Victor Wooten Shows Off His Incredible Bass Collection and Reveals How He Gets His Sound
Victor Wooten is best known for his Fodera basses, but his collection goes much deeper. The virtuoso recently gave Reverb a rundown of all the basses in his studio, as well as how he gets his personal sound.
The Basses That Shaped Victor Wooten’s Sound
Wooten began playing when he was very young, as his brothers had a band and needed a bassist. He says they got him playing right away on a toy Mickey Mouse guitar, then one of Regi’s extra guitars. Though his first gigs were playing bass parts on a guitar, he soon got a Univox Lectra.
“The first bass my parents could find that was small enough for me was that Univox,” he says. “It’s light, and right now it’s fretless because after I got the Alembic and heard Jaco Pastorius, I had to take the frets out of one of my basses. I did a lot of gigs on that bass. I started to learn how to use my thumb and how to really move an audience with the low end. I learned on that Univox because we were young and we were good.”
Remarkably, his second bass was an Alembic Series 1 bass. Wooten became a Stanley Clarke mega-fan by the time he and his brothers found it at a music store called Audio Light and Musical in Virginia Beach. “Some kind of way, I’m sure Regi talked my parents into getting it for me, and they got it for me,” he said. “Everything’s expensive when you’re poor, but some kind of way, my parents got it.”
Many years later, Clarke was selling off much of his own bass collection, and Wooten jumped at the opportunity. He now owns the Alembic that was used to record Clarke’s showstopper “School Days,” as well as a double bass from the 1700s. Wooten calls the “School Days” Alembic the most magical bass he owns.
When the Wooten Brothers went to record an album for Arista Records in 1981, the producer refused to let Victor play his Alembic. However, this opened the opportunity for him to connect with Vinny Fodera and Joey Lauricella of Fodera Basses. He immediately connected with their design.
“That bass became me. In a sense, I’ve played three basses in my life: the Univox, the Alembic, and the Fodera,” Wooten reflects. “All the Foderas I play are basically the same: EMG pickups, PJ style, in the same place. The EQ has changed, but the make hasn’t really. I want that same feel.”
How Victor Wooten Gets His Signature Bass Tone
The bassist then explains how he gets his sound.
“The way I typically get my sound starts with a Fodera bass with P pickups and a J pickup. This bass has a lot of EQ in it. It has two 9-volt batteries, so it runs at 18 volts. I have electronics, boost, a volume knob, and an overall tone. That means I have tone for the bass even if the preamp is not on, but I rarely run it without the preamp on.”
Rather than separate volume knobs for each pickup, Wooten’s basses have a pan knob. The way he sets it depends on what he’s playing: more bridge pickup for melodies, and more neck pickup for bass lines.
“Then where I place my hands matters. There’s more bottom end up here and it gets brighter back there. Between my hands and the EQ, I know it so well that I can maneuver very quickly to get the tone I need for the particular part of the song I’m playing,” he says. “When I’m playing solo bass, meaning no other instruments, I’m mostly going back to the bridge pickup because I want the chords and harmonics to speak more clearly. But when I’m playing bass parts where I want a heavier, fatter sound, especially if I’m recording for someone else just to be a bass player, I use that blue bass.”
Wooten wraps up by showing off more rarities in his arsenal, some of which he admits he may never play, but that hold a special place. Ultimately, it’s about picking the right bass for the job.
“Bass is a role that music needs to feel complete. In the same way this house needs a solid foundation, music can exist without it, but it won’t be as complete,” he explains. “If I’m a bass instrument player, then I might have one bass that I can play. But I want to be a “bassist,” meaning someone who can fill that role. You might want upright. You might want keyboard bass. You might want tuba. I just want to be as complete as a bassist as possible, not just complete as a bass guitarist, if that makes sense.”
Watch the whole interview to get more insight:
In his time with No Treble, Kevin has met hundreds of amazing bassists and interviewed icons like Jack Casady, Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Marcus Miller, and more. He's a gigging bassist performing jazz in Northern Virginia and bluegrass with The Plate Scrapers up and down the East Coast. Kevin appreciates all genres of music, from R&B to metal and everything in between. Connect with Kevin on Facebook and check his performance schedule on his website.
