Michael League

"I play a 1976 Fender Precision bass with a maple neck that I acquired in a drum shop in Greenville, South Carolina for $700. I talked him down from $900 because they obviously had no idea what they had. It was in bad shape so I did had to fix it up a bit. I guess it was owned by some guy who played at his church in the mountains every Sunday. But he just played acoustic bass, so the electric just sat in his closet for twenty years or something. So that’s kind of like my baby. I use D’Addario Chrome Flatwounds on that," says Michael League, in this interview.

minute 5:00

Rig Rundown - Snarky Puppy

Premier Guitar Published on Mar 6, 2018 Article & photos: http://bit.ly/SnarkyPuppyRR

Composer/producer/bassist Michael League and guitarist Mark Lettieri of Grammy-winning jazz-fusion group met PG before their slamming, sold-out show at Nashville’s Marathon Music Works and took us through their hard-grooving gear.

Michael League has a cache of vintage and modern basses at home, but for touring, he gets it done with his stock 1959 Fender Precision. League strings the P with Dunlop Medium Flatwound strings.

"These are the most badass basses I've ever played in a studio context. Super warm, cut like a motherf*cker, and are a real joy to play." - Michael League

1952 Fender Precision Bass Butterscotch: FORQ - Lymaks

Strings D’Addario ECB81M Chromes (.045–.100); EXL 165-5 Nickel Wound (.045–.135)

"Michael League has a cache of vintage and modern basses at home, but for touring, he gets it done with his stock 1959 Fender Precision. League strings the P with Dunlop Medium Flatwound strings." - Premier Guitar

"I play Markbass amplifiers and cabinets. My normal stage rig is a Randy Jackson 500 all-tube head..." says Michael League, in this interview.

Recording: “An A-Designs REDDI or Avalon DI and a miked Ampeg B-15 or Markbass Minimark 802”

League uses a Hammertone Deluxe. He is listed among the artists on the official product page.

HAMMERTONE ARTISTS:

Michael League (Snarky Puppy), Mark Lettieri (Snarky Puppy), Nir Felder, Becca Stevens, Charles Spearin (Broken Social Scene, Do Make Say Think, Feist), Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene), Michel Cusson (UZEB), Bob Egan (Blue Rodeo, Wilco), Bob Mothersbaugh (Devo), Ed Robertson (Barenaked Ladies), Ian Thornley (Big Wreck), Shaun Verrault (Wide Mouth Mason), & Mike Turner (Our Lady Peace)

League's Hammertone was also used for a demo of Supro's Thunderbolt amp and by David Crosby in the studio (in this February 17, 2016 Facebook post by F Bass).

A Still (pun most certainly intended) of Mr. Crosby on our Hammertone Deluxe

(...) Handmade Bass Guitars Haha don't worry you didn't miss out on a chance to hang with Crosby, this was in the studio with Snarky Puppy.

"For more vintage gear, I have a 1967 Hofner 500/1 Beatle Violin Bass strung with D’Addario Tapewounds. I love that bass," says Michael League in this interview.

"Pedal-wise, I endorse and I have a Pigtronix Envelope Phaser, a Philosopher Bass Compressor, a Quantum Time Modulator and their Fat Drive," says Michael League, in this interview, for No Treble.

"For solos, I often use the Electro-Harmonix POG, either the Micro POG or the POG2," says Michael League, in this interview, with No Treble.

1st bass was a Warwick Thumb Fretless

Minute 2:10

Rig Rundown - Snarky Puppy Premier Guitar Published on Mar 6, 2018 Article & photos: http://bit.ly/SnarkyPuppyRR

Composer/producer/bassist Michael League and guitarist Mark Lettieri of Grammy-winning jazz-fusion group met PG before their slamming, sold-out show at Nashville’s Marathon Music Works and took us through their hard-grooving gear.

Michael League has a cache of vintage and modern basses at home, but for touring, he gets it done with his stock 1959 Fender Precision. League strings the P with Dunlop Medium Flatwound strings.

Mark Lettieri’s main guitar is a Don Grosh NOS Retro model that features a swamp ash body, maple neck, Grosh ‘60s Fat single-coils and a Small Block 327 humbucker. The Grosh is strung with Dunlop nickel-wound strings (.0095–.044) and plucked with heavy Dunlop celluloid picks.

Strings D’Addario ECB81M Chromes (.045–.100); EXL 165-5 Nickel Wound (.045–.135)

"I have a ’78 Fender Mustang with a maple neck," Michael League says, in this interview.

"I play Markbass amplifiers and cabinets. My normal stage rig is a Randy Jackson 500 all-tube head on top of a 4×10 and a 4×8 cabinet, which is a really unconventional thing but I love it. For a vintage bass you can get all the booty and bump of the bass from the four 10’s but you get that real midrange clarity with the four 8’s, which I love," says Michael League in this interview.

"Pedal-wise, I endorse and I have a Pigtronix Envelope Phaser..." Michael League says, in this interview, for No Treble.

"I love MXR’s Carbon Copy Delay, plus their Phase 90, Bass Octave Deluxe, Bass Envelope, and one of my favorite delays that Way Huge makes called the Aqua Puss," says Michael League, in this interview with No Treble.

Pedal-wise, I endorse and I have a Pigtronix Envelope Phaser, a Philosopher Bass Compressor, a Quantum Time Modulator and their Fat Drive," says Michael League, in this interview with No Treble.

He explains the use of the Boss OC_3 Super Octave Pedal at 3:03

Pedalboard at 0:21

"I have some really cool guitars, too, like a ’65 Fender Mustang and a Fender Strat."

Michael League has been using this on recent tours over his TTE 500, most likely due to it's smaller size and therefore easier transportation. Can be seen on most recent live videos - but can see it in high quality during the performance they filmed for Dunlop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE9I6NrE2S0 (there's a pan shot at 3:20 where you can see it)

The item can be seen in this video.

"Adding the envelope filter to it, it kind of gets more, like, electronic"

At about 5:37 in the video the fuzz master general is shown next to his moog mf drive.

Michael is seen playing this bass by Bacci in this video with Marcus Miller.

Used for the upright bass on David Crosby's Lighthouse, as stated by mix engineer Fab Dupont in this December 2016 Sound on Sound interview. League can be seen recording with the mic here.

Electric and upright basses were tracked quickly, one-take style, by Michael. It went so fast that I am not 100 percent sure what gear we used. I’m pretty sure the electric bass went through the Apollo Twin rig into an Ampeg amp that was lying there. For the upright, I can tell from pictures that I used my usual two-microphone system, with a large-diaphragm cardioid condenser in front of the beast and a small-diaphragm omni shoved in the bridge. In this case I used one of their ELA M251s and an AKG C451, but I vaguely remember they only had a cardioid head. I also remember that, for fun, I added a Coles ribbon next to the 251. I ended up using a blend of all three during the mix.

"I also play a Moog Sub Phatty for keyboard bass stuff," says Michael League, in this interview, for No Treble.

"Pedal-wise, I endorse and I have a Pigtronix Envelope Phaser, a Philosopher Bass Compressor, a Quantum Time Modulator and their Fat Drive," Michael League says, in this interview, for No Treble.