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Les Claypool from Primus is arguably one of the better bass players on the scene. He has used a variety of gear - let's take a look and see what bass gear he has been seen using in the recording studio and live.

Les Claypool and his bass

 

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Let's first look at some of the gear Les has used in the recording studio.

Animals Should Not Try To Act Like People:

Les used his fretless Carl Thompson "rainbox" 6-string bass on 4 of the 5 tracks on this album. He used a Carl Thompson 4-string bass (checkout Carl Thompson Bass page for pics and info on Les' Thompson basses) that has a Kahler whammy-bar for the track "Pilcher's Squad".

On 4 of the tracks he added delay using a Line 6 DL4 Delay Modeler:

Distortion was created using a Line 6 DM4 Distortion modeler:

Distortion was also created using vintage Electro_Harmonix and Korg pedals. All bass tracks were recorded direct to the console in his home studio.

The Les Claypool Frog Brigade Presents Purple Onion [Prawn Song] :

Les also used his Carl Thompson basses when recording 2002’s The Les Claypool Frog Brigade Presents Purple Onion [Prawn Song]. On the title track he played his Carl Thompson 4 through different effects—like distortion from a Sans Amp Bass DI:

Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver DI

- envelope from a Korg Toneworks AX300B pedal

- Boomerang Phrase Sampler (for motorcycle sounds).

Boomerang III Phrase Sampler

- fretless Thompson 4-string with flatwounds (“Barrington Hall”)

- white late-’70s Rickenbacker (“David Makalaster”. Alex Lifeson of Rush gave him the bass)

- old British solid-state DI unit.

- NS Design 5-string electric upright played with a bow and recorded direct with slapback delay (“David Makalaster II”)

- fretted Thompson 4, recorded direct with some Korg Toneworks envelope (“Buzzards of Green Hill”)

- short-scale electric upright (“Long in the Tooth”. Bass was $200 at a pawn shop)

- ‘Whamola,’ (weird washtub bass-type instrument with a single D string on a stick, a pickup, a peg on the bottom like an upright bass, and a big handle that you pull to change pitch. Played with a drumstick)

 

Live

When he tours, Claypool has been seen using

- fretted and fretless Thompson 4’s

- fretless Thompson 6

- NS Design electric upright 5

- Whamola,

- old aluminum-neck Kramer 8-string (uses live on “Cosmic Highway”)

- Fender Jazz basses

Fender American Professional Ii Jazz Bass Maple Fingerboard Olympic White

- Korg Toneworks

- SansAmp Bass DI

- Boomerang sampler

- Ampeg rig—an SVT-3PRO head:

Ampeg SVT-3PRO Series Head

and two SVTPR-410H cabinets:

Ampeg SVT-410HLF Classic Series Bass Cabinet