Victor Wooten Rig

Victor Wooten, bassist for Béla Fleck and the Flecktones since 1988, built his double-thumb slap, harmonic, and solo-bass language around a 1983 Fodera Monarch Deluxe (serial #37) with EMG P/J pickups — the third bass he ever owned after a Univox and an Alembic. That Monarch, later fitted with a Kahler tremolo, is the instrument behind the early Flecktones records and his 1996 solo landmark A Show of Hands. In 1995 Fodera answered his request for a yin-yang inlay by covering the entire top in holly and ebony, creating the Yin Yang that became the bass people picture. Through the 1990s and 2000s he ran Ampeg heads into BXT-410HL and BXT-115HL cabinets designed with Steve Bailey.

After a 2007 tour shootout of about 25 cabinet brands he switched to Hartke, and since 2008 the live stack has been two LH1000 heads into HyDrive 4x10 and 1x15 cabs — still the rig on his 2026 backstage walkthroughs. He still plays the original Monarch and a decades-old Yin Yang on stage; the current buyable signatures are Fodera’s Victor Wooten ’83 Monarch Standard and ’83 Classic Monarch. Effects stay sparse: a Boss GT-6B for years of multi-effects, looping now on a Boss RC-600, and a 2025 Rodenberg LDP Deluxe Victor Wooten overdrive/boost. DR Pure Blues (often 40-55-75-95) are the strings.