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Victor Wooten's Pedal Board

Pumpkin

Pumpkin

May 19, 2016
463
774
Washington, DC
#1
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#3
I was there as well and it was both an enjoyable and humbling experience. I wonder if some of the electrical buzzing problems near the end were related to his board or issues with the house system. Of course when you're as talented and larger than life as Victor Wooten, even technical issues seem insignificant to your audience. :)
 
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#5
Pumpkin said:
I've never seen someone put so much character in a performance. Using string noise to mock the hum problem after it had been fixed? Genius.
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He is such a natural and intuitive player. Sometimes I find recording artists to be disappointing in person. This event was exactly the opposite, and there is no way I can imagine a recording capturing the magic he created.
 
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#7
I wish I had the same experience you guys did. I've been waiting 10 years to see him perform. Saw him last Saturday. I'm not gonna say anything bad but I honestly wish he left his pedals at home. It was excessive on the octave and wah. Like half the night. 10 strait minutes of an intro to a Bela tune. Nothing but weird synthy sounds. It killed any enthusiasm his trio created prior to it. I've watched videos over the years that absolutely amazed me. I left the show feeling kinda empty.
 
#9
saltydude said:
I wish I had the same experience you guys did. I've been waiting 10 years to see him perform. Saw him last Saturday. I'm not gonna say anything bad but I honestly wish he left his pedals at home. It was excessive on the octave and wah. Like half the night. 10 strait minutes of an intro to a Bela tune. Nothing but weird synthy sounds. It killed any enthusiasm his trio created prior to it. I've watched videos over the years that absolutely amazed me. I left the show feeling kinda empty.
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handle/post?

I've only seen Victor's band once but it was a while ago. His brother(s?) were in the band and MC Divinity rapped/sang, then at the end she came out playing bass. I had no idea. I think Anthony Wellington came out at the end on the bass too. Good times.
 
#10
I've checked youtube and haven't found any footage of the show I went to. I couldn't capture any because I was using both hands to keep my jaw off the floor. He had family in the audience and maybe because of that, maybe because of some technical issues during the night, he and Dennis Chambers were playing out of their minds all night.

He used the Whammy the most out of anyhting, but he also did a section that used some form of pitch shift and sustain effect for an intro to a Bela tune, and a solo section later in the night with the loop station.
 
#12
Pumpkin said:
he and Dennis Chambers were playing out of their minds all night.
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I have to confess, I'm generally not a big fan of music where when the song is over the melody isn't stuck in my head for days. However, experiencing the musical synergy between Victor Wooten and Dennis Chambers live on stage was riveting. I was equally impressed that a bass player and drummer could literally be a night's entertainment even without a little sax thrown in.

I'm not sure I would choose to listen to a recording of what I heard, but there is no denying it made for great show. In many ways I find that jazz and progressive music styles are often more enjoyable in person. That makes sense to me since as an audience member I get to experience the spontaneity and connections that are happening between musicians first hand. Good recordings capture the result of that, but the full effect in all its dimensions are only there in the moment.
 
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#13
He's a genuine technical master. Really loved everything about him with the original Flecktones lineup. But I've found myself liking what he's doing less and less as the years went by and he kept reinventing himself.

I guess when you're that good you get bored and start wanting to do new things. But I still thought he was best back when he was mainly playing his bass as a bass, and just being a bass player.

But that's me. YMMV
 
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#16
Victor is not really hung up on gear. Except maybe for basses themselves, he likes having nice instruments. At his camp the last day he let us all check out his basses, even the career girl Fodera Ying-Yang. Pretty dang cool. During the camp he'd plug into any amp that was left and he wasn't too fussy about EQ and such either, he'd mostly fix it on his bass.

The big silver pedal looks like a very cool custom Rodenberg, judging from the style and bass clef graphics on it. I'd love to know more about that pedal! Other than that, lots of pitch-shifting, I suppose the H9's could provide delay/reverb/filter tones as well.
 
#18
Double E said:
Those mixed cabs in a horizontal configuration are likely to cause some heads explode around here...
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...I noticed that before the show started and was wondering if someone was going to go up and explain his mistake to him. Then he started playing and it didn't seem to matter quite so much anymore. :)
 
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