The Absoulte ⚠MADMAN⚠ Les Claypool Bass Rig - PRIMUS (Part 1/2) 

Things I learned making this video; Pach-y-derm is not "Pach derm" (oops) Filming using natural light from the English weather makes you turn blue.

How has les gone from looking like high school weed dealing prankster to season wise old man

The Carl T "Rainbow Bass" deserves a spot in a museum when it's officially retired. Music was drug, kicking and screaming, into new frontiers by that bass.

They're ALL beasts! Les Claypool, Larry LaLonde and Tim Alexander are ridiculously skilled.

Thank you for the great video, blonde lord farquad

My mom had your haircut in the early 80s...

Calling Les Claypool a "bass player" is like calling Carroll Shelby a "mechanic."

As a 50-year-old Primus fan and drummer of over 30 years professionally this is one guy I've never got to play with. Met him twice and he's super cool just like he is in the videos. But man I wish I could just Jam for 5 minutes with that guy!!

I've always like Primus but didn't start really getting into their music until recently. I've been watching a lot of live concert videos of them and man have I come to really enjoy Les Claypool. I really like the music they make

An "unifinished" version of the rainbow bass can be seen in the music video for Jerry Was A Racecar Driver. Once it was finished, the bass didn't balance well and caused Claypool not to use that guitar very much in live performances. This version did not have the famous scroll on the end of its upper horn but was still used in the performance later used in the Jerry video. Carl contacted Les about why he wasn't using the bass and demanded Claypool send it back so he could rebalance the intstrument. This was done by adding the curly scroll on to the bass, giving it the shape most fans recognize now.

Just saw primus play in my home town and it was amazing can’t wait to see les play again

love those videos - keep them coming!

Oh thank God! Someone’s finally doing this video. I’ve been waiting for someone to do a rig rundown on Les for years. 🎉

Woah, Geddy Lee signed Les Claypool’s Bass?! Righteous!

The King's back ! Thank you for spending so much time working on these videos. This was very informative as always

I was just asking myself what was Claypool's rig, thank you my dude.

Also, Desaturating Seven is an amazing album.

Make a video about Ryan Martine please

Yes! This series is back. I've been waiting sooo long

Man, between this and video 2, I don't think there is a better, more detailed breakdown of Les's gear available anywhere. Thanks for taking the time and making it so concise, detailed, and citing great visual examples with slow-mo from the videos to match... appreciate it and the time you took, sincerely.

The wait is over!

Fuckin love Les

Thank you for making this video! It was very informative and had me chuckling at times.

it's always a nice time seeing your videos keep it up with the good work buddy

First time seeing one of your videos, and that was thoroughly enjoyable (except for the pachyderm problem). Would love to see you dive deep into metal bass players. Some of the most talented, skilled, and unknown bass players are pushing every aspect of the envelope, and may open some eyes of the sheltered masses. Maybe start with a fairly well known to metalists choice like Steve DiGiorgio, who is shockingly skilled, fretted and fretless, and even more impressive is his balance between aggression and driving a song, and his ability to recognize harmonic, rhythmic, and melodic opportunities to display awareness and tastefulness.

Mr. Krinkle is one of the most underrated videos ever.

No matter how good Les is his music and lyrics have to be the most bizarre musical experiences ever .

This video is absolutely awesome! Thank you for sharing this information! Killer editing too!

i love your video and missed you

Even though Primus kinda freaks me out this was a good video , thank you sir.

Awesome man cant wait for part 2!

hell Yeah! I've been waiting for this since I started watching you almost a year ago

Hi, we're Primus, and we've been known to suck!!!!

thank you Alfie another stunner

ive been waiting along time for this thank you x

Very good video man. I believe that you need to have talent to be a bass player, but also the comfort of the instrument has a massive maybe even crucial role to furthering your love for it

Les has so much good music

Great video!! Glad you're back. I'm sure the research for these takes a while, especially with bassists like Les. Keep up the good work!!

Great video man! I was looking for this one, Les is my favorite bass player

Les is one of the most insane bass players I've ever heard and I'm still always blown away by his playing (I had also never heard of Carl Thompson basses before listening to Primus), so this was a killer video Alfie. Looking forward to part 2 and also maybe seeing Krist Novoselic in the future at one point, cheers and great job as always

I've been eagerly waiting for this one!! When I heard "Tommy the cat" in that Bill and Ted film, I couldn't believe that was bass! I got a tape copy of Seas of Cheese imported to Australia for $40!!! I found the Transcription in some guitar magazine. And I tell you, learning all the techniques needed to play Tommy took me from a level 2 bass player to a Level 8. I still play a 6-String bass today :) ... I had no idea he played an Ibanez Musician, in his early days, it put a big smile on my face because I only have 2 basses: a 6-string Warwick Dolphin copy and an Ibanez Musician. Thanks for the video Alfie!.... You are gonna do his Amps next, right? Cheers!

I’ve been waiting for this for so long! 😀

According to a Bass Player article in the '90s, the "Brand New" 6 string fretted CT bass that Les played on Pork Soda, was actually constructed some years prior. It was the first 6 string fretless bass that Carl Thompson had made, but had frets added to it at some point. On this bass, Les used ultra light gauge strings which he described as like "... taking a ball pene hammer to piano strings."

“Fizzle Fry”

Pretty sure I had an acid flashback from 1998 during this video.

The side of the frog brigade album where they cover Pink Floyd’s Animals in full is so powerful and faithful to the original material it brings a tear to my eye every time.

Great video! Right from the start I could tell I was going to learn something new.... but I wasnt expecting to laugh at some great humour. Love your work. Cheers bruv.

Really interesting video. What s the name of the song in your intro ? Also my recomendation for an other video would be D D Verni from Overkill

SAUSAGE? Thought he was using a Hofner on that project, but because of the insightful video it must have been the EKO. You still forgot SAUSAGE. Ha ha. Guessing the next video will talk about his ADA preamp with the bass mod? Cool videos. Cheers

Welcome back my friend. . As always great video. .

February 1993 issue of Bass Player magazine, interview with Les and they go through all his basses at the time. I remember they asked him if the triplets on The Toys Go Winding Down was a trick with a Delay and he said no, it was his fingers playing the triplets on the EKO bass.

Great video man!! always fun to watch, btw would you ever consider doing a video about Kirst Novaselic from Nirvana?

You forgot to mention. Sausage - Riddles are abound tonight Featuring the original members of Primus from 1988 released in the early-mid 90's

I love Les Claypools bass playing.It makes me happy

this is a great job sir !!

Awesome dude, great video

Over the Falls was on the Brown Album, 2 albums after Sailing the Seas of Cheese cd and tour.

Really cool video:)

Could not click on this quickly enough! Impressively detailed video, and it's great to finally know how to pronounce 'padouk.' ;)

I'd love to see you do a video on Mike Inez from Alice in chains

Great video man! I subbed :) could you please please do a a vid on Phil Lesh from the grateful dead or Mike Gordon from phish? That would be AWESOME!

Great info. Love love these

Good work... Appreciate your research, keep it up!

Would love to see a video for Al Cisneros (Sleep, OM). He has a killer set-up, really interesting technique and most importantly, earth shattering tone!

please do geddy lee/john paul jones

Love ur vids and just started to love primus in the last couple of days. What a sweet surprise

Bloody good, thx for this entertaining peice of info.

"padauk...padauk...padauk?"

Please do Matt Freeman of Operation Ivy and Rancid.

Wonderful vid!

Ha! MY first bass was also a Memphis P-Bass copy (In the exact same color as the photo you used), too! Whilst I did teach myself to pop and slap on it, it's the only musical thing I will ever have in common with Les. Though it's not my primary I still have it; thought, it's been stripped and re-stained with EMG active pickups installed in 1989.

Primus sucks 🤘

PRIMUS SUCKS!!!

It's been a while young man..but damn it was well worth it..fantastic post...another gentleman I would like to see you do would be Patrick Ohearn.. It's great to see the progress in production you've made since your first..peace

Dude this video is great! Must've taken a long time to do all the research. Cheers.

Primus sucks

That's one confusing looking lady.

This band was something else. First heard them on a Beavis and Butthead episode. One of those bands that was so unique. Even their guitarists and drummers were talented and can’t be forgotten. I love all their albums.

Great docu again mate👏. Les is the bass god😆 saw him earlier this year in Melbourne Australia doing their primus tour with Ler and Tim awesome gig 🤘. His six string rainbow bass is sexy🤣

thank you. these are awesome

Awesome video man! 👍🏼

Awesome! been a claypool fan for nigh on 20 years now, an I have been loving this channel. Learnt a lot about some of my favourite players equipment so thanks for putting in all this reseach so we don't have to :) had no idea about the Ibanez story! its pretty crazy- I know he played bass for his school jazz band so i guess a Ric would be a terrible fit for that, but that sales person must have talked himself out of a butt-load of commission since the price difference between an 80's ibanez and even a second hand Ric had to have been like a grand! Like I say, good job. Do have a few things to add/aped/correct/whatever: - You list frizzle fry as a live show: it wasn't. - read a 90's bass player interview with les where he tells the story of the primary: that he thought it was butt ugly, until he saw who made it. As soon as he realised it was the same guy who made stanley clarke's 'school days' bass an tried it out, he begged his step-father for a load which he spent years 'mowin lawns and pulling weeds' (as the song hats off says) to pay it back. didn't say how old he was, but i guess still a kid if he is borrowing money from the folks and mowing lawns for it - either way, he played the primary in 'blind illusion' which was his bay-area funk thrash group before primus. it was also the one he used in the first iteration of primus with Jay lane and Todd Huth (1988) - you list les as playing 'over the falls' on the seas of cheese tour: it was a brown album song. if you know of them playing it that early, id love to know. it would be a cool trivia thingy if they had held onto it for that long. he was still playing that old electric-upright on the brown album tour - As far as I know you have the jazz bass order switched: his primary was the white one and the red was a backup (at least he used the white pretty much exclusively for Rhinoplasty and all the live stuff I have seen from that era - awakening etc.) - I was sure that he went straight to the NS 5 string without ever owning a 4 (though im not 100%). he definitely had the 5 for oysterhead and the inaugural new years show of the frog brigade. Probably nit-picks, but I though't i'd share. that said, again, great show. keep up the awesome work :)

THE KING IS BACK!

Les is cool man love his attitude and dude is hilarious when pissed off

As per, you did a stellar job sir!

Can’t wait to see what you come up with for effects and amps.

Awesome dude, can't wait to see what pedals he uses

Great video!!

That ebony top Carl Thompson 4 string is a work of art

That's right Side of this was our first taste of what a solo project from Les would be like. It would also be the source for songs played live by Frog Brigade. Like up in the roof or highball with the devil.

Nice explanation ! Great !!

I think you might be wrong about how he acquired his main Carl Thompson. He saw the bass and recognised it as the bass he saw on a Stanley Clark album cover, and bought it. Source: Bass Player magazine interview with Chris Jisi.

Les Claypool is the only guy who can put a tremolo bar on his bass and nobody bats an eye.

Excellent thanks love the video

Great video.

This is just making me want to listen to Primus

Haha it always good when you upload

Great video!!!! \m/

Desaturating 7 is one of my favs!!! I seen flying frog brigade it was killer!!! I believe he even played drums with the drummer or something that whamola was bad ass!!!

Awesome