355: Tom Mendel on Hamilton, pedal boards, and finding joy in playing

Tom Mendel is currently playing bass for the Chicago production of Hamilton. He has performed on over 100 musical theater productions like Wicked, The Lion King, Billy Elliot, and Book of Mormon. Tom is also the President Emeritus of the Theatre Musicians Association.

We also cover the gear that Tom is using for Hamilton.

Tom uses most of the same gear that Richard Hammond is using for the New York production of Hamilton:

• Lakland Joe Osborn 5 string bass
• Lakland Hollowbody 4 string bass with flat wounds (to emulate the Hofner Beatles bass sound)
• Arturia KeyLab
• Poellmann upright bass with low C chromatic extension (low notes are required for Hamilton book)
  • Thomastik for lower strings and Pirastro Flat Chromesteels for the super strings
• Avalon U5 Direct Box for electric bass
  • GHS Super Steels
• OPUS 1000 Direct Box for acoustic bass
• DPA Microphones
• Additional upright gear:
  • Visual Sound Volume Pedal
  • Wilson Pickup
• Pedal board (used mainly for two tunes: Blow Us All Away and Washington On Your Side):
  • Pedaltrain Jr
  • Voodoo Lab Switcher
  • Aguilar Tone Hammer
  • Peterson StroboFlip
  • BOSS TU-3 Chromatic Tuner
  • BOSS CE-3 Chorus
  • MXR Octave Divider (two of them)
  • Fulltone Supa-Trem
  • Passive volume control and true bypass from Tom Erwin of Peregrine Effects

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