34 BASS MAGAZINE ; ISSUE 4 ; bassmagazine.com
Juan Alderete
had it no other way. He’d have said, “You go
out there and tour and do what you love,”
which is what I did, but it wasn’t always easy.
Didn’t Manson recently lose his father, as
well?
I think his dad passed six months before
mine, so he was going through it as well. It
was pretty crazy.
Were you able to incorporate effects into
Manson’s live shows?
When they asked if I wanted to do this,
and I said yes, Tyler was like, “I want you to
be comfortable — do what you want. I want
you to bring your sound.” I’m always a lit-
tle wary when anybody says, “We want you
to do what you want.” I think I learned af-
ter the first try that that isn’t necessarily the
case. So, for the first rehearsal, I brought 12
or 15 pedals, and they were like, “It doesn’t
sound right.” So, I adjusted a few things and
I’m thinking, “This sounds huge!” but they
still didn’t think it sounded right.
What adjustments did you need to make?
I looked at the bass tech and said, “Hey,
do you have all the gear that was used before
me?” And he said, “Yeah!” So, I said, “Can you
hook it up?” We took a little break, he set it up,
we came back in, I started playing, and they
were like, “Fuck, it sounds amazing!” People
always want what they’re familiar with. You
can never just come in and change shit. You
have to ease it in. And so, after a few months,
I started bringing more pedals and adding dif-
ferent sounds in between songs. But I pretty
much stuck to the script of heavily distorted
bass. The only thing I might do is chop it up
with tremolo. I use the EarthQuaker Devices
Hummingbird and just chop up my signal.
Are you playing mostly with a pick in Manson?
I recorded with my fingers [on the forth-
coming record] because that was what they
asked for, which was awesome, but when I
joined the band they were like, “You’re al-
ways going to play with a pick,” and I was
like, “Okay, cool.” But in the breakdowns, I
have to go to fingers. That way I can retain
some low end and be dynamic. With the pick,
you lose low end because hitting hard is what
clips the low end out. But when you lightenup, the bigness comes back. I think I’m com-
fortable enough in this situation to trust that
I can do what I feel is appropriate. I’m not
shredding up there. I’m not trying to stand
out. It’s a gig and I just want it to be great;
I want him [Manson] to be stoked and com-
fortable. And I’m super animated, so there’s
a lot more theatricality than me just focusing
on bass technique.
What did you adopt from the previous
bass rig?
A Mesa Boogie overdrive that they always
used. I let Mark Lubetski, the tech, run it be-
cause he’s been there longer than me. He’s a
top-notch tech; he’ll listen to the room, he’ll
listen to the stage, he knows now what I like.
It has a lot to do with EQ, as well — you have
to do your best to fight all of the obstacles
that every room gives you. I think there are
some musicians who understand these con-
cepts, some that don’t, because maybe they
live with in-ears and no amps, but we’re using
live amps. We’re not using in-ears. So, I deal a
lot with phase cancellation, the room fighting
you, bass traps — you just get all that onstage.
How and when do you figure out how to
combat those issues?
When I’m at soundcheck. I’ll walk around
to find the sweet spots, where I can hear my-
self, and then find where the trouble spots are,
so I know not to go toward that area because I’ll
get lost. If I stand in certain spots onstage, and
it’s a bass trap, I don’t hear myself, so I know
to not kick it in that spot. If there’s something
time-specific I need to hear, like drum counts
or whatever, I find a place to stand where I can
hear it. This is stuff that’s vital to survive a gig
— knowing how a room is going to come back
at you. The Great American Music Hall in San
Francisco is an awful room for bass. I’ve never
had a good show there. I played there a bunch
with the Mars Volta and Deltron, and every
time it’s like, “Uh oh, here comes a shitty gig.”
It’s just a bass trap; there’s no low-end, no res-
onance, nothing.
Tell me how you went from being a band
guy to getting gigs as a hired gun.
I learned it in Pet [’90s band with guitarist
Tyler Bates]. They called SWR looking for bass