Bela Fleck USES THE AXE FX! (11 Grammys, 27 nominations)

banjo player here (along with guitar)... Bela is awesome. I've seen him twice in concert, but not lately.
 
Another banjo player here. Bela is the Steve Vai among the banjo players. The circle remains unbroken (Vai and Vai, Lawd, Vai and Vai).
 
Telluride Sessions is an all time favorite of mine. Spectacular playing. One, if not the best, banjo players ever! Woud love to see him again.
 
That's good to hear. His bass player Victor Wooten has a great book out called the Music lesson. It explains the other elements of music besides music note theory. A must have book for any MUSICIAN.
 
I first saw Bela Fleck and the Flecktones during my first year of college. UVA didn't allow first year students to have cars, so I had to get a cab ride to and from the show. After the show while I was waiting about 2 hours for the cab, I got to meet and talk to Bela and the band, as well as Carter Buford who sat in with the band that night. They were a great bunch of friendly down to earth guys, and they are all brimming with unbelievable amounts of musical talent.
 
pharmd07 said:
I first saw Bela Fleck and the Flecktones during my first year of college. UVA didn't allow first year students to have cars, so I had to get a cab ride to and from the show. After the show while I was waiting about 2 hours for the cab, I got to meet and talk to Bela and the band, as well as Carter Buford who sat in with the band that night. They were a great bunch of friendly down to earth guys, and they are all brimming with unbelievable amounts of musical talent.
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I have seen a lot of concerts over the years. Seen pretty much all the greats in many different genres. Everyone has those few they attended where they were totally taken by surprise. The Flectones were one of those for me. There is no weak link in that band.
 
Bela is a truly great musician.

I first saw him in college when a local bar band in Bowling Green Kentucky asked him to come up and play a Zeppelin cover with them. This would have been around 82' 83'.

He played acoustic banjo mic'ed with no efx and absolutely killed it. The rest of the band was str8 up rock trio of electric guitar, bass and drums.

After that he joined up with New Grass Revival and then the Flecktones... etc. Was really cool to be able to watch him build his career over the years.

Richard
 
Yes, this was on FB when I was working with Béla. He will most definitely be prominently featured on the site after a mini relaunch later this summer.
 
I saw Victor Wooten do a solo show once with his own band. He had his brother Reggie on guitar playing a Fender Squire into a cheapo solid-state combo amp with a cheapo 1 rack unit effects processor (probably some Digitech something-er-other). They absolutely killed it. Reggie does all the same tapping and slapping crazy shit that Victor does and Victor says he taught him all those techniques.

I can't wait to see the Flecktones sometime but I always seem to miss them when they're in town. I will have to do something about that!
 
Regarding featuring Bela on the upcoming site: That is awesome.

Regarding Wooten book, The Lesson: I have it and dig it!

Regarding Wooten's playing: I've heard him live about 3 or 4 times and have, I think, all of his Cds. The solo he played on Sunday in Portland, OR was my favorite solo ever! I've been a huge Wooten fan for a long time!
(But I didn't mention Wooten since he didn't have the Axe-Fx and I didn't want this post to end up in the Lounge...so in keeping with that idea, I'll say that Wooten SHOULD have the Axe-fx. (-: )
 
sivadyert said:
Not sure how many banjo players here in the forums, but I was at a Bela Fleck concert tonight and sure enough, he was using an Axe-Fx.....!!!

I'm not sure why he's not yet on the artist page. :) 11 Grammys...... :) Woot! That was sure cool to see..... he made some pretty amazing sounds, too, of course....
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You did not say which model he was using? Was it an Ultra, standard or II??
 
webe123 said:
You did not say which model he was using? Was it an Ultra, standard or II??
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Saw the original Flecktones last nite in Ann Arbor. He used an Ultra on maybe 5 or 6 tunes, primarily the more guitarish stuff. His normal tones were through the usual Trace Elliot. He just used a pedal to switch back and forth. Easy to see which amp was running via the input led's. On one tune it seemed he used both, with the Ultra's input 2 led's popping red every once in a while. Same with the output clip led's. He definitely ran it hot - without any issues.

They said they had nine more shows to go and the world tour was over. Also said that would be it for the band. Bummer.
 
funny_polymath said:
Throw Down Your Heart (going back to the source of the Banjo, Africa) is my favorite!
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i don't love his music, but his documentary on the historical origin of the banjo is brilliant. He's a really great guy and I love him for that. Everyone should see Throw Down Your Heart.
 
haha reggie always seems to play the crappiest of gear (available to a musician his level anyway) but it goes to show it's absolutely NOT about the gear! the wootens actually spent a lot of their childhood in hawaii (waipahu to be exact) and victor said they all learned from reggie learning ukulele, guitar and piano etc and it progressed from there. he told us that at a flecktones concert here once. simply amazing players and so humbling to be in their presence and talk with them.

the flecktones live at the quick is such a good dvd!
 
He had a new controller thingy - smaller and not as african looking. Same sounds. He did play a lot more with regular acoustic drum stuff than ever before. Right hand and foot on the kit and the thingy with the left.
 
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