OT: Flea and Modulus done?

[acwild]

and the Chili's hiatus ends soon, doesn't it?

I think their drummer is gonna be busy with Chicken Foot (Hagar, Satriani, Michael Anthony), but I could be wrong.

 

[Bass Control]

I'm not a fan of Flea's work, but I admire what he's done for modern bass playing and that's he's inspired a majority of my generation to play bass. With that being said, if he returns to MM, I think it would be cool and would probably cause a few F***er basses to drop out of some hands...

 

[Duarte]

I kinda like having flea not using the same basses as me...I mean do do like him - reluctantly, I want to dislike him. Maybe in the old days when he played MM basses he was cooler. Don't know. I want him playing a Bongo. Actually, no I don't because that means when I get one people will think I'm copying.

 

[AtomicPunk]

Now if we can only get Stephan from the Dave Matthews Band on a Bongo, that would be most excellent. (Another Modulus guy).

 

[koogie2k]

No a Flea fan per se...but...he is a great player. I am just not a RHCP fan at all. Still, I wish him well and hopefully he will come back home.

Dave LaRue.....that is another subject.

 

[Rano Bass]

I'm sure Flea will always have an EBMM bass around in his arsenal, doesn't matter what other bass he advertises he knows where home is.

 

[bovinehost]

As always, I think if the guy could get just a LITTLE more press, he could really make something of himself.

 

[Aussie Mark]

As always, I think if the guy could get just a LITTLE more press, he could really make something of himself.

Maybe then he could find somebody who would sign him up as a shirt endorsee.

 

[bassmonkey]

As someone pointed out on Talkbass. Look at the initials of the renamed Flea bass. It's the Funk Unlimited.

Are they trying to tell him something?

 

[CElton]

Flea.

Hmm.

I'd rather listen to Tony Levin, and I think Tony still plays Music Man, doesn't he?

+1...Flea has forgotten more chops than I know, but it's really not my thing. I've owned a signature bass before, but it wasn't because of the signature on the bass.

I think uncompensated endorsements make a bigger statement...

 

[bassmonkeee]

I think uncompensated endorsements make a bigger statement...

Yep. As well as ones based on handshakes and not contracts.

 

[RobertB]

As someone pointed out on Talkbass. Look at the initials of the renamed Flea bass. It's the Funk Unlimited.

Are they trying to tell him something?

I doubt that very seriously. That would be a totally jackass thing to do, no matter what may've gone down.

 

[Big Poppa]

Robert Who knows? This business can leave some bruised feelings....but you are probably right

 

[RobertB]

Robert Who knows? This business can leave some bruised feelings....but you are probably right

I guess I'm thinking along the lines of reputation and professionalism. It would be surprising to me if Modulus or any company would emblazon that kind of drama onto one of their products like that. It would also look to me like a public acknowledgement that he had gotten to them/pissed them off somehow - that they care enough about their relationship with this one artist, to "stoop" to a level like that, rather than keeping calm, cool & collected.

And that's all assuming that there's even any drama to speak of. Granted, the change isn't happening for just no reason, but even if there is a grievance, to assume that they have a grievance with him might be getting it backwards.

Anyway, I asked one guy who I thought might've heard something - he's a Modulus dealer who also happens to be friends with Flea's bass tech. I'll keep his name out of it, but here's what he had to say (which is not much, but understandly, even if he did know more, I'm sure he wouldn't be loose-lipped about it, since Modulus is obviously not saying much about it at this point):

"Hey Robert. Goin pretty good man, just enjoyin this nice weather out here while we have it. Flea always has, and always will play whatever
he wants. Modulus has changed the name of the Flea to the Funk Unlimited. We're moving into a new location, so I haven't really had the time to look into it all that much. I do know that the specs are the same, just a different name. At this point, that's pretty much all the info we have."

 

[tkarter]

Flea is the number one call bassist for every session anywhere Robert?

I don't think so.
There are a lot better players than him that pay for their basses from EBMM.

Flea can't hang with half of them IMHO.

tk

 

[RobertB]

Flea is the number one call bassist for every session anywhere Robert?

tk, I don't follow. I didn't say anything to that effect, or even anything about Flea's playing, or the hype about him, deserved or not. I was just talking about this Modulus bass-formerly-known-as-the-Flea-bass thing.

 

[tkarter]

My bad I thought modulus was expected to go out of business without flea.

tk

 

[Oldtoe]

Nah, Tom. The Flea bass is a graphite-necked Stingray simulator, but probably did generate a lot of sales (and still likely will under the name FU) for Modulus. Their Quantum and Genesis basses are still good instruments with a respectable following. A Quantum 5 is one of the two non-EBMM basses I own. It doesn't really have a personality, though. However, it is useful for taking to seedy bars in case you need the graphite neck to whack a drunken redneck Sasquatch over the head to allow time for escape.

 

[tkarter]

Okay so no flea collar needed here.

tk

 

[Big Poppa]

Actually I dont think that the Flea bass was a winner on the sales front. Look at the artists that leave desiring a sig model....Anybody beating down the door for the VInnie Moore Dean?