Peter Steele the green man the
incredible sulk and Playgirl pinup has
serenaded women and men alike it wasn't
just Peters baritone voice that gave
Type O Negative fans goosebumps but also
the thick waves of audio fur that
lingered in the darkness we're gonna
take a look at the bases his amplifiers
and his effects pedals
born in Brooklyn in 1962 and officially
named Peter Ratajczyk grew up in a
household of five sisters whilst he
didn't come from a musical family per se
there was a great love of music within
the retinue household each sister had
their own record player and shared their
musical love with Peter instill in their
own influences a big band swing show
tunes pop and classical apparently he
was able to operate the record player at
age two and was regularly caught
listening to Elvis when asked what he
was doing Pete would reply "I'm playing
wekkids" making music with the neighbors
was a fun way to let off steam youngest
daughter Cathy stated and Jeff Wagner
sold on fire
we were not trained musicians but
everyone could play something even the
young Peter would join in playing a
comb sister Patricia admits it was she
who taught Peter to listen out for the
bass whilst teaching him how to dance
Peter then took a liking to rock music
listening to the Beatles the Rolling
Stones and cream in 1972 a new young
family joined the neighborhood over on
18th Street and this is where Peter
met Josh Silver the pair quickly became
friends enjoying the same musical tastes
and dark sense of humor both took
acoustic guitar lessons together before
moving on to the electric guitar taking
great pleasure in their newfound
instruments and regularly played tunes
by Black Sabbath in a local music group
Peter dabbled in an upright bass at
school before moving on to the bass
guitar at age 13 taking influence from
Geezer Butler Paul McCartney and Roger
Glover the main reason Peter chose bass
was that he learned he was going to be
kicked out of his music group once they
found a bass player I was in a band with
Josh I was a temporary rhythm guitarist
they were looking for a bass player and
as soon as they found one they were
going to kick me out so I ran out to the store
I was playing left handed at the time
and traded my guitar for a bass the
asshole at the store would not trade me
for the left-handed bass because it was
more expensive than the right he said
take the right handed bass and you'll
learn to play it I did but that's the
only thing I do right-handed it's not
been said specifically which bass Peter
bought at first however
in one of his earliest performances we
see him perform of a still necked Kramer
DMZ 4000 from here on out Peter would
continue to play with Josh who now
played the keyboards Jeff Wagner
describes Peter as having a creative
restlessness with his bands taking on
many names over the years such as
aggression Hot Ice Northern Lights
before resting on the name fallout the
band became very popular in the local
area cutting their teeth and playing any
and every gig that arose and recorded a
couple of tracks after a few years
creative differences emerged in the
bands and fallout fell out splitting
into two camps
John campus and Josh silver went on to
form original sin whilst Peter and Paul
Beto created carnivore. carnivores first
public performance was on a sixth of
June 1983 with footage from this period
showing Peter using an Alembic spoiler
this bass was used throughout the two
carnival albums and into a new band name
to repulsion in an act of dedication the
whole band tattooed a circle with a
minus sign on their upper arms inspired
by their demo tape none more negative as
it happens it turns out there was
another band with the name repulsion as
you see this uh tattoo here on my arm
when we first formed the band we chose
the name repulsion but on beknownst us
there was a band I think from England
called repulsion who contacted us and
said you know we have the name someone
should go find something else okay fine
so I was trying to think of something a
bit original and it's something cold and
dark that had to do with the mood of the
band and subzero occurred to me so hence
the symbol I came up with the O with the
negative and there's minus zero but once
again someone beat us to it in a where
from Queen from Brooklyn and there was a
band from Queens which is only like five
miles away coal sub-zero and they and
they had rights to the name finally Pete
seldom type o-negative it was on the 3rd
of May 1991 where Type O Negative made
their first public performance following
the whole naming debacle
Peter recalled so after getting the
stupid thing tattooed on ourselves
it was up to me to think of a name - you
know compensate for the logo so I don't
normally listen to the radio but there
was a request for type o-negative blood
by the Red Cross and so I was like well
that's it type o-negative
you know own negative a match the tattoo
and sounded like no one else could
possibly have rights to it Peter will
perform the recording duties with his
Alembic spoiler right up until 1995
recording slow deep and hard origin of
feces and bloody kisses during the tours
however a Thunderbird 3 emerges in 1991
and the natural finished jazz in 1994 in
a brief reunion of Carnivore a fretless
bc rich warlock with a reverse
headstock also made an appearance at
this time the band's first music video
black number 1 premiered in 1993 and
shows Peter using an upright bass of
course he played the damn thing
horizontally following this came the
video for Christian woman there are two
versions of this video a full-length
version and a radio edit tailored for MTV
it features less provocative lyrics and
essentially a reshoot in both versions
however Peter plays the Thunderbirds
scene in 1991 but this time has been
absolutely plundered with the bottom
horn sheared clean off and a gaping hole
in the body producer Richard Remini goes
on to say that Peter enjoyed designing
and modifying his bases
I remember him cutting big holes in his
bass and painting it himself he added
chains and such he was always playing
around with gear like that by 1995 the
band was still touring bloody kisses and
live videos from this era now showpiece
using an ESH stinger one painted all
black with green fret inlays in hardware
the pickup in the bridge was a single coil in the
bridge as well as a piezo pickup under
each string in the bridge wait a minute
wait a minute
Piezo? Pieyayzo? Pietzo? Pietzo! I'm just gonna call it the P word
the choice of P word pickups I can't do it the
choice of piezo pickups is an
interesting one instead of picking up
fluctuating magnetic fields like your
regular pickups piezos instead pick up
on the resonance of your bass and string
vibrations turning that into an
electrical current the end result could
mildly be compared to an electro acoustic guitar.  on a bass however their
application adds a bit more Airy clarity
and string articulation in Peters case
his tone was pumped through a bunch of
effects pedals which highly pronounced
his top-end more on effects later in a
video from a French TV show you can just
make out a natural finish singer in the
background after the release of October
rust in 1996 the Alembic spoiler made a
brief return on thought with a new lick
of paint and missing a neck pick up 
notably seen in the music videos for
love you  to death my girlfriend's
girlfriend and cinnamon girl the ESH
stinger was also filmed at this time on
an MTV UK special returning  as Peters main
bass for our 1997 tour videos ESH
re-released this model in 2009 in Peters
colors are fitted it with a music man
pickup world coming down debuted in
September 1999 which was promoted with
the music video for everything dies and
a tour soon followed we now see Pete
using a Frankenstein bass it's been
dubbed by some as the steel bass
wielding the body in the bridge play of
a Rickenbacker with a headstock
sustainer system and accompanying
controls from Fernandez basses the
pickups on this space had - soap bars
installed at first glance it looks like
your typical EMG 35 and a thunderbird
pickup in the neck taking a closer look
at the neck pickup however it's
strangely wider than the bridge since
the base has fernanda's toggle switches
on the body the neck pickup is quite
likely a fernandes bass sustainer
third-hand information from typo message
boards speculate that the bass had a
prototype sustaining unit which was not
available to the general public
a user from one of these boards claims
to have written Fernandes who stayed has now
been discontinued Fernandes sustainers is a famously known for sitting in the neck
cavity on guitars just like Kenny's that
helps sustain a note indefinitely
these sustainers work like a pickup but
in Reverse powered by a battery they
emit a magnetic field which causes the
strings to vibrate as there's nothing
remotely like this
based in the fernandez catalogs at this
time it's likely that pick up contains a
custom Fernandes sustainer you'll find
this bass used on tour in 1999 and famously seen in the symphony for the devil
DVD the band made an appearance on the
Howard Stern Show in 2000 in this
performance Pete uses a green Fernandez
tremor it returns again on tour in 2003
and just like the steel bass it too has
a custom sustainer in the neck pickup
cavity it would look like Peter was
endorsed by Fernandez at this point as
he appears in their catalogues between
the years 2000 and 2002 released in June
2003 life is killing me was accompanied
with a music video called I dont want to be me
the Alembic returns for a third time
again with the neck pickup removed and
taped over there's also a picture which
probably dates prior to this video
showing the bass with a pickup removed
and a pack of rotosound on the body
joining the ranks on the life is killing
me tour  is a Washburn m10 bass there
isn't a whole lot of information about
the origins of this bass so I reached
out to Washburn who told me that they
were made in a very limited supply
between 2001 and 2003 they unfortunately
it didn't have any more information than
that Peters was fitted with just one
music man pickup and no sustainer this
time it has a kill switch and one volume
control Peter use this space right up
until his final performances in 2010 a
red version was seemed a carnivore in
2006 and on occasion in type o shows in
one of the final interviews of Peter
still in 2010 he's seen nursing and
gutted Rickenbacker 4003 the last bass
I want to talk about is this one
it's believed to be a picture from the
Hard Rock Cafe in New York and displays
an Alembic epic can you see what's wrong
with this picture
go and have a look well it's left-handed
for one a Peter has never used an
Alembic epic I have no idea what's going
on here but that doesn't look like
Peters bass. with that said it does look
like one of Peter Steele's
m10 bases is on display at Duff's bar in
Brooklyn
Pete was a regular at a bar and their
yearly hold tributes in his name
pictures from the days of  fallout show
Peter using a hundred watt acoustic
combo with a 15 inch speaker it was
given to him by a family friend in the
wake of fallout Peters amplifiers were
pretty straightforward first documented
in 1986 Peter were primarily used
between two or four behemoths PB 36 20s
fitted with 2 18 inch JBL speakers and
two 10-inch speakers these cabinets
would be his core equipment and he would
always go back to them a lot of
experimenting took place in his early
years whilst Peter was still on the hunt
for his sound during this period Peter
would also use some early Peavey
eight-by-tens
these would also be powered by different
Peavey heads early performances were
featured at max bass head by the debut
of typo these amps finally settled down
to Peavey 36 20s and Mark four bass heads
these cabs would almost certainly been used in the US domestic shows right up until
the year 2000 eventually each cab was
fitted with a pair of piezo speaker
horns to the similar effect that of his ESH stinger one explained earlier and
accentuating his top end Peter explains
that I added some piezos in there
because I used to distortion  and chorus
and delay and I liked that sizzle sound
like when you suck all the mid out and
its bottom and sizzle on top something of note
also occurred at the 1994
carnivore reunion where it appears appear
is using just one mark four head being
sent to front of house there are no bass
cabs on stage everything here is a
guitar cab
1995 was a busy year for the band with
many tour dates across Europe during
this period you're likely to see many
variations in its amplifiers which can
only be attributed as loaner gear as
festivals in the Netherlands and Germany
you will find three Ampeg eight-by-tens
and on a French TV show appears four hartke
for by tens this picture here is
believed to be taken on a Danzig tour of
1995 so pretty much every show his rack
equipment with sit directly to his right
a possible reason for this comes from an
interview of the magazine livewire in
1996 Pete says we have these wedges that
we keep right in front of us because we
like to use feedback extensively because
it covers all of our playing errors we
have this low wattage power apps that
are 200 watts each that way we can
adjust the feedback when we're are
hundred yards away from our amplifiers
and when we're on these giant stages we
don't have to yell at a monitor man
trying to get the sound we want you can
see the furman power supply 2 peavey bassist
preamps and four mosvalve 800 hundreds
with one as a backup the gear on the right
belongs to Kenny as he mentioned in an
interview he used the ADA preamp the
Mosvalves were replaced by 1996 with
the addition of three Peavey CS12 power amps
in a 1996 interview of live where a
couple of months before the release of
October rust he mentions he was used in
the 36 20s as well as four 4 by 12
tops to bring in mid-range feedback
frequencies I've seen no evidence of
this on the tour and can only presume
this was used in studio from the year
2000 onwards things would change nearly
every year firstly those classic 36 20s
were updated with three Peavey 8 by 10 T VX's with the speaker frame being painted
Peters trademark green Pantone 369 if
you're interested these caps come with
one tweeter horn as stuck some Mesa Boogie eight-by-tens
were seen in 2003 and again likely a
loner in 2006 Peter played with carnivore
at the Wacken open air festival he
appears with four and Ampeg eight-by-ten
classics and two 410 PR  powered by Peavey pro bass 500 while there
some appearances of typos using the
Ampegs that were last long
the final incarnation of Peters rig appears in 2007 in promotion of the
dead again album with an array of Peavey
equipment that March Peter was playing
through three Peaveyeight-by-tens
each fitted with an additional two piezo
horns in his rack were up to three Peavey
Max tour heads and after 5 pv DPC 1400 X's
by the summer the band were back in Europe and it's here you're likely to see more
loaner gear the usual three Ampeg
eight-by-tens returned alongside the Peavey
eight-by-tens
Peavey tour 700 heads were also seen that
summer powering some new Peavey vb8 it's also worth noting a Peter was listed as
a Peavey artost in 2007 although they list the gear he uses as T V X 4x10s and
one by 15 neither of which have I seen
in my research one of the last
performances hints at a change to Peters 
powe ramps you can just make out the blue
light coming from this rig and if I had
to guess they look like an early Peavey
IPR Peteris well known for having a
sparkly droney type of sound
thankfully it's quite easy to replicate
as Pete says in his own words it's not a
complicated setup because I am a
simpleton
I just need simple stuff plug in let's
go earliest evidence for which effects
Pele was using was in 1994 this here is
a Aria ape 2 and when you look at it
it has Peters name written all over it
distortion chorus delay is his dream
pedal all in one unit around 1995 his
pedals were replaced with boss pedals a
tu tuna a ds1 a ch1 super chorus aptly
named Horace and a boss delay I use boss
boxes which are made up of sheet metal
even if some drunken 600-pound slob
charges me on stage all is gonna do is
turn the pedal off I tried using those
other pedals and stuff but I'm 6 foot 6
and I wear size 15 boots and with the
fog machine on stage I can't see what
the hell I'm doing in addition to this
Pete mentions he used on
volume pedal brand unknown around 1996
the boss pedal stayed with him right up
into his final performances you can just
make out some hot glue injected under the
dials here holding the settings in place
during my research for this video
I can points only one article where
Peter talks about his gear and quite
frankly it leaves me wanting I've
encountered a few people suggest that
Peter used an ABY splitter box
supposedly separating a clean feed with
a tremolo alongside the effects feed and
then recombining them this is
only third-hand information and I
haven't been able to verify this myself
I do however think he used an a/b rig
this will be easier to accomplish than
splitting different feeds considering he
usually had three eight-by-tens
you could speculate he had a dry cab a
wet cap and a mixed cap finally we move
on to strings again for a man with such
notoriety there is hardly anything said
about his equipment unless you want to
include that Playgirl publication which
I'm not he does however explain the way
he chooses his bass it was a result of
listening to Black Sabbath's master of
reality that was the first album that
you could obviously hear that something
was going on with the tuning after
hearing that when we form carnivore we
tuned down a minor third and when I
formed Type O Negative we took it one
whole step further so now I tune my bass
BEAD it plays havoc on the
instruments it has nothing to do in my
vocal range it has more to do with
sounding heavier and more drone like
this copypasta segment has been circling
around type and message boards for years
it's believed to be from Pete's based
tech and mentions Pete using Dean Markley without seeing the original article is
difficult to verify but there's usually
a kernel of truth in there somewhere one
set we can say he is for sure was rotosound which was strangely taped to this
bass at one point then around 2007 he
moved on to dr black beauties as
illustrated by his black strings here if
you've watched any of my other videos
you know what I'm gonna say next don't
you ready all together badass two
bridges I think every bass player I've
covered on my channel
has used him at some point or another
Peters m10 was fitted with a badass 2
bridge all of the other bases remain
stock apart from the steel base which
had that Rickenbacker tail piece coming
up in the next episode I need your help
can you guys give me some suggestions
for who you'd like to see on this
channel
next I'm thinking a Rex Brown but I'd
love to hear what you think leave me
some comments down below if you enjoyed
this video give it a thumbs up and if
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subscribe and click the bell icon down
below so you won't miss out on the next
video take a look at the show notes
where you'll find a list of all the gear
mentioned today and every other bass
player I've covered on my channel thank
you very much for watching and I'll see
you next time
