Les Claypool

One of my favorites

Excellent! One of mine, too!

Anyone who has ever seen Primus, or Les' solo projects can attest to his incredible abilities on bass. Les' website is at: www.lesclaypool.com

Indeed!! He's phenomenal...I saw a very recent interview of him playing a resonator bass in his office a couple weeks ago. What a dude...

f***ing amazing. Maybe not the best, but still great. And entirely unique and original. He's probably my biggest influence on bass. Well, him and Cliff.

Anyone else heard his new solo album?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufOhXewson8&feature=channel

Showing CT building the bass--you can see the Kahler route towards the end

Funny but he is the only bass player I know that keeps a Kahler on his main bass?

Maybe him and Victor Wooten...but apart from that, hard to think of anyone. True...

...um...I do.

Does that count?

Uuuuh....riiight......


(Who does this guy think he is?)

Sorry!!

I think the only requirement is that your name be on the back of the little booklet that comes with a new Kahler

Well, it ought to! I'm the reason Kahlers come with three springs again!

....oh, alright....maybe that's not quite enough to warrant such a thing!

Dude that's so awesome! Thank you, man!

Nah! It's OK. I contributed very little to the cause.

I think what we have here as a community is more significant anyways.

Aah, but every time I use that 7410, I die a little inside...it's just too cool! I love every moment of using it. And it feels better every time I use it and I find I can do a little something more every time I play it.

Anyone know what he uses for amps? he's always had a weird slap tone.

I learned that he used to use Mesa 400+ amps with 2x15 Mesa Powerhouse cabs. One of the things that apparently really sculpted his sound was an ADA preamp. You can see all that gear in the footage of them playing at Woodstock in '94. Actually hard to tell of those are two 15" bins or one 2x15cab...

EricHaven wrote:

More Les Claypool-age!

Anybody ever see his Whamola bass? I won't even try to explain the concept, as I think a picture says a thousand words:





And yes. The second picture is Les in a monkey mask, and that thingy sticking off the top is technically a whammy bar.

Want to learn more about them? Whamola's website is at: http://www.whamolalab.com/

Not only have I seen it, but I own one myself.



the picture is between fingerboard transplants, the one I had was pine, the one I replaced it with was maple

Les put up one of his basses with a trem for auction on ebay for charity.
I cant post links yet but just do a search

current bid is only $10,600.

i mean ... its a nice bass but it aint a thompson and it aint that nice. $10k for a bass?!?! les claypool nothin ... thats crazy!



i only got $700 for this one. maybe i would have gotten more if it was ever even in the same room with les.

and yes, i am going to build a whamola eventually. its a fairly simple concept. i need some photos of existing lever mechanisims so i can get some idea of what to use and where to get the parts.

I don't think it would go past 10g if it wasn't for charity.

Its for charity, to research a rare form of leukemia his nephew has.
You are looking at this with a bit of a cynical point of view, Mike.
To you its just a bass but to others its giving money which could potentially save life's and save family's a lot of pain and suffering in the future.

It's up to $13,700. I bet it goes up to $16,000.

thanx for letting me know im cynical al. i wasnt quite sure if the frowny faces i often see are because of things i say, or i have a big zit on my nose or something. your right and i usually am a negative nelly about some nonsense or another. i sometimes wonder why people bother to point it out.

i dont think im being cynical at all. i think im just sayin "holey smokes!". people who make instruments like this should be paid well so im all for that. all that money going to people who need it ??? ... even better.

or maybe the wife was yelling at me while i was typing.

now that its come up, ide be happy and honored and a bit humbled if someone like les got together with me for a build we were doing for charity. ide donate materials, parts and time and hope we could produce a beautiful instrument worthy of the hefty price tag driven by charity auction ... like this bass. stuff doesnt usually happen like that for me. i think something like that was my original point anyway.

and i also think that, if i built a custom bass and eric used it on stage it should draw ... maybe at least 2/3 of the markup that les put on this one by what? putting his name on it? touch it? magic?

would you put magic on one of my basses eric?

eww. sorry.

hey ... if it helps find a cure for lukemia.

madmike wrote:

....and I also think that, if I built a custom bass and Eric used it on stage it should draw ... maybe at least 2/3 of the markup that Les put on this one by what? Putting his name on it? Touch it? Magic?

Would you put magic on one of my basses, Eric?

Eww. Sorry.

Ummm....that would depend on the nature of the "magic" being applied to said bass.  

Besides, I don't think my name would add any credibility to such a thing anyways, since I'm a nobody.  Still, I'd be willing to try! 

... aaaah someday we'll build a bass eric. it just needs to get scheduled in the workflow.

workflow - what - maybe one night a week? that SG has been down there since christmas.

madmike wrote:

... aaaah someday we'll build a bass eric. it just needs to get scheduled in the workflow.