsal room jam. From what I can tell, Flea used this rig from at least 84 to 85 and may have recorded Freaky Styley with it. His tone changed alot when he switched to Ampegs and Trace Elliots in the next couple years. The Freaky Styley tone has gripped me for years, its unique. You can see it briefly for a couple moments in this video:



I need help identifying it for trivia purposes more than anything. I think the cab is a Peavey 1820. I'm not sure about the head, but it looks as though it could be a Mesa/Boogie Mark II guitar head, based on the 7 knobs and what looks like sliders. I have seen other audience recordings of live performances where this rig is present.

Let me know what you think.
 
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#7
If you visit rhcplivearchive.com there are various old photos and videos from 80s gigs. There photos of the band at United Sound in Detroit, recording Freaky Styley and Flea seems to be playing through the Randall Bass 500 head and R215BH cabinet. I always loved the tone on that album in particular.
 
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#8
I'm not sure how much I would attribute the tone here to the amp, or how much I would connect this video with the "Freaky Styley" tone. For one, this looks to me like a rental rehearsal room, so it's likely the rig is not even his and just what happened to be on hand. It also really has that sort of MusicMan vibe pretty heavily, and there's also the likely compression from the video recording to take into account. It almost certainly sounded a lot different in the room.
 
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#12
I had the cab, it's huge and pretty much impossible to move alone,hehe

20191112_192300.jpg
 
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#13
Omega Monkey said:
I'm not sure how much I would attribute the tone here to the amp, or how much I would connect this video with the "Freaky Styley" tone. For one, this looks to me like a rental rehearsal room, so it's likely the rig is not even his and just what happened to be on hand. It also really has that sort of MusicMan vibe pretty heavily, and there's also the likely compression from the video recording to take into account. It almost certainly sounded a lot different in the room.
Click to expand...

Nope, thats the rig he was using. I was referring to the tone on Freaky Styley, not in the video, and decided to research what amp may have been used. Go to the rhcplivearchive.com and check out the photos of gigs and the freaky styley recording sessions. Thats the rig you will see until about the end of 85 where he switched to GK and Ampeg.

1984, Randall amp and cab quite visible:
21095376-D68A-4DC2-9E10-00C5E1CC0478.png

0D68BFDA-34A9-4E82-970D-2EB9F3F4EB31.png
1985, the Peavey cab is there with the Randall head:
F23A1A9D-E248-49D0-95DB-0841A396A57E.png


The randall cab at the freaky styley sessions:
98C98F08-D0B2-4EB6-A19B-9CCAC3109F48.png


Also watch the live on the Alan Thicke show 1984, the randall rig is there.
 
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#15
Cool. I wasn't saying the stuff in the video wasn't his, just that you can't be sure without other supporting evidence. Which you have now posted.

Having said that, while I imagine the randall head may have had something to do with the tone, I still think the musicman, maybe with some slightly dead strings, and the compression from the camera. I haven't listened to FS too recently, but if my memory's not too far off, I'd say it's in the same neighborhood of MM and a fair amount of studio compression. You may even be able to look up the studio and find an old gear list if you're lucky, and narrow down what compressor it was likely to be. Failing that you could just try some plug in emulations of some of the more popular ones from that time. Teletronix, dbx, etc... and see if you can get something close.

For me, something that is almost sure to give that gooey 80s compressed slap sound though is either the Trace dual band compressor, or the built in compressor on the Hartke 3500 (and probably others in the same series). What I hear with those is low threshold/high ratio (obviously this interact), medium attack (maybe 15-25ms?) and a SLOW release (maybe 150-200+ ms?). You could try similar settings in any plug in (or a hardware compressor with the right controls, like the MB Compressore, which is what I have for bass for when I'm not using the built in comps on my 2 Trace heads).

The other big pieces to the puzzle would be getting a close approximation of Flea's setup and playing attack. String type and gauge would help. Surely there are interviews like in Bass Player or something where he's talked about such things. Maybe not many of them going back quite that far.

And then yeah, a slightly grungey old school solid state amp, cranked (preferably into a tweeterless cab that's not too dark). Sometimes it's less about the specific gear (besides the MM bass I think in this case, that is key, because the MM in particular is such a distinctive sound), and more about trying to match the character of each thing and use similar settings.
 
#16
DarkStar90 said:
he switched to Ampegs and Trace Elliots in the next couple years.
Click to expand...

Did he?

I remember seeing him use GK once, and I think a Mesa stack another time, in the early 90's (not seen them live since early 2000's).

Would love to pics of him using Ampeg, and Trace.



DarkStar90 said:
Click to expand...



Cliff Martinez was such a great drummer - to bad he was never destined to be a permanent member.

That said, he's done some absolutely phenomenal film scores (Solaris, Drive) and even drafted Flea in from time to time (Traffik).
 
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#18
Wood and Wire said:
Did he?

I remember seeing him use GK once, and I think a Mesa stack another time, in the early 90's (not seen them live since early 2000's).

Would love to pics of him using Ampeg, and Trace.






Cliff Martinez was such a great drummer - to bad he was never destined to be a permanent member.

That said, he's done some absolutely phenomenal film scores (Solaris, Drive) and even drafted Flea in from time to time (Traffik).
Click to expand...
Flea can be seen using an SVT and 810 in the VPRO videos of the finland tour 1985. He plays a bit of "I love living in the city" by fear in a close up.

the videos from the pinkpop festivals in the 80s show his trace elliot rigs.

i think he switched to the mesa setup during mothers milk era.

in the river pheonix interview dvd he uses a gk head on a mesa cab.
 
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