Admit it, you wanted a bass that could do this at some point. The video below shows you how it’s done.
The traditional way of getting an instrument to smoke (mostly) safely is by use of pellets or “smoke balls” (search Amazon for those, you’ll find them easily.)
However, the way this is done is much more advanced.
You will cringe when you see this bass guitar drilled, banged and sawed into. However, it’s usually required to completely wreck a guitar’s chance of having any good sound to it when built just for visual stage effect. In fact, when you see what’s done to the neck, the bass is made almost unplayable just to get the visual look right for the smoke.
To any luthiers or woodworkers who watch this, apologies in advance. You’ve been warned. 🙂
The (de)construction of the bass:
The bass fully assembled and in action:
This guy is crazy, but he makes cool things we all wish we had thought of…
I’ll go along with the first part… 😉
Crazy? Only if it didn’t work. i.e. 1-3 degree burns/vanishing appendage(s), if it can be agreed on as an acceptable unilateral standard to define “Not According To Plan”. Plus, as gigging, by nature, places one under various fuels of ceiling generally not paid for by “Guitarsonist”. Lol. I just about piddled thinkin that one up. All bs aside, (avert your attention, pure of heart) I’ve thrown down bad gigs, and incredible ones. Ya’ll have too, no doubt. I used to sport a Trace Elliot model “it wuz20 yearz ago I don’t know” but it had an impressive power up; fans, less than a thump, but certainly a bassists version of “yeeeah, ready to lay waste to ALLL fer ya, my master” Genie greeting. But the black light/ B.L. reactive detailing… To the point. Got. Me. All. Manner. Post-waste-laying company. 2 seperate chicks in different years asked me to move it in to the bedroom. Not even stretching it, though perhaps let fly my frequently, harmlessly meant, innappropes slipperybomb. I assume,maybe wrongly, bassists + passion =bass tech + passion. Meaning, if you’re mostly techs, I figure you jam.
Never been one to risk perfection of function with paint or sanding but…flames + – smoke = Crowd Energy. May not be why we do it, but it could sub nicely. Crowd diggin it means you diggin it exceeding physical limits of every day diggin. Real magic can occur with that mix. Killin your sound for a prop? Ya, maybe hit Hastings up for a fifty buck gun-tar to send to hell. For us, the guys who became us through childhood discovery of that dust covered ____ someone packed away/didn’t weaponize.
Chicks dig rockin gigs, too. But flames. Ya. Gotta cede it to fire. And lets not discuss (please, I am lesser now for 3 seconds speculation) how many classics, hall of fame filler, and rock-this-was-built-upon creations were made ONLY for that one clear path that so often seems worthy of dedication,regardless of proof. Chicks dig it.
I’ll offset my anti-social tonnage de la word byuently doing so.
3 Serious bands, 2 produced albums, dfecades of rockin best as I can every time, and as much sense as balance strings make, I’ve never heard the term before this evening. I hang with some know-it-all Leads too. The worst kind. The ones that actually know what they double-palm in my face fortnightly, so ya can’t call em on it. Oh, they’ll have heard of em, “what you didn’t?” Even if they didn’t hear about em before I said it. Jesus that boy can SSSHHHRRREEDD the oh my God that’s tasty riffs though, plus runs a Marsh, which outblasts any potential vocality movement that would normally require increasing distance to survive. Lol. Joke is, I don’t talk much.
Rock on Brethren, however you do.
Ka Blooie aside, those two videos are the best thing that BestBassGear has ever featured. Just hilarious. What, you wouldn’t screw the tone on one song just to be able to shoot fire and smoke? Do you think anyone would notice? Do you think anyone would care? I’d be surprised if AC/DC hasn’t ordered theirs yet.
Or Rammstein…….
He’s a great show man for sure. Seems like there is no job he cannot do. He lived in my road!