Hip Hop Back Beat. Darian Rundall, recordng engineer
Drummer: Dylan Falcone
Record your own audio part to the stem track and share it with us.
Send it to: music (at) bulletcable (dot) com and we will post it.

Use a Bullet Cable Instrument Cable in your recording, and we will give you a $10.00 coupon towards your next purchase.*

*(Proof of purchase, such as a photo of you playing, is required.)

Want to listen to the tone, the Instrument Cable makes? Listen here: Sound Library

Bass Player Magazine gave Mike the Bass Player Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008, and Flea was there to present it to him.

It is believed that the low key Mike Watt has been responsible for the sound that has created the Alternative Rock sound that has been developed over the years by bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam and many other “followers”. Mike is held in high esteem by many musicians who have been inspired by his sound. Being the sojourner who loves the road less traveled, but who by his unique talent and form of playing, opened the doors to the MTV world of listeners, and as a result we have all been those of who have enjoyed this genre of music that came as a result.

Core One Creative, located in Torrance, CA, is a neighbor to Mike Watt’s San Pedro stomping grounds. Ted McCann contacted him through Kevin Keller, an endorser of Bullet Cable and bassist/guitarist for bands Todd & the RankOutsiders, Jr. Juggernaut, Jeff Caudill and Motorcycle Black Madonnas. He asked Mike if he we could get a session with him so that he could try out Core X2 and Bullet Cable and give us his opinion about the cable. Mike, being one of the most accessible artists we know, said that he would be happy to give us some time and accepted our invitation to meet at Beach Cities Recording Studio owned by another Core X2/Bullet Cable endorser, Darian Rundall (formerly of Stall No. 2).

Darian was kind enough to host the session and we will introduce those recordings at a later date.

What followed during the session was completely outside the expectations of Core One Creative. For the purpose of warming Mike up to the cables we have created, we brought in some of the cables sitting in the studio: Monster and Live Wire (a generic cable that is a Guitar Center house brand). Ted explained how we specifically voiced each of our cables and we gave Mike the 20′ Silver Bullet, Bullet Coil, and Core X2 Bass Cable to play with. A comment that Mike made was that in all of the years that he has played (including the fact that he is about to go on the road on his 63rd tour) he had never really paid attention to cables. When he started to play with ours he was literally blown away that there was a very distinct difference.

His favorite seemed to be the Silver Bullet and the Coil. He was impressed with the Core X2 Bass cable (which was sampled against Monster which he found “wacky”, and Live Wire, which he thought sounded better than Monster with a more balanced vibe). He thought the Bass Cable had a good presence and a “nasal” thing that he said was needed to be strong when you kick in the bass with the performance since the low sound should aide the band and not get lost like what he said usually happens when the bass is not set up right.

Ted and Mike talked for over an hour and a half. The session really turned into one Master’s thought on tone and playing and performance and all the good stuff we want to know about to be better musicians.

When we were all talked out, and Mike was done testing, we asked him, “So are you a Bullet Cable fan?” Mike said that he is and even said he is going to tell his friends. “You know I know some people…”

At the very end we thanked Mike and he gave a bow to Ted. “I give you much respect Ted. I am really blown away.” Ted gave a bow back. Mike is a hero in Ted’s mind and was equally thankful for the experience.

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To see raw video of some of the moments of the day, read more in the Daily Rant.

The Set-Up: 1:30 PM

This is a test. Today we are at Beach Cities Recording, hosted by owner/producer/engineer Darian Rundall awaiting the legendary bass player, Mike Watt. Let’s see if we can keep a live stream of this event. Please visit throughout the day and we will update videos, pictures and anything else that we can get up as fast as possible.

Classic reason why Mike is the King:

You can follow Mike Watt on his twitter: wattfrompedro

Okay so here are the players at this moment:
Darian Rundall (follow him on twitter: darianrundall), will be recording the session for our sound library. Darian, formally of Stall No. 2 has recorded Pennywise, Dokken, Remy Kobocka (Rolling Stones, Paul Simon), Jimmy Z and others in this studio. Vibe is cool. Torrance Airport is in walking distance (for all the producers who still have their own private planes), and we are looking forward to the most awesome podcast recordings with all the quality gear that is in this place.

Chris Aguilar – shooting our main film for our sound library, Soul Surf Media Productions (follow him on twitter: soulsurfmedia). We have known Chris for a few years. Ted and Chris belong to a posse of surfers here in the South bay called the “Las Pistolas”. I think his name is the Skipper, but I am not included in the gang so I don’t know why.

Kevin Keller, guitarist and bass player who just came home on tour with Todd & the Rankoutsiders and is mitigating his jet lag so that he can be here to introduce us to Mike (he is the one that set us up with Mr. Watt). You can catch him on his myspace: gatesofkevin or catch pattodd on their myspace.

Ted McCann – our Pres and designer of all the cool cables we are using today started setting us about an hour ago. He is really excited about this session. “When I was a kid I used to write The Minutemen all over my notebooks. I am meeting a legend and this is pretty awesome.”

You can follow Ted McCann on his twitter: ted_mccann

Mike Watt in the Studio: 2:30 PM

Mike is in the studio setting up:

The sound quality is not going to come through with these videos. I shot with a hand-held Flip Video Camera, so sorry about the flatness of tone. We will be releasing recordings soon and you can hear the actual differences.
(Join our mailing list so you get the update through C1C Store by signing up for your log-in pass.)

Sample Test with some Studio Standards: 2:45 PM

We tested a few cables, Monster, Guitar Center’s bargain cable and house brand, Live Wire before putting the Core X2 Bass cable on the chopping block.
“The Guitar Center cable sounds better than Monster….”

Mike was blown away that there was a difference in sound achieved by cable alone. After he tried the fat Bass Cable (a favorite) he said, “It is obvious that your engineer knows what he’s doing.”

Next he tried the Silver Bullet. This had a sound that Mike really liked. Finally Mike tested the Bullet Coil Cable.

Final Impressions: 4:00 PM

Okay, so this is where I messed up as the designated flip-video-instant-view camera girl, but Mike was really blown away. I am grateful that Chris was shooting, because Mike gave us a wonderful endorsement and we will have to wait until that is out of production to see it.

We asked Mike, did you make you a Bullet Cable fan?” and he answered that we did. He then took a moment to relax and think. “I know a few people.”:

Great day. Thanks everyone for sharing with us.
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Read the Feature Story for more about the day and about Mike Watt