Christopher Wolstenholme - Musical Equipment

Musical Equipment

Wolstenholme has used many different basses since the start of Muse's career, starting out with Warwick and Bass Collection basses, alongside an electric double bass for use in the song "Unintended". He favoured the Ampeg SVT amps, with 1x18, 2x10 and 2x12 cabs.

Wolstenholme often uses distortion. Wolstenholme use a Japanese Distortion box the Animato for his high end Russian Sovtek version of the Electro Harmonix Big Muff distortion / sustainer for the low end, this was used alongside a BOSS Bass overdrive and other effects.

In the Origin of Symmetry era, Wolstenholme had many custom-made Pedulla basses, mainly having five-string bass necks outfitted with only four strings, allowing for a wider 4-string neck. Only using the Pedulla Rapture SB4 basses with a single humbucking pickup, the JB4 bass with two jazz pickups shown in the Plug In Baby video was sold on eBay. Wolstenholme also changed to use two Marshall amplifiers (3 cabs in total counting his combo amp), he had two separate channels, one for clean bass and one for distorted bass. Chris has also been known to use his Marshall Bass State b150 which he drives to the edge because "it distorts nicely". His effects rig also expanded to include some Line 6 effects and more BOSS effects.

For Muse's third album, Absolution, Wolstenholme kept the Pedulla basses but also recorded using Warwick basses (his old ones) and others. He also added a Fender Jazz Bass into his lineup for "Sing for Absolution" and a Zon Sonus Studio 4. For live performances of "Stockholm Syndrome" Wolstenholme used a beat up Pedulla Rapture SB5 - so beaten up that a tuning peg has been lost and is now only used as a four-string bass. No surprise that Wolstenholme threw it onto the stage from the audience, then into Dominic Howard's bass drum at the UK's biggest festival, Glastonbury.

He still kept his Marshall amps, and also included more rackmount effects in the form of Line 6 Bass Pods and filter modelers, and more. His effects rig became so big that Rocktron All Access MIDI controllers are used both on and off stage to control everything. Also adding in an Akai Deep Impact synth pedal for the hit single "Time Is Running Out", a Digitech Synth Wah and a Big John Granny Puker alongside more effects.

For Black Holes and Revelations, Wolstenholme has changed his rig almost completely. Now favouring Rickenbacker 4003 basses and Fender Jazz Basses for new and old songs alike, he also uses a pick on a few new songs, including "Assassin", the beginning of "Map of the Problematique", the beginning of "Invincible", and the beginning and middle of "Knights of Cydonia", according to Muse's 26 August 2006 performance at the Reading Festival. He also plays an upright bass in "Soldier's Poem". The Electro Harmonix Big Muff is used more often in this album, nearly in every track, and his vocals are sometimes sung through a vocoder, most noticeably in "Supermassive Black Hole". Additionally, on the recent HAARP he can be seen playing guitar, with Morgan Nicholls manning the bass, and Bellamy on the piano. Specifically, he uses a PRS 513 Rosewood. Recently, he has begun using Fender 1951 P-Bass, in a unique silver colour with tortoise shell style pickguard. Also use a Noah Bass(maybe the same as the before mentioned p bass just misidentified as a Fender P-bass) Before "Knights of Cydonia", Wolstenholme sometimes plays "Man With The Harmonica" (composed by Ennio Morricone) on harmonica, which fits in with the western style of the song.

After the release of The Resistance, Wolstenholme was seen playing a 1980s Status Bass, which he uses to play "Uprising", "Guiding Light" and "Unnatural Selection" live. He has also been seen playing a Gibson Grabber in the studio.

On The 2nd Law Chris began using a new custom doubleneck bass. The upper half of the bass is a Misa Kitara and the bottom half is a custom Status S2-Classic headless bass. The bass was used in a Muse performance on Jools Holland and SNL..