Giants of Bass - Flea

This track was written to reflect Flea's work during the Blood Sugar Sex Magik-era and features funky fingerstyle grooves and use of effects such as overdrive and envelope filter.

This piece also features - Steve Banks on guitar and Jason Bowld (Bullet for My Valentine, Fightstar, Bill Bailey, Pitchshifter) on drums.

You can find out more about the book on the following videos:

Thanks for watching! :)

[FunkedUpKids]

it's like Around the world, funky monks & mellowship slinky all in one. Great tone btw

[RastaSaiyaman]

The funny thing is that although being known for playing Musicman basses (and basses which ape the style of a Musicman, such as his Modulus basses) in the studio he seldom used them.

On "RHCP" and "Freaky Styley" he used a Musicman Cutlass, with the black carbon fibre neck, with a Fender P-bass as back up for live duties.

On "Uplift mofo Party Plan" and "Mother's milk" his main bass was a Spector NS-2 with a double J pickup layout, songs like "Higher ground", "Johnny kick a hole in the sky" you can clearly hear that typical honk of a two pickup bass.

On "BloodSugarSexMagic" he used a Wal bass, again for it's two pickup sound and a Five String Musicman for it's low B rumble on songs like "Righteous and the wicked" and "Funky Monks"

On "One hot minute" he used an Alembic except for the song "aeroplane" where he used a musicman, that tone is just so obvious.

And from "Californication" onwards, the Pink Fender bass entered the fray and has never left his hands really.

[marioparty]

Wow! You really captured him and his style! Bang on man!

[MadKKang]

your bass brain is genius : ) respect you!

[het_gele_teken]

Great tone and playing, what a lovely Stingray that is!

[sideparting]

Very good, this book is going to be insane

[rodoherty]

Amazing tone! Great tune! Really enjoyed this one!

[bassguitarmalta]

Loooking forward to the book. I would like to get an insight of your music composition process too!

[jordonlees]

this song is so good i dont even care. make more like this!!!

[CristianoNascim]

Nice bass! By Brasil. Congratulations.

[nicolasdeluca]

what a great sound men ! keep continue video like this !

[Digitalbirdabq]

Wow! Very cool... I will be looking out for that book! New fan here keep up the great work!!

[willemm]

i hear around the world, Mellowship Slinky In B-Major, mommy where is daddy, The Righteous & The Wicked. and flea's famous envelope filter jam

[bnnb]

Hi Sir your bass sounds just great. Which ampli and compressor are u using if you don't mind me asking. Cheers

[StrazzieB]

Some others you should consider for the Giants of bass book:
John Myung (Dream Theater, check out his work on tracks like Panic Attack, 6:00.)
Cliff Burton (Metallica, check out his work on tracks like Orion, etc.)
Mark King (Level 42)
Paul McCartney (The Beatles/Solo Work)
Justin Chancellor (Tool, check out his work on tracks like Schism, 46 & 2 and The Pot.)
John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin)
Chris Wolfenholme (Muse, check out his work on tracks like Hysteria, Reapers)

Other than that, great video. It really does sound like it's straight out of the BloodSugarSexMajik era of RHCP. Can't wait for the book to drop!

- Strazzu

[malumilitari]

Nice stuff ! That bass sounds amazing, is this MM modded ?

[RitchieRosson]

Wonderful music Stuart. What is the wah effect you are using?

[TubaDudeNick]

Beautiful tone! If you don't mind me asking, what positions are your tone knobs in? Anything boosted, cut out? I love how this sounds! I have a newer musician myself!

[MrTurboparrot]

Hi Stuart - would you mind dropping a note on your gear and settings? That is some PHAT tone there. I tried on my own channel to outline flea's tone - but this is something else. New strings? cheers

[cjleongson]

hey can you tell us how to do some bass sounds? as a guitarist i almost have the same sound always. do you just tweak the amp or use slight filters?