Did Mike ever play a fretless bass?

[blastoplast]

Nah.
It might have been a one-stringer.
a

He played a one string bass solo during Lawn Boy on 11-14-94.

[sunrisevt]

Check out Tela from 06-26-1994 and DFB from 12-02-1997.
He played a really strange bass (just the neck, iirc) on that DFB.
a

Okay, the 12/2/97 wasn't what I was thinking of, although the Tela sounds similar to what I had in mind, but the sliding is too fast to really tell. 

However, I found an example, which is from 23:00 - 25:00 in the 11/26/94 Bowie.  Although listening to it a couple more times, I'm starting to think it's a foot pedal that controls the pitch.

Here's the whole song from KShap's FTA a couple months ago:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/mxm9og

He probably was using a Whammy pedal--Trey said in an interview some years back that he & Mike used the octave-shifting function on the Whammy pedal to switch pitch registers (i.e., Trey playing way down low & MIke playing way up high) during the Bangor Tweezer (released on A Live One). That puts Mike's use of the Whammy pedal in the same time frame you're talking about here.

Les Claypool's single-string bass is called a Whamola. I don't think Mike ever played one though, but I could be wrong.

OK. I remember reading in 7 Days, the local Burlington alternative weekly newspaper, that Mike was going to play some weird one-string bass when he got onstage with Michael Ray & the Kosmic Krewe. This would have been around 95 or 96. The description sounds like a Whamola.

[Caravan2001]

fwiw, when I went to Mike's apt. in NYC, he had a fretless hanging on the wall (with about at least 5 or 6 other gits and basses)....

[khalpin]

He probably was using a Whammy pedal--Trey said in an interview some years back that he & Mike used the octave-shifting function on the Whammy pedal to switch pitch registers (i.e., Trey playing way down low & MIke playing way up high) during the Bangor Tweezer (released on A Live One). That puts Mike's use of the Whammy pedal in the same time frame you're talking about here.

That sounds like the plausible answer.

fwiw, when I went to Mike's apt. in NYC, he had a fretless hanging on the wall (with about at least 5 or 6 other gits and basses)....

That's pretty sweet.  Any other notable things in his apartment?  Like a chest with The Gimp inside?

[Mr Minor]

 :lol:  ^^

[blastoplast]

I think I am remembering mostly correctly...that was the summer I started puffing, after all...the one string he used on 11-14-94 looked like a box with a long peg (stick) coming out of the top.  It had a handle or something on the top that he used to change the pitch.  It was interesting.  Check the recording. 

[Marmar]

I got video of Les jammin the fuck outta that thing....

[Caravan2001]

He probably was using a Whammy pedal--Trey said in an interview some years back that he & Mike used the octave-shifting function on the Whammy pedal to switch pitch registers (i.e., Trey playing way down low & MIke playing way up high) during the Bangor Tweezer (released on A Live One). That puts Mike's use of the Whammy pedal in the same time frame you're talking about here.

That sounds like the plausible answer.

fwiw, when I went to Mike's apt. in NYC, he had a fretless hanging on the wall (with about at least 5 or 6 other gits and basses)....

That's pretty sweet.  Any other notable things in his apartment?  Like a chest with The Gimp inside?

The only other cool things were the Segway (those things rule!) and his sweet sunburst Languedoc, which also ruled! He also has a ton of amazing art....

[kellerb]

He probably was using a Whammy pedal--Trey said in an interview some years back that he & Mike used the octave-shifting function on the Whammy pedal to switch pitch registers (i.e., Trey playing way down low & MIke playing way up high) during the Bangor Tweezer (released on A Live One). That puts Mike's use of the Whammy pedal in the same time frame you're talking about here.

That sounds like the plausible answer.

fwiw, when I went to Mike's apt. in NYC, he had a fretless hanging on the wall (with about at least 5 or 6 other gits and basses)....

That's pretty sweet.  Any other notable things in his apartment?  Like a chest with The Gimp inside?

The only other cool things were the Segway (those things rule!) and his sweet sunburst Languedoc, which also ruled! He also has a ton of amazing art....

Actually, if you look in the very corner of the room behind you in that picture, you'll see a whamola-type instrument...

[Caravan2001]

he had a ton of cool instruments there, and a piano, drum set, all that.  It is where he recorded the first Mike Gordon Band album...It was a sweet setup right on top of the Knitting Factory, but he doesn't have that place now afaik....

[Caravan2001]

don't know what to think of my guitar face in that pic though  :roll:

[mistercharlie]

That is a Whamola in the corner behind you in that picture.

[Mr Minor]

don't know what to think of my guitar face in that pic though  :roll:

Classic rawk face.

[Caravan2001]

don't know what to think of my guitar face in that pic though  :roll:

Classic rawk face.

1/2 Rawk, 1/2 Michael Jordan!