Hi there, well, it has been a long strange trip. Born in Appleton Wisconsin, I started in music at a fairly young age, around 5 years, on piano and singing in boys choirs. I grew up around music, and have very fond memories that go way back of my older brothers jamming down the basement playing Smoke On The Water, among other crazy heavy jams. So by the time I reached 12, I was determined to become the next Ray Manzarek-bassplayer and keyboardist. The only thing was, my first band Feedback played songs like Bloodsucker (Deep Purple), Paranoid (Black Sabbath), and Living After Midnight (Judas Priest). This kind of music didn't fit with the Manzaraek thing--just a bit heavier, and besides the 'Purple", most of the songs we played had no keyboard part anyway. But more than anything, watching our guitar player-Mike- jam on his black Fender strat made we want to start on the elecetric bass. So, I traded my Vox keyboard-yes Vox- (I wish I would have kept that thing) for a 1969 Fender Musicmaster shortscale bass. This was a great instrument. So I had my first real rig-- the Fender bass, an old Acoustic 360 head that was given to me by Vinnie, a dude from New york that played in a band with my brother and was living temporarily with us, and some kind of weird speaker cab. I think it was a PV with a 15 inch speaker. Feedback did a few gigs in our time. The highlight was playing our 9th grade dance, with a full light show--we bought a FUNKY light system from the music teacher at our jr. high, roadies, a stage make of milk crates and lamps-yes lamps- all over the stage. By the end of 9th grade, I was into way more styles and bass players, really starting to dig Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, Steve Harris; totally into the '60's sounds of psychedlia but also loving the raw energy of heavy metal. After hearing Astral Traveller by Yes, I was determined to own Chris Squire's tone. So I ended up trading back my Fender bass for Rickenbacker-YES! I really wanted the black one, but I ended getting the red one instead. A true red color, not the fireglo.
To Be continued . . . .
|
|
My gear list is always changing, but this is up to date:
BASSES
ELECTRIC BASSES:
1975 Rickenbacker 4001
1988 Home made Ricky copy
1988 Alembic Persuader
1994 Alembic Epic, 5-string
1996 Fender American Standard Jazz
2001 Fender 50th Anniversary Precision
1963 or 1964 Guild Starfire
Early '90's G & L L2000 Fretless
2003 Dean Rhapsody 8-string
Hohner Acoustic Bass Guitar
UPRIGHTS:
1924 Italian bass made by Giuseppe Castagnino
1998 German bass made by Pollmann, Busetto Model
BOWS:
Bernd Dolling German bow, made of Snakewood
Seifert German bow, pernambuco stick with ebony frog, octagonal stick
|
|
|
AMPS & CABINETS
AMPS:
Mesa Boogie Tri-Axis, Bass modified
Mesa Boogie Strategy 400 Power Amp
1971 Silverface Fender Bassman Head
1969 Silverface Fender Bassman
(2) Peavey MicroBass practice amps
Peavey 10 practice amp
CABS:
Acoustic 2x15 cabinet
Mesa Boogie 1x15
Mesa Boogie Junior Powerhouse- 1x12 with 4x8, and tweeter
Pacific 2x10
1969 Fender 2x15
| EFFECTS & TOYS
RACK STUFF:
Alembic SF-2 Superfilter
Digitech MIDI graphic equalizer
DBX compressor/noisegate
Fuhrman power conditioner
Alesis Quadraverb
PEDALS:
early '70's Electro-harmonix Big Muff π
early '70's Electro-Harmonix Smallstone Phase shifter
Morley Mark Trmonti Power Wah
BOSS FBM-1 Fender '59 Bassman Amp Modeler
BOSS FDR-1 Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb Amp Modeler
BOSS RC-20XL Loop Starion
ZOOM 506II Bass Multi Effects
| OTHER
Korg M-1 Korg Gaia Moog Slim Phatty
E-MU Virtuoso 2000
Shure SM-57 mic
Beringer B-2 pro mic
Apple computers
Pro Tools M-Box along with all the toys that it comes with
Lots of Peavey PA stuff
|
|
