Tools Part 5 - Stealth Bongo

See above, my Musicman Stealth Bongo.

When I had the chance to try them, I always liked playing Musicman basses, and whilst searching around for a replacement for my Wal, which (thanks to some negative airline experiences), I temporarily retired from  service, I briefly used a very nice natural wood Stingray for a tour or two. However, I much preferred the Bongo as soon as I tried one, it felt more comfortable to play, flexible, expressive and with a very pleasing even response.

I was surprised, in a good way, by the very clearly defined low end, a lot more of it than you might expect, given it's actually quite light.  The tonal possibilities make it a very good all round instrument, and I have experimented with different string types from time to time, switching back and forth between round and flatwounds, currently I'm back to using round wounds.

I was lucky enough to get this bass direct from Ernie Ball and along with the simple black "Stealth" colour finish, I opted for dual humbuckers.

Two tone split controls, giving a 4 band EQ, pick up balance and volume control pots.

Bridge close up.

Distinctive 3 + 1 Musicman Headstock

 I believe the design team from BMW were involved in designing the stylistic aspects such as the body and headstock shape, it's certainly a different take on the bass guitar, "marmite" perhaps…..but I like it.

You can see this particular bass getting a workout on the Porcupine Tree "Arriving" Live DVD:

As well as a few other tracks here:

 More recently, I have used a (borrowed) fretless Stealth Bongo live with Burnt Belief:

My Basses Part 3 - Wal Fretless

When I started my hunt for a good fretless bass, I had already been playing a fretted Wal for a couple of years, a solid ash model, originally made for my bass playing friend Martin Elliott.

At the time,  I was looking to replace a cheap and cheerful Westone Thunder 1A fretless with something a bit more serious. 

I opted for another Wal for two main reasons, one being that I was already comfortable with the string spacing and fretboard feel, so making the leap to playing fretless was, I reasoned, sure to be less problematic, and secondly, I was confident that in choosing another Wal I could be sure the craftsmanship and materials would mean I was going to find another really great instrument.

Wal basses have become very sought after in recent years, but at the time, a secondhand Wal could be found fairly regularly in the pages of Loot (…now replaced by Ebay and the like) for somewhere around the £400 - £500 mark, which seems amazing today given the prices they go for.

Made in 1984 at Electric Wood in the UK, my Wal fretless has a Brazillian Mahogany Core with American Cherry wood facings and an Indian Ebony fretboard.

Wal's own design active pick-ups, extremely flexible in terms of tone. Note worn varnish above the pick-ups, I  had the bass revarnished by Electric Wood some years ago.

XLR output socket next to the main output visible below the controls. This only works when there is a jack in the main output, it's very useful when recording for taking a signal direct from the bass.

Currently strung with D'Addario Flatwounds.

View of the Bridge.

Headstock, Hipshot D- Tuner not visible.

Serial number on the backplate.

This is probably my most played bass, I used it almost exclusively for a number of years, below a selection of tracks, old and newer:

I am lucky enough to own three Wals, my most recent acquisition being another 80's era fretted which was previously owned by Jack Monck and given a thorough working out on The Incident tour and album with Porcupine Tree.

Bye for now,

Colin

My Basses Part 2

Next up in my bass collection is my Spector Euro 435LX.

I was unfamiliar with Spector basses until a US tour in the mid 2000's, when the Spector artist representative kindly lent me a Czech made Spector Euro, for some US gigs.
Being incredibly solid, well made and reliable instruments they have become a mainstay for me, standing up extremely well to the demands of travel and regular use, and sounding great too.

For some time previously I had been experimenting with playing lower than a Drop D, even with RNG going as far down as an A below the usual E, so my initial interest in this particular model was due to the extra scale length, which is advantageous for down tuning. (Note: the numbers in the model 435 refer to 4 string with a 35" scale, rather than a more usual 34")

I had this particular bass set-up at the Bass Gallery in Camden to play a semitone lower than the bottom 4 strings of a standard 5 string, (i.e. Bflat, Eflat, Aflat, Dflat) and I felt it a good fit for some of the Porcupine Tree material which invited lower notes, such as "Way Out of Here":


….and also more dub infused moments, here on the Ex-Wise Heads track "Gene Pool":


More recently, tuned a semitone higher, it's seen at lot of action with Obake, fitting in really well underneath Eraldo Bernocchi's furious baritone guitars, click here to listen to "Seven Rotten Globes".

Some detailed shots:

 Bridge and Pick-ups.

Neck detail, it's a neck through, rather than bolt-on design.

Headstock and brass nut.  Truss rod is visible, as I removed the truss rod cover to make some adjustments, and promptly lost it.

The bridge, note the tapered Spector strings.

Here's a recent live action close up :

I generally prefer 4 strings to 5, so downtuning is a solution that suits me better when I want to access a lower register.

The clearly defined lower notes make up for the extra hand stretches required, and the sustain is as satisfying as playing some of the lowest notes on a piano.

Best,

Colin

Porcupine Tree Live DVD clip

Herewith a clip from the forthcoming "Octane Twisted" Special Edition:



NB. This is part of the Bonus DVD that comes with the Special Edition (two CD's and the DVD)

Best,

Colin

Porcupine Tree - Octane Twisted preview track

The Porcupine Tree song "I Drive the Hearse", from the forthcoming double live album "Octane Twisted" is available as a free download via the widget above.
This was recorded in Chicago at the Riviera, on the Incident Tour, and is part of the whole Incident portion of the live album, which also includes a few tracks recorded at London's Royal Albert Hall.
I played my Wal fretless on this track, strung with D'addario flat wounds and played through my EBS TD650.

Best,

Colin

Porcupine Tree - Octane Twisted

I'm pleased to report a forthcoming Porcupine Tree live album, which was recorded on the Incident tour, is now mixed, artworked and mastered, and will be released in November:

Most of the tracks were recorded live at the Riviera in Chicago on April 30th 2010, but there's also a few which came from the last show of the Incident Tour, at London's Royal Albert Hall, including some rarer gems that we don't play very often, like Dislocated Day, and the full length version of Even Less.

Anyway, click on the cover image above to Pre-Order the double CD and DVD Limited Edition version from burning shed.

There will also be a double CD jewel case edition available from all the other usual retailers, but without the DVD.

Tracklisting is:

CD1
The Incident (Live in Chicago)
1 Occam's Razor
2 The Blind House
3 Great Expectations
4 Kneel and Disconnect
5 Drawing the Line
6 The Incident
7 Your Unpleasant Family
8 The Yellow Windows of the Evening Train
9 Time Flies
10 Degree Zero of Liberty
11 Octane Twisted
12 The Seance
13 Circle of Manias
14 I Drive the Hearse

CD2

1. Hatesong
2. Russia on Ice/ The Pills I'm Taking
3. Stars Die
4. Bonnie the Cat
5. Even Less
6. Dislocated Day
7. Arriving Somewhere But Not Here

DVD
The Incident (Live in Chicago)

1 Occam's Razor

2 The Blind House

3 Great Expectations

4 Kneel and Disconnect

5 Drawing the Line

6 The Incident

7 Your Unpleasant Family

8 The Yellow Windows of the Evening Train

9 Time Flies

10 Degree Zero of Liberty

11 Octane Twisted

12 The Seance

13 Circle of Manias

14 I Drive the Hearse

Release date is November the 19th.

Best,

Colin