Fretless Stradi Bass Funk Rock Jam (drums by Jack Irons)

Here’s a funky new jam on my fretless Stradi bass with Jack Irons on drums! This bass just sings and rocks so hard, it’s amazing fun to play and record with. Jack recorded his groovy drums in his studio, I shot this take on it and mixed it together. It took a few weeks to write and perform this piece in one take, there are some rough edges and I’m taking a lot of risk but that’s where the fun is! Sliding fretless chords on this bass sounds so expressive, its tone very much inspires new ideas and that’s such a treat from an instrument. Double stops with vibrato sound very vocal as well, love combining it with some freestyle funk rock spirit, especially with Jack’s marvelous drumming. Hope you’ll enjoy! This fretless Stradi Symphony Cora bass is built by Marek and Agnieszka Dąbek. This most lovely luthier couple for sure is reflected in the quality of their unique instruments, their work and dedication oozes passion! The bass has a Bocote fingerboard, an Amazaque neck, solid roasted Alder body, and a quartersawn Oak top wood with Shou Sugi Ban fire finish. All woods are single piece, no bolts, it has an ebony bridge and nut, gotoh tuners and strap locks, glow in the dark side markers, and silver eyelets with crushed turquoise 2 octaves over the fingerboard. The neck is 34 inch, the extended fingerboard surely gives some cool extra options, going beyond in this piece as well. For optimal plucking and fingerstyle, Marek lowered the fingerboard around the pickup position. It has a Delano Xtender and a custom piezo pickup with Glockenklang preamp, 3-way coil switch and vol/tone slide pots on the back. Love the piezo addition to the tone, the resonance, sustain and presence are delicious, and it can really rock out as well. Pretty much every aspect of this bass feels very inspiring. Been doing some awesome studio recordings with it this summer and it just delivers and brings that spark every time, will be sharing more about the projects soon! I used Ernie Ball Super Slinky strings, a Rodenberg 707b clean booster, Darkglass Hyper Luminal compressor, and at 2 parts a Boss OC-2 octaver. Recorded with the DI of my Eich T-1000 amp into a Focusrite Scarlett into Cubase. No plugins or digital post processing used, just some volume leveling on the mix, and some compression and EQ on the final master. Jack played his custom Masters of Maple drums, with Evans drumheads and Zildjian cymbals. He recorded his drums in Luna using Apollo interfaces, he engineered and mixed it himself. It’s amazing to be working with Jack on these groovy tunes, as original RHCP drummer he’s got the funk in his DNA, his work with Pearl Jam and Eleven show his deep sense of groove. I’m grateful to be friends and to be working on exciting new music, Jack is a bright pearl in this world’s music history and is ever evolving. Check out the previous 4 videos on this channel for more of our work together, there are more split screen performances on our other social media pages as well. Groove Glue, that’s what we call it, the rewarding quest of locking in, riding those waves and trusting on your feel! Groove Lab socials: Facebook: Instagram: Apple Music: Spotify: Bandcamp: Thanks for watching, reading, and listening. Let’s keep things funky!