pickup and bass suggestions

Flea's bass is one answer.

i am not a fan of chillis so never tried to replicate that. Flea played Musicman for ages. i believe he has his own signature Modulus model at the moment in 4 and 5strings versions.

 

Flea has used so many different basses to record and to my ears he sounds the same on all of them. So my advice is to cut Flea's hands off and attach them to your arms, and you will be able to get his sound, otherwise maybe you should just try to have your own sound.

 

Yep, get the Modulus Flea bass, if you like his newer sound(think "Californication), or the Stingray for the older sounds, like Blood Sugar Sex Magic.....

There's nothing wrong with getting the same bass as your hero, that's what many famous bassists did, yet they still managed to sound unique....You may sound "Flea-influenced", but your hands are not Flea's, nor his yours...

 

I thought it was a Wal on BSSM.

 

He recorded most of BSSM with an Alembic bass If I remember right. JimmyM is right. He always sounds the same no matter what he's playing.
You would probably be happy with a Music Man, or the Modulus.

 

I thought Flea only used the Modulus basses live?

Stingray is probably your best bet IMO.

 

Recently flea has been playing the modulus for sessions, recording, and live. He used to play the stingray a lot, he's sold his main black on black one though. He also used an alembic on recording. He owns one wal, I'm not sure how much he's used it. I'm pretty sure that he was using the alembic on mother's milk. He also has been known to use an old fender jazz as well.

 

BSSM was done with a Wal, I believe. I'm almost positive he's using it in the "Suck My Kiss" video. The album they did with Dave Navarro was done with an Alembic Epic. He made disparaging remarks about the Stingrays in Bass Player and got his Ernie Ball endorsement pulled, and that's when he started using the Modulus basses. Don't know if he uses them to record now or not.

 

Do you know what he said about the stingray?

 

Yeah, he told them how he used the Alembic to cut that album and said (I'm paraphrasing here because I've long thrown out the magazine), "I think they're alright for playing live, but when I'm in the studio, I think I need a bass that has even response up and down the neck."