My basses

[Rusty the Scoob]

I have pretty simple gear. 

My bass for Phish and classic rock is a Sadowsky 5-string J-bass.  I bought it from the Sadowsky shop in Brooklyn in 2002. 



It's the one that you hear on this recording.  http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=c5a71553d7c854b095af63b7d44918aad51887f3a69345b6

My bass for playing Phil is one that I designed and helped my Dad build.  It's a Warmoth neck, Warwick hardware, Bartolini pickups, and an ACG preamp. 



I especially like the headstock decals... I agonized over the design for a long time and then had them custom made in England.  "Crea" is my last name, sort of a tribute to my Dad.



Here's a pictorial history of the build process:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/danfcrea/sets/72157606940563012/

And a detailed writeup of my design process.  http://www.fennario.us/dancgear.html


And to make these things loud, I use a good old SWR Redhead.



Pretty much the only effect I ever use is my Lovetone Meatball.



I have an EBS octabass that's flaky, a Boss Synth pedal, a Trace Elliot quad chorus, a Trace Elliot dual compressor, and other assorted fun toys... but they rarely leave the house.  I'm too happy with my pure tone to risk losing even a tiny bit of it with pedals that may or may not be true bypass.

[Poster]

you and my bass player probably know each other on talk bass! great rig. i cant wait to come up to maine and jam with you, walker, and A Olsen. Now that Iam signed onto a label (!) its actually going to happen. My bass player uses a meatball with a true bypass looper that has a bleed control/feedback control. If you bleed in some fuzz, synth, etc you can nail all the Mike Gordon stuff without trashing any tone. :0)

[picture_of_nectar]

cool its neat to hear from a bass splayer here, welcome! those are some sweet bass's!

[Rusty the Scoob]

Thanks, Nectar and PNB!

I'll definitely be experimenting with that effects loop...  didn't really have time to set it all up before my quick set with Ben & crew and didn't really need anything besides the Meatball.  I'd love to find that complex layered sound that Mike's been using since 98 or so...

Send your bass player here if you can!  I don't go to TB all that much lately... not sure why, I guess reading about bass gear is just a necessary evil for me.  I'd rather just have somebody else do my research for me!

[Poster]

mike has always had an extremely complex rig. fortunately for you i know more about Mike's Rig(s) than I do about Antipastas. A good place to start is

ibanex analog flanger                     fuzz face (i like the silicon based fuzz pedals for bass, so does mike!)

                             
                  \            (in loop of meatball)         |    

                              Meatball-------------------------------------------> ibanez Ts10 with cap mod---------> boss synth v1------------> Eventide reverb/delay

With that you can pretty much nail it on the head. Of course beyond the effects youve got a few grand in buffers, limiters, eq, etc. The Eden Preamp section really does add a whole bunch to his tone these days too. His speaker rig is some Eden stuff mixed in with Meyer Sound stuff. Of course if you get right down to it, he uses a whole shitload of other gizmos and effects, but to do the trademark stuff, the effects I listed will get er done. Oh and I almost forgot the abundant use of Neve compression on his recordings. So I bet if you dug deep youd find a similar rack compressor in his rig at gigs when hes not just using the superb eden compression (see grappa boom!)

[ColForbin]

Sweet rig man!!  Those SWR's are built like tanks, we use one in our band for our keyboard player, (owned by our bass player of course) very similar to yours.  I love your Phil bass, it completely badass.

[jonb52578]

i applaud you good sir! nice 'dowsky and beautiful custom.