The Last Bass Outpost

I'm a fan of the Explorer shape, this is just stunning!

Andy Fraser would be 72 on this past July 3 - hard to believe he passed away 10 years ago this past March! I've been digging back into his playing with Free - one of the best things was discovering the 2002 expanded edition of Free Live! There is also a great concert film from 1970 - great views of everyone playing, you can even hear the bass!


Also found a Guitar Player article that includes a brief 2005 interview (though not sure that Mr. Big counts as "forgotten"):

Guitar Player article

Of course, the Fly Guitars article is probably the best one!

Anyway, Andy Fraser was one of my favorite bassists during my formative years, still appreciating him today.

Quote from: ilan on July 04, 2025, 06:08:21 AMI'd love a short recording. A quick iPhone demo is okay. Mudbucker solo'ed and tone wide open, then gradually turn the high-pass filter. Thanks!

Finally came up with something - will try and message you.

So initial report is: I'm not sure this is representative of a typical mudbucker. Or maybe it is! I was kind of surprised to realize it's a long scale (EB-3L) - and maybe not so surprised to realize that the string-to-string balance is pretty terrible - especially the low E string. It's not my bass so I really hesitate to try and put it right.

My biggest realization was that it is nothing like the two mudbucker-only equipped basses that I have played - 1968 EB-2 and 1968 Melody Maker. Those are/were just insane with the low end from the E A & D strings! This one, not so much, which makes sense, with both the positioning closer to the bridge and the wiring with the bridge pickup (though not sure scientifically how that works).

I did some recording - let me know if you want me to continue! Otherwise, I would say to work on the passive circuit a la the Les Paul Triumph. I do appreciate my hi-pass/lo-pass filter pedal though!

Quote from: ilan on June 16, 2025, 08:53:11 AMAre the results in yet?

The process has begun!

Very cool! I saw your electronics issues on the Alembic forum. Glad you sorted it out!

My first Alembic was a Spoiler Exploiter, kind of a mix between the two of yours!

Quote from: ilan on June 16, 2025, 08:53:11 AMAre the results in yet?

Not yet - they didn't bring it last week, maybe this week? They come up to Oakland once a week, for work and for music - kind of being chill about asking again. Will update in a couple of days.

Quote from: ilan on May 31, 2025, 03:07:08 AMSounds great my friend! I'm really impressed by this bass.

https://www.trickfishamps.com/shop/signal-filter/

Never heard of this one before. Can it clean up a mudbucker?

Hey Ilan, I might be able to experiment with an EB-O - a guitarist I have worked with before has one, we are going to play tomorrow night, I might be able to borrow his. Will get back to you, it might be a fun video to make.

I have to admit I am a fan of paisley - mainly because my dad liked it and had several paisley ties (only one of which I managed to find after he passed away) - so I think the clear looks great! I liked the original one you posted before too (sea foam green?)

I finally finished the disc 1 running order. I did not listen all at once - broke it up into 2 sittings. It's a nice sandwich - definitely deserves to be listened to in a single session. To be honest, I think this one might fare best with the visuals - but I will withhold that judgement until I listen again a few times - I might have a drive down to LA (about 6-7 hours) in the works so this is definitely a candidate!

Quote from: ilan on May 31, 2025, 03:07:08 AMSounds great my friend! I'm really impressed by this bass.

https://www.trickfishamps.com/shop/signal-filter/

Never heard of this one before. Can it clean up a mudbucker?

Unfortunately, I don't have a mudbucker-equipped bass these days, so I can't test it. One potential issue with the Trickfish pedal is that other than the cutoff frequency, everything else is preset and not adjustable. A cheaper alternative to experiment with might be one of the Broughton audio pedals (further down this page: https://www.broughtonaudio.com)

Quote from: Basvarken on May 31, 2025, 04:50:47 AMGreat playing Harry. Those Andy Fraser bass parts are always fun to play.

In  my opinion you don't need a Trickfish to tame the low end of this bass.
The Les Paul Bass has plenty of options from itself. It has a Bass potentiometer that you can dial all the way to 0. Plus if you use both pickups you can dial it out of phase.

You got me! To be honest, I have long been biased against passive tone controls. It's only the past 5 years or so that I started turning down the tone knob on my P-Bass. I think I had a similar bias against the bass knob on the Triumph - will experiment with that! The tone selector switch is another thing to experiment more with - I usually go with position 2 but that is pretty bassy as well.

I posted another Free/Andy Fraser bass cover:


In the Ride On Pony one, I had it on the bridge pickup but it was still putting out tons of bass (not tons of sobs)! This time I used a Trickfish Signal Filter using the hi-pass to cut some of the super lows, so I used the neck pickup this time.

Today I had business in San Francisco and stopped by Amoeba Records. Picked up the 2002 expanded release of the Free Live! album - I had it on vinyl as a teen in Tokyo in the '80s, didn't know until recently about the added tracks - 7 in total - listened to some of the original album and some of the additional tracks - sounds great! I think I still prefer the studio versions, but it's fun listening to live recordings of them too.

I had tickets to the IMAX presentation (3 nights only?) but ended up not being able to go! I remember seeing it once on video, maybe when I was in my 20s. I got the CD release - haven't had a chance to crank it yet!

Thanks everyone! Memorial Day Weekend is one of my busiest of the year work-wise (though I get actual Memorial Day off, which is nice), so I forgot I posted!    Also forgot to post this, which was actually what I was thinking of posting originally:


Andy Fraser was one of my favorite bassists as a teen. I had the second album, Fire & Water, Live!, and Heartbreaker (Tetsu Yamauchi was another fave). Never managed to get an EB-3, but it's fun scale-wise appropriate with the Les Paul.

And I don't disagree re: the strings - I think these are great, and do like the purple color. Before I think I had La Bellas with red silks. I got the Pyramids because someone said they would fit on a Starfire, but they do not fit my Guild M-85. One upshot is that I ordered the medium scale set direct from Pyramid and got to correspond with Max Junger - he sent some cool stuff like stickers and a history of Pyramid strings booklet. I'm going to record more with it - other Free bass covers I want to do, and a drone piece inspired by the recent Drone Day and a possible place on a compilation album...

To this subforum at least! I kinda snuck back in, but I don't think Hobbits would go for that - or maybe that would be more in the tradition of Bilbo?


The hobbit in question is my 1970-or-so Les Paul Triumph - put GHS Precision Flats on when I got it worked on a couple of years before the pandemic, have an idea to put a set of Pyramid flats I ended up with on, but better do some recordings first!

Moog is in preparation for Drone Day 2025 - this Saturday! Gotta get back into the groove of my synths!