Gear

Gear . . . we gotta use and we love to talk about it - - but really, after a while it's pretty boring.

I should also stress that I do NOT use this all of this stuff for every gig I do. Some bands/projects (AKA Steubig, Meninas Quartet, Quartetto Stig) basically get a bass or two and a volume pedal and an amp; some (Minim, Stigtette) are sort of like this, but add "prepared bass," which can add all sorts of different colors, textures and sounds; some are moderately gear-intensive (The Mentones, Seconda Prattica Quintet/Tee-Tot Quartet) with the basses and couple of footpedals; some get a fair amount of pedals plus preparations (Kammerstig, Liebig/Golia/Mintz, Lane Ends Merge Left, Vatcher/Liebig/Golia); and others (Anna Homler/Steuart Liebig Duo, Bone Structure, L. Stinkbug, Splinter Group)get the full deal . . .

Prepared bass deserves its own page . . .

For those who are nuts enought to want to know what I used on certain recording projects (back to 1993 or so) here is an "amps and basses" page . . .

Anyway, here goes:

Basses
In 1985 I made the decision to play 6-string basses exclusively. This choice changed a lot of how I think about music and play it. The instrument has really allowed me to further my musicality; it allows me a lot of latitude in terms of orchestration and function - - I can be the melody instrument, play chords, the whole nine yards. My basses of choice are Fodera basses. Simply put, I believe them to be the Ferrari (or Stradivarius, if you prefer) of electric basses. At this time I have eight of their basses: two (fretted and fretless) I tune as a standard 6-string bass (B to C, in fourths), using (Thomastik-Infeld) flatwound strings; two (fretted and fretless) I tune in a solo tuning (D to Eb, in fourths), using roundwound strings; one (fretted) I tune as a standard 6-string bass (B to C), using flatwound strings; two (fretted and fretless) I tune as a standard 6-string bass (B to C, in fourths) or down a whole step (A to Bb), using roundwound strings; I also have a 12-string bass (six strings in double courses, each pair is octaves). These guys are also great guys and good friends.

Strings
I use Thomastik-Infeld Jazz Flatwound strings on two basses, and different sets (for different the tunings and for 12-string) of Fodera nickel roundwound strings on the others.

Pickups
All of my basses have Rick Turner piezo film pickups under the bridge. This arrangement gives me a very woody sound, much more so than most piezo pickup arrangements.

I've been lucky enough to have some friends who have helped me with a pickup obsession i developed a few years ago. After having a few manufacturers tell why i couldn't do something ad why i was wrong to want to do it, I hooked up with Mike Cooper at Nordstrand Guitars/Pickups. We've come up with some cool pickups that I think sounds pretty good. More on this later (with pix).

Blender
Because I don't have onboard electronics   on my basses, I need to use a stand-alone blender to be able to mix the magnetic and piezo pickups. The blender I use is the Raven Labs PMB-1 (though they have apparently decided to hang it up . . . ).

Amps
I use Walter Woods stereo amplifiers. Small and powerful, with a nice tonal quality, they're great amps. I often use a tube preamp and tube compressor that each feed one channel of the Woods; the tube preamp is slightly overdriven to give a fuller and more expressive sound. I'm using an Ampeg V4-B and Fender Bassman 100 - - both from the 1970s - - for certain bands (The Mentone, Tee-Tot Quartet). Tubes, baby!

Cabinets
I use two Harry Kolbe cabinets consisting of one 12-inch speaker each and two Gary Raymond cabinets consisting of one 15-inch speaker each.

Effects Pedals
Well I use a lot - - and it's been changing . . .
here's a partial list:

Noise Swash (3MS/4MS self-oscillating fuzz/noise machine - - you can twiddle knobs and play melodies on the pedal without touching your instrument . . . yes, that's a good thing.)

Volume pedals (Boss FV60, they're, small and lightweight, probably not the "best," but pretty good.)

Fulldrive2 (Fulltone overdrive pedal, two different models, one for guitar and one for bass, having different frequency responses, they have regular and boost settings.)

Fatboost (Fulltone clean boost, with tone circuit)

OCD (Fulltone distortion that does a nice amp sag/saturation simulation)

Ultimate Octave (Fulltone fuzz/high-octave fuzz boost, switchable between them, can get ring mod sounds)

Supa-Trem (Fulltone tremolo pedal that can foot switch between full speed and half speeds, and between saw-tooth or square wave forms.)

Choral-Flange (Fulltone chorus/flange pedal)

VB-2 (Boss analog vibrato pedal - - why they don't do a reissue is beyond me, nothing else that I know of does what it does.)

PN-2 (Boss analog tremolo/pan pedal - - has saw-tooth or square wave forms, etc.)

BYOC VB-2 Clone - - it's cool as a complement to the Boss, with true bypass.

One Effects Set-Up
March 2005