Les Claypool Essay, Research Paper

Pioneers

Leslie Claypool was born in Richmond, California on 9/29/63. He has lived in El Sobrante, California all his life. When he was about 15 he got his very first bass guitar. The bass that his mother bought him was a Carl Thompson 4-string bass guitar. Carl Thompson is a guitar maker that is renowned for his extravagant looking basses, he is also known for the expensive and unique woods such as walnut or mahogany.

Les played bass in his high school band and actually that s how he started playing, even though he played upright bass in the school band. That explains the reason that there are songs where Les plays the upright bass. Les music is a strange mix of jazz or funk combined with a touch of harsher sounding music that could be generalized as thrash or heavy metal, but definitely not to be confused with hard-core. Unlike most traditional bass players, Les can play bass and sings lead vocals. His lyrics, though they may sound a little odd at first, have much meaning and are usually quite witty. His style is totally unique and his talent supersedes any other player today. He tours the country with his band Primus. This band combines the talent of a very skilled guitarist, Larry LaLonde, and new drummer Brian Mantia (known to fanatics as simply Brain ). The band perfectly compliments Claypool s style and does not hold him back. He does some side projects with other (very notable) players, but any given Les follower will tell you that the real electricity is at a Primus concert. Primus is also well known for a great live experience because the sound quality is superb. Les has a great deal of knowledge in amplifiers and the sound at a Primus concert can not be beat.

Les also has a large selection of bass guitars. He uses the C. T. (Carl Thompson) 4string mostly, but he has a number of others. He had a backup 4string made that is very similar to the original. He also has a C. T. 6string bass that has many different types of wood incorporated into it; it was respectfully nicknamed the Rainbow Bass . He has another 6string by C. T., which he prefers to use. He has two other basses made by Fender, which are jazz basses. He has two upright basses one electric and one acoustic.