"Mad Al" Lowe - Bass guitar & backing vocals

Al started playing bass guitar when he was 16 years old purely because a heavy metal band in school needed one. Al played in a university band, Jester, which was fairly successful and played gigs in the National Centre for Popular Music (RIP) in Sheffield, as well as the Leadmill, and supported Right Said Fred and Ultra Nate on one memorable night. Al had a break for a few years before joining DSTM ... and the rest is history.

Gear

• Fender Jazz Bass "Al Lowe" custom edition, nicknamed "my new bass"
• Bass Collection Bass, nicknamed "my old bass"
• Ibanez Roadster Fretless bass (circa 1979), named "my fretless bass"
• Trace Elliot 1218 500W 2x10" combo amp, nicknamed "the heaviest amp I have ever seen"
• Trace Elliot 1518 500W 1x15" cab to go with that mother of a combo, to add up to a stompin mad 500W 2x10 1x15 massive stack ho! Hold on to your hat cos it's gonna go flyin!
• A plectrum. Nicknamed "John's plectrum"

 
The Fender Jazz Bass "Al Lowe" custom edition started off in life as a Fender Jazz Bass "Marcus Miller" special edition. Not happy with the sound, Al changed the crappy Fender strings to Rotosound ones which helped a bit. Al then flogged the old pickups and put in some Bartolini ones, which helped some more. Then, Al went a bit mad and ripped out the electronics and put in the ones from the Bass Collection bass, which made it sound pretty good, but just note quite good enough. Finally, Al took out those electronics and put in a Sadowski bass preamp which finally made the bass sound perfect. He hasn't put the Bass Collection electronics back in the Bass Collection, as they're lying round on a desk somewhere, so that bass is currently out of action!