If you happen to love daredevil musicians, you’ll dig The Aristocrats. A up to date-fusion trio, the band consists of guitar monster Guthrie Govan (VG, September ’21), drummer Marco Minnemann, and Bryan Beller, a wizard on four- and five-string basses. We talked with Beller in regards to the group’s newest effort, Duck, which finds them tackling ever more-challenging instrumentals, but by no means shedding sight of the track or the music.

What was the unique plan for The Aristocrats?
There truly wasn’t any plan; we fashioned on account of an unexpectedly profitable one-off gig at NAMM. We’re simply three Gen X dudes who occur to love odd instrumentally-minded stuff and needed to have enjoyable with it. A Frank Zappa reference could be very helpful as a result of it’s shorthand for “Yeah, we’re doing difficult stuff, however attempting to not take it too significantly.” Which is absolutely what we’re after.

Who’re a few of your key bass heroes?
John Paul Jones, at first. He outlined what a rock bassist ought to and will do – heavy Motown! Chris Squire was massive for me by way of melodic runs and reharmonization, plus that edgy tone! Tim Commerford of Rage Towards the Machine was big by way of getting an aggressive overdrive tone, however performed fingerstyle. Flea is how I realized to make use of slapping and popping, extra for rock aggression than the smoother Marcus Miller approach. I did undergo a Jaco and John Patitucci interval, whereas Scott Thunes, the longtime bassist for Zappa, impacted me in how he approached songs mentally and harmonically. Lively, aggressive, and sensible, but in addition uncooked.

You and Marco will not be a conventional rhythm part. Are there nice bassist/drummer groups that encourage you each?
Once more, Led Zeppelin is a touchstone. We each know the catalog in and out, and love what Jones and John Bonham created. We each listened to Rush after we have been youthful, and a number of fusion stuff. I believe we’re each nonetheless conscious that the important thing perform is to offer groove and construction to the rhythmic ingredient of the track. Within the Aristocrats, we each know that we not simply have room to discover, however truly a accountability to discover. We have to preserve issues attention-grabbing and musical since we’re only a three-piece.

What gear did you employ on the album?
Establishing for the classes at Carbonite Sound, I needed it to really feel a bit like we have been taking part in stay, like I used to be in entrance of my stay rig. Dwell, I take advantage of a Gallien-Krueger (GK) MB Fusion as a preamp going right into a GK 2001RB amp and 4 GK CX410 cupboards, all with an enormous pedalboard in entrance. The sensation of air transferring shortly on the fingerstrike response – which GK does higher than anything on the market – creates a headroom notion that permits for very mild taking part in and complete dynamic management with my proper hand.

Other than four- and five-string variations, what are the sonic flavors you’re searching for in a bass?
I search for three sorts. The primary is a vibrant, edgy tone for each chimey clear and scorching drive, which is one thing my Mike Lull Trendy five-string with swamp ash physique and maple neck does exceedingly properly.

The second taste is what I name a “trendy” tone – a bit smoother on the higher mids, however nonetheless with glassy super-highs, a really targeted midrange physique, and heat low-end. That’s a elaborate approach of claiming “a Spector with EMG electronics” – I like Spectors, the Alex Webster signature, particularly. My palms don’t all the time love the Spector system, bodily, particularly stay, so the Spectors I personal have turn out to be primarily studio devices.

The third taste can be a darkish, heat, and clean classic tone. I obtain that with a Lull P/J passive five-string. It’s additionally an important basis for sure fuzzy and synthy results, which is the way it ended up on the bass-synth for “Dance Of The Aristocrats” and the classic fuzz of “Smuggler’s Hall.”

For a bassist, you could have a mondo pedalboard.
The important thing results are the Boss OC-2 “brown field” octave, Xotic Bass BB Preamp for my primary drive, the Digitech Bass Driver, and a Darkglass Classic Microtubes for secondary drives. There’s additionally an MXR six-band EQ, Electro-Harmonix MicroPog, Dunlop Bass Wah, a really previous Boss CE-2B Bass Refrain, a TC Digital Corridor Of Fame reverb, Digitech DD-3 Digital Delay, a Demeter Opto Compulator for mild compression, and an Xotic Results EP Booster for instrument leveling.

That’s an entire lotta pedals.
I bear in mind 20 years in the past, when it was cutting-edge for a bassist to have an enormous pedalboard. Now I’m between “old-school” and “dinosaur” for not operating some Fractal or Quad Cortex all-in-one whizbanger. I’m super-persnickety about how results transfer air and have an effect on the elemental observe, and I nonetheless suppose previous analog results are the best way to go.

This text initially appeared in VG’s April 2024 situation. All copyrights are by the creator and Classic Guitar journal. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.