This article series is about the tools of popular guitarists or bassists.. What are their favorite guitars or basses and how is it related to them? This time with Mila Merker (CoreLeoni)
Pic:Alexandre Zweiger
When you start bass playing and do you remember your first bass?
I started playing bass at the age of 13, that means a looooooooong time ago in a galaxy far, far away…. Ah ah ah …..Of course I remember my first bass, for two different reasons: first because it was an Aria Pro II, the same bass used by Cliff Burton (after the Rickenbacker he used before), at that time Cliff was my role model, my main “influencer”, he was still alive…. The second important reason that I still remember my first bass after so long time it’s because it was a gift from my father and my grandfather, they put the money together to buy my this marvelous instrument. I don’t know if I really earned it… this is the story: I was studying piano since 8 years already, but at the age of 12 I just wanted to play bass like Gene Simmons, so I stopped rehearsing the piano for at least one year, so long that my parents understood that there was no chance that I continue playing the piano. It was a small revolution that I won and every day of my life I am grateful to my parents for supporting me this way – later my mother bought me a combo amp and paid my bass lessons, two hours every 15 days for 4 months! My bass teacher (may he Rest In Peace) was getting crazy with me because he wanted me to learn jazz scales and I was bringing him vinyls of Kiss, Wasp, Metallica, Anthrax which he hated but also Thin Lizzy, AC-DC and Whitesnake which he liked quite a lot. Anyway, after I was feeling comfortable enough to play “Victims of Changes” of Judas Priest, I told him I wanted to stop learning theory and go out on stages and conquer the world…. He told me: „Go with God, son, but go…. “ Ah ah ah ah….
What are your influences and which bass players are your favs?
I already named some, but I think I have two big favorite bass players who inspired me more than others. The first one is Steve Harris because he taught me that a bass player can also be a band leader. I remember at the beginning my godfather wanted to convince me not to play bass because “ the bass player is not a real musician, he always stays in the back and doesn’t really play chords, to play in another key he just has to move his hand a little bit up or down… “ so I show him some pictures from a music magazine and told him : “Look, this is Lemmy, like him or not! And this is Sid Vicious, this is Steve Harris, this is Phil Lynnot… they never stay in the back” He was speechless because he saw the passion in my eyes. Or maybe because he thought that I was a lost case…. Ah ah ah ah … My second favorite bass player is Geezer Butler, because I learned a lot playing his licks in the early Black Sabbath songs, probably I was playing them quite badly but he was a big influence to me anyway… I remember that I was going crazy because, as soon as I didn’t understand a bass line, I had to keep lifting the needle off the record a thousand times and go back a bit to hear what the hell it was playing, while I was trying to play the same thing … which, I must say, I never managed to do like him
How many basses do you own and what are your favorite models?
I own very few because I alway sold the old bass when I bought a new one…
After writing this sentence, I realize that most musicians, especially guitar and bass players, will put a bounty on my head.. ah ah ah … I owned and sold or gave to friends some precious things like a pre-CBS Fender Precision 1963, another Fender P bass beauty from 1973 among others. Also I had, believe it or not, a red flying V bass form Aria Pro, the first model of an Aria Pro Integra, two Tune Bass Maniac, one was fretless, a 1980 acoustic ECO bass from Italy, a Rickenbacker but for only one month because I didn’t liked it, an 8 strings bass that only lasted 2 months, and so on and on …. I think this is the same story for each bass / guitar freak…. Anyway, as I said, I try to own only the basses I really use. Now with Coreleoni I used a very nice candy apple red Fender P bass with some modifications I did, like the Seymour Duncan quarter pound pickup, the hip-shot D-tuner, the high mass Badass bridge and others. It is called RED ONE like in the first Star Wars movie. His little brother, exactly the same model with the same modifications was called, guess how?… Red Two, yes! And the I had a third one, exactly the same also who was called… guess how? Red Three? No, it was called AA… These last two are owned now by two happy fellow bass players. This is my consolation: I know an instrument like this will never die, it only changes its owner, like this it will always be played and get better and better. At the present time, I am using a very particular bass: it is an OLP bass, it’s a cheap (very cheap) Chinese version of the Stingray Musicman, licensed by Ernie Ball of course, but taken away from production some years ago, I guess because it was too good to be true…. I made a lot of modifications, that goes without saying . It’s a very versatile bass, very precise and owns a vintage sound that I really like. I record the Coreleoni III album with it. I have two models, the first one is called Blackie (guess the color?) and the second one is silver sparkle, I called him Elvis 🙂 Everyone knows that Blackie Lawless was playing bass in the beginning of Wasp, but not many know that Elvis played the bass too…. In the future you will see me with another red beauty bass, but this is a surprise I cannot reveal now.
Pic: Luc Braissant
What do you think makes the perfect bass and amp?
The perfect gear is the one you use. If it’s not, than change it. I am more than happy with my gear now, I tell you what I’m using: 2 Ampeg amps SVT 4 Pro and 2 Ampeg cabinets 8×10, the two cabinets are set right and left of the drum riser and both amps are always working, so I can have two different volumes right and left stage (I don’t need monitors and I don’t use in-ears systems). I also use an Ampeg SCR pedal for distortion. On my basses I put only GHS strings and I torture them with Dunlop picks. Of course Sennheiser radio system and Peterson tuner are part of my gear. It couldn’t work without them.
When you only can choose one bass, which one will you take?
The one that is coming. When you’ll see it, you will say: Yes!…..
Pic: Poul Martin Nielsen
