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The Pedulla Club!

#3,001
So, let's make this thread a bit more interesting...

What do you guys do with your Pedulla's? What type of music, do you play live, record? Why is a Pedulla the best choice for you? Was it a long time wish, or did you just stumble upon one and liked it?

For me, it started when I (after working hard and saving money) went out to buy a Yamaha TRB at Edwin van Huik's bass shop in Hilversum. Yes, it was Chick Corea Electric Band/Patitucci that made me want a Yamaha. I was also interested in a Pentabuzz, but at that age (round 17) I wasn't too fond of its shape. But Edwin insisted I would try it, and glad I did. It literally melted in my hands. Being a double bass player from origin, fretless made a lot of sense. I got used to its shape eventually, I love it now. I was still in a band those days, so when a MVP5 showed up 2 or 3 years later, I had to buy it. The band imploded when I was around 20. Yes, that is the best term. There was no debate or fight, people just stopped showing up for rehearsal. Then I started recording at home because it felt better to me, something I've done for more than 20 years now. Learned how to play other instruments, write songs, sing, mix, etc. Bass wasn't that important to me for many years. I recorded the part for the song I did, and moved on. I've done a lot of internet collabs, sometimes entire albums, and they must be around the internet everywhere. :)

As you all know I bought two Pedulla's last year, especially made for me. This reignited my enthusiasm for playing bass. It's like falling in love with it again. I started playing ukelele at 6, acoustic guitar at 8, and after my dad noticed I preferred to play bass parts on my acoustic guitar as a kid, he urged me to play double bass at 11. I really wanted to play bass guitar, but my dad is a purist (luthier of lute type of instruments) so that wasn't a choice. Took me another 4 years to convince him bass guitars were cool too. :) It's so nice to pick up those songs I tried back then, and to be able to study and even play them. It's like picking it up were I left it. It feels very natural to me.

I still like working alone. Did one album on my own last year (it's in my sig). Now I'm just doing video and play bass a lot.
 
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#3,003
Pedulla.jpg
MY Pedulla Thunder Bass 5 ET zebra! I also own a Thunderbolt 4 ET with Bubinga top.
 
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#3,004
Pedullist said:
So, let's make this thread a bit more interesting...

What do you guys do with your Pedulla's? What type of music, do you play live, record? Why is a Pedulla the best choice for you? Was it a long time wish, or did you just stumble upon one and liked it?

For me, it started when I (after working hard and saving money) went out to buy a Yamaha TRB at Edwin van Huik's bass shop in Hilversum. Yes, it was Chick Corea Electric Band/Patitucci that made me want a Yamaha. I was also interested in a Pentabuzz, but at that age (round 17) I wasn't too fond of its shape. But Edwin insisted I would try it, and glad I did. It literally melted in my hands. Being a double bass player from origin, fretless made a lot of sense. I got used to its shape eventually, I love it now. I was still in a band those days, so when a MVP5 showed up 2 or 3 years later, I had to buy it. The band imploded when I was around 20. Yes, that is the best term. There was no debate or fight, people just stopped showing up for rehearsal. Then I started recording at home because it felt better to me, something I've done for more than 20 years now. Learned how to play other instruments, write songs, sing, mix, etc. Bass wasn't that important to me for many years. I recorded the part for the song I did, and moved on. I've done a lot of internet collabs, sometimes entire albums, and they must be around the internet everywhere. :)

As you all know I bought two Pedulla's last year, especially made for me. This reignited my enthusiasm for playing bass. It's like falling in love with it again. I started playing ukelele at 6, acoustic guitar at 8, and after my dad noticed I preferred to play bass parts on my acoustic guitar as a kid, he urged me to play double bass at 11. I really wanted to play bass guitar, but my dad is a purist (luthier of lute type of instruments) so that wasn't a choice. Took me another 4 years to convince him bass guitars were cool too. :) It's so nice to pick up those songs I tried back then, and to be able to study and even play them. It's like picking it up were I left it. It feels very natural to me.

I still like working alone. Did one album on my own last year (it's in my sig). Now I'm just doing video and play bass a lot.
Click to expand...
Back 25 or so years ago, I used to habitually vist a Guitar Center very close to my home. I had in the past, played and owned 4 different fretless 70's P basses(2were stolen, 1 I got back!) and at the time had an early 80's MIJ fretless Jazz bass 4 that I went back and forth with EADG and BEAD stringing/ tunings. I was friends with the GC Mgr. and was lucky enough to unwrap and depackage the first PentaBuzz delivered to GC in south Florida when they started carrying Pedullas. Mine were the first fingerprints on that bass and I regularly played it and several others over 3-4 years but could never afford one because of super high child support payments and divorce unfortunately. I regularly was asked by the manager to buy new strings for the PentaBuzzes I put hours of playing on each week (those and Ampeg Baby Basses they had). Fast forward several years and I started playing in church and bible studies and such (much influenced by 90's CCM that featured lots of fretless playing). Still being child support poor, I stopped in a Fort Lauderdale music store to check on replacement necks because I'd rutted the fingerboard pretty bad on my and asked for neck catalogs and used to play a few fretlesses he had there including a Conklin fretless 7 that was fun. I kept checking every week on the way home from church to see if he'd gotten the catalogs and one day he says...I've got something for you, puts a case on the counter and opens it and it's a mint red cherry sunburst PentaBuzz and says here, play it... I told him thanks, but no, I can't afford a replacement Fender neck for my Jazz let alone that bass. I've got hundreds of hours playing them and they are the best. And I left. Every week checking on my catalog, he'd whip the case out and flash it saying some guy died of a heart attack and his wife brought it in. It's like new, matching Levy's strap and everything....I'll give it to you for $1700 (when GC was selling them for around $3K). I'd tell him this is great deal, but I'm saving for a MightyMite replacement neck. This went on for week after week after week. $1700, $1650, $1600, $1500, $1400.....finally he says, this is YOUR BASS, it's meant for you and I know it. Give me $1300 and I'll take your Jazz as a tradein if you want. This went on for a couple more weeks. I go in and he hands me the catalog finally and says give me $100 and I'll order it so a tell him I'll bring it next Sunday and then he can order it. Next week I bring him the $100 and he writes up a receipt for $100 deposit for Pedulla PentaBuzz. He says take as long as you need to pay it off. I said ok but I might take a year. He said ok. I found some extra work and gave him pretty much a $100 every week, I come in one Sunday and give him $100 with a $500 balance and he said take it home, pay the rest when you can. This thing needs to be played. I did and have. Paid it off. That was probably 15-16 years ago. 3 or 4 years ago I'd started wearing the the fingerboard finish prettt badly and sent it in to Michael to get it refinished and found out for another $300 or so I could change the color so I got it redone in Midnight Arctic and changed the hardware to black! I'll never sell it! I also have a Thunderbolt 6 in Peacock over Birdseye maple body. I'd love to have an MVP 5 or more so, an MVP 6! That's my only GAS!!
 
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#3,005
What do i use my Pentabuzz for? EVERYTHING!!! Seriously. I spent so long waiting to afford this bass that I passed over MANY great deals on basses over the 12 or so years since I had played a Pentabuzz. I worked at my local Guitar Center for just shy of a decade and well, lots of great basses came and went. I've played hundreds of different basses and liked way too many of them. But nothin compared to the used and abused Pentabuzz (I drove 2 hours to another Guitar Center) that I came across. It was sad. So many scars and bumps, scrapes, you name it. Finish had been all but scraped off the fingerboard with deep gashes, stray rattles, a fat chip off the headstock. They were selling it for $700 and rightfully so. But it only took less than 5 minutes to know I wanted one. Obviously not that one but aa new one. One that would be cared for and loved treated with the utmost respect for the beauty they are.

Since I got mine from Mike in March, I've barely touched my other basses. I literally use it for everything. Church, country band, classic rock band, metal jams, at home just dinkin around, practicing intonation... you name it, I'll use this sucker. It just sounds (and plays) too good to use anything else. Unless I wanna do some slap.:eek: That's a no-no... unless I slap the tape wounds back on.
 
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#3,008
Question for Pentabuzz (or other buzz/mvp players) - does the short top horn place the bass further left while playing standing? I had a Spector that I loved the sound of but the short top horn made it problematic with reach to the nut and particularly when swapping between instruments. My other basses are about 12th fret for the strap button.
 
#3,009
nostatic said:
Question for Pentabuzz (or other buzz/mvp players) - does the short top horn place the bass further left while playing standing? I had a Spector that I loved the sound of but the short top horn made it problematic with reach to the nut and particularly when swapping between instruments. My other basses are about 12th fret for the strap button.
Click to expand...
Not for me, because they hang a little bit more vertical than most basses I think. I prefer mine over my other basses pretty much and I have 8 basses including a 35" Turner 5 that hangs pretty flat.
 
#3,010
nostatic said:
Question for Pentabuzz (or other buzz/mvp players) - does the short top horn place the bass further left while playing standing? I had a Spector that I loved the sound of but the short top horn made it problematic with reach to the nut and particularly when swapping between instruments. My other basses are about 12th fret for the strap button.
Click to expand...
Mine does it a bit. Although, I think it does it more because of my beer gut. I’ve found though when I stand up with it in the exact same position as when I sit, it’s not so bad. I’m 5’6” with normal length arms for my height and it doesn’t* feel like too much of a stretch.
 
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#3,012
I use my Pedulla for everything! I tend to work out bits and pieces on my fretted basses as I'll readily admit I'm better with frets.

It's going to have it's first live outing at the beginning of November. I've been drafted in to play in trio with a friend who plays guitar. He usually plays rock and metal, I'm more into fusion than anything. We'll try and hit a sort of dark prog rock sound, sort of Tool-esque. My friend plays 7 strings, so the low B of my Pentabuzz will come in handy.

I just know that the Pedulla is absolutely going to kill it. I was jamming to 'give it up' by KC and the Sunshine Band earlier and the kick of this instrument is just sublime.
 
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#3,013
nostatic said:
Question for Pentabuzz (or other buzz/mvp players) - does the short top horn place the bass further left while playing standing? I had a Spector that I loved the sound of but the short top horn made it problematic with reach to the nut and particularly when swapping between instruments. My other basses are about 12th fret for the strap button.
Click to expand...
I've always felt my hexabuzz is nearly perfectly balanced and haven't noticed it shift either left or right when I'm standing. I've played it consistently as my main bass for the last 5 years at church, in the studio and in my rock band.
 
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#3,015
Strings: copper white tapewound (they add so much weight to your bridge pickup sound)

Pickup balance: 80-90% bridge
Bass: 20-30% louder
Treble: 10% softer
Volume: 100% :D

Used my Lehle Dual Compressor to tame the signal a bit and sent it straight into my Avalon U5. Oh, and I cut 1dB at 100Hz as well.
 
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#3,020
Pedullist said:
Strings: copper white tapewound (they add so much weight to your bridge pickup sound)

Pickup balance: 80-90% bridge
Bass: 20-30% louder
Treble: 10% softer
Volume: 100% :D

Used my Lehle Dual Compressor to tame the signal a bit and sent it straight into my Avalon U5. Oh, and I cut 1dB at 100Hz as well.
Click to expand...
I have the La Bella Black tapewounds on several of my fretted basses (Fender Jazz Dlux 5, Squier Jazz 5 and Gibson Thunderbird) and love them. I've been thinking about putting a set of Black tapewounds on my Pentabuzz but now you have me re-thinking that plan. If you've by chance tried both, how would you say the Copper Whites compare in sound and feel to the La Bella Blacks?
 
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