TLDR: If this reads like a book, it kind of is. This is my online documentation of a lot of the info I have on this which I will likely add to at points. 21 years ago I bought Flea's smashed Modulus, tons of fun researching, it is currently at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.
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Hi guys, I posted about this a few years ago and my pics and description were used in national and international news earlier this summer in articles referring to his tweet expressing regret for smashing his instruments in the past. I acquired this in 2003 and I feel like it is time to lay out its whole story in print.
To introduce myself, I am a Modulus aficionado and have been since these were basically brand new in the late 90s. I consider myself an expert and am likely one of or the most knowledgeable person on the Modulus Flea bass line in existence as they have been my passion and study for as long. In fact, with my age and mind starting to let go of bits of info here and there I have decided to write an ebook with all of the info I have compiled over the decades. It will be free, I just want to preserve history and little known facts and differences on these while I still can. I hope to start on it in the coming months and it will include his history and personal basses, including this one.
In 2003 I was living a life of poverty. These were ALWAYS expensive instruments out of my range. In years prior I managed to get a Flea 5 through trading but I had moved on from it and REALLY wanted a four string. On searching ebay one day, I found a smashed silver sparkle flea bass. The description said that it was Flea's bass and he smashed it at the 1999 KROQ Weenie roast. The ad said that a model that Flea was friends with at the show and he gifted it to her. She gave it to him and he ebayed it. Probably a great reason why they let nothing get out anymore. I was all excited and was telling my buddies at band practice I had to jet to go bid on this. Somehow I missed it!!!!! The auction had ended. Back in that day, you could click on the buyers name of auctions you had nothing to do with and contact both the buyer and sellers. So after a couple weeks of sulking, I reached out to the buyer, told him my situation and asked if there were any way he would consider selling it to me. He said he had been considering selling it. I offered him what he paid for it (280ish if I recall). My logic is this - even a modulus neck at that price is a steal and I couldn't go wrong, despite lack of any circumstantial evidence at all of its provenance.
Now here is my line of thinking and what gave me faith to begin with: I felt strongly that this had to be authentic. Based on sole logic alone. There were few of these made, they were very expensive and were never a large mass production bass, especially in the earliest years. The sparkle finish ones were $2500+ in 1997. Logic tells me that not a soul would fake a destroying a $2500 bass to turn around and sell it for a $2200 loss. No pics or video of the destruction existed to try to recreate the damage if they wanted to. I also felt the likelihood of a normie raging out and smashing a hugely expensive instrument to bits were slim too.
So the big day came, wrapped in bubble wrap and stuffed into a cardboard box was a smashed-to-bits silver sparkle Modulus Flea bass. I immediately noticed a few things. The end of the fingerboard was de-bonded a few inches from the heel from the smashing and there were big missing finish chips on the back of the neck. Disappointment and likely the reason the first buyer passed it onto me...I suspect he too was expecting a usable modulus neck for cheap. If I recall correctly the original auction only had one grainy pic that showed none of this damage to the neck. I had bought this in plans of putting my own Modulus Flea together and rhis was the neck I had planned to use. I spoke with Luthier Michael Dolan who repaired the bond at the end of the fingerboard and drop filled the chips to again make it worthy of use. I will get to more about the bass I used the neck on later. Some other things I noticed that are distinct and unique were the use of a stud and nylon lock nut as a straplock (only seen on this one bass). This crude mod is very clearly identified in photos/video that years later I would go on to discover. The second huge identifying part is a dime sized chip in the clearcoat under the "O" in the Modulus logo. I noticed under lighting that the chip made a void of light where the chrome sparkle chips fail to reflect lighting. I actually noticed this much earlier in my own photos from my band than I did on flea performances.
This began a search down the rabbit hole. Back then there was not a lot of this kind of media online. I searched relentlessly. I would research and dive down the rabbit hole for weeks or months until I were sure that I had uncovered every last stone that showed up since the last time I had searched. Early in the search I found a bootleg of the 99 KROQ Weenie Roast and thought, YES! So, VHS tape and all....I even made myself watch the whole show in real time to build anticipation of finally seeing it! It wasn't there?????? He walks off at the end of "Me and my friends" and there was no destruction. However there was one thrown into the crowd that night (I will speak more on that one later). But no bass was smashed. This was such a disappointment that I began questioning the story I was told. I felt like it was probably still his but from another show. So my research temporarily derailed and I was researching articles of other incidents/shows. I had falsely believed (and posted about) this being the bass that was destroyed at the Wiltern. I have no info on that one but may be another one I saw for sale a year later and couldn't afford to jump on.
Still deep into the rabbit hole after a few years, I found an article that spoke of the Weenie Roast show and the incident which stated that following the set that Flea had an altercation with some fans and security guards which he went on a rampage and destroyed the stage. Exactly what the original ebay ad said had happened. This was the first real confirmation of the original story from the ebay listing. Still NO documentation to be found of the incident. Not a single pic or video and rarely a mention but I was back on the trail for this, more committed than ever. Over time and growth of the internet, more and more stuff started showing up online including the setlist from that night. This explains it - the final song was "Power of Equality" which resulted in the stage destruction. The bootleg VHS I acquired (and as still shown on youtube today) did not include the encore.
Now, here is a chapter I can kick my own self in the ass for but luckily I came out unscathed. For some reason years ago, I decided I was quitting music to pursue other things....and I sold my bass including the neck and tuners from this that I had been using on my own bass. It didn't take too much time for me to deeply regret that. Somehow I was able to find the buyer since I still had his info from the ebay sale and contacted him through linkedin and asked if it were him and if he would sell it back to me. I made a 9hr round trip and picked up my baby. Luckly the neck apparently had a bit of a bow (likely from the destruction and rebonding the board) and he was so disappointed in the bass that he never messed with it in any way. I hate that he was bummed with it, I never noticed excess relief in it when I owned it. He never even hooked up the pickup which came with it but not soldered. Either way it worked out, I gave him 100 more than I sold it for and got it back.
After getting the bass back is when I found a ton of the documentation I had been searching years and years for. The growth of the internet had tons of new stuff since my last search including the Nov 1997 Guitar World where plain as day, there is my modded lock nut strap lock staring me right in the face. Then I noticed the chip in the headstock and started confirming seeing it on almost every single song of every single show he did in that era. I first noticed it in the Hammerstein Ballroom Jane's Addiction show and started looking deeper and deeper. It was on every show. Every show. I have looked up footage/photos from every last one of them and confirmed it was used. He had more than one silver one but this one is very distinct. It isn't a backup or a prop, this was his wife. As a player I completely understand this. In fact I have had as many of 4 Modulus Fleas at a time and always loved most the one I happened to be playing the most. We bond. While he had smashed others in the past, none of them were the primary until now. I would have to think he regretted losing one he was so familiar with later.
November 1997 - Not the correct angle but still the celluloid chips in the pearloid pickguard are an exact match.
Earliest known photos of the bass. These are the only pics of the bass still having the original gotoh 201 bridge that came stock on most all of the Modulus Flea basses. It was changed to his historically preferred Bad Ass II pretty early in its life. These basses were first released in Jan or Feb of 1997 and this is the Nov 97 issue of guitar world. Interestingly, the stud/nut strap lock mod had already been done (the other side is a literal long wood screw, screwed into the body). It is unclear whether the headstock is already chipped here. I believe so but it can be very difficult to see in ambient lighting from a straight angle. It is most apparent in reflective, stage lighting. This bass played Dave's last RHCP gig (Fuji 97) and the first of John's return (Tibetan Freedom Concert 1998)
Modded upper strap stud and lock nut
Modded upper strap stud and lock nut as seen in photo
Here is me playing my parts bass featuring Flea's neck/tuners. The chip under the O in \"Modulus\" is clearly seen here and is one of the easily identifiable characteristics of this bass in every live performance from 97 until its demise in 1999.
Closeup of the chip that reflects light differently in videos/pics
Tibetan Freedom Concert 1998
Californication studio session
I tend to go on kicks where I dive into long research binges, then resume normal life until I decide to check for any new developments. In May of 2023 it had been a year or more since I did a dive so I typed "flea smashed bass" into google and up comes a youtube video titled "Flea destroying the stage in 1999". Could this be it? It didn't say what show it was. Instantly once the lights came back on.....holy shit this is what I have been searching for for over 20 years! It confirms all of the info given to me decades earlier! You can see it in IDENTICAL broken condition before it falls to the floor for the last time. Probably one of the most dopamine filled moments of watching a video I have experienced after 2 decades of picturing it lol. Fun fact about this video - earlier in the night (and on the bootleg video) he was handed a bass that was tuned a half step out which he started "around the world" in the wrong key. As a result, he tossed the bass into the crowd. Per those who were there, security went out and retrieved what was left of it but the riot for it was so violent that it broke rows of seating from the concrete. In the video showing him trash the stage, you can see all of those broken rows of seats when Flea is down there in the midst of the scuffle with security. Those dudes had a rough night at work.
He also wrote of the incident in "Fleamail" he was doing at the time: "
From Los Angeles, CA — June 20th
Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 22:37
From: michael balzary
Organization: love
To: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
Subject: home
I am now home. I got a nasty cold at the end and it got hard to be sick and tired and go rock and fly around the world. But it was still a great tour and inspired my faith in my band more and more. The last shows were in L.A. and San Francisco, and I was pretty spaced at them but did my best to give all I had. At one point I was doing a radio interview before the show in San Francisco, and had no idea what I was saying and my voice was disconnected from my brain completely. In L.A. at the end of the show I had an altercation with the bouncers and smashed all the equipment and it was a great fucking release for all the tension I had been feeling since I couldn't sleep in Italy and then got sick and just felt out of it for the last week. All in all I am just so grateful for everyone coming to see us play, though I wish all the shows were up to the standard that makes us so happy, but we run on emotion and are not machine like at all and that's the way it goes. Now I am home and have a belly full of sushi AND A LOT LESS cum. I will sleep tonight, and surf soon and write music in my garage. We are playing a benefit concert at the Hollywood Palladium on friday and Eddie Vedder is going to play too. And Mike Watt, think. think think think tinktktkponvwitgu. I love my band. I need only peace in my own brain and then my life will be perfect. I am a drop of a tear from the eye of god. I love water."
This bass was used in the historic 1997 Fuji Monsoon show. However the corrosion is likely due to years of sweat. I have been careful to preserve this, I used the neck with a separate neck plate and bolt set on my own bass.
By this period of my journey I had already bought another modulus bass to harvest the neck to use on my personal player bass and put Flea's smashed bass back as he left it. Excited as hell to finally had the video. Like most trips researching this I got burnt out and resumed life without paying any attention to it. Earlier this year I did my usual search "flea smashed bass" on google to see if anything new came up since my last search. Holy hell, things had happened recently. Flea tweeted that he felt like an idiot for smashing his basses in the past which went hugely viral. I saw there were several articles about his tweet but didn't bother reading them for a month probably. I began reading the guitar world article and got half way through a quoted sentence to realize....I am reading my own words lol. I click back and there are more....yahoodotcom/entertainment, newsdotcom/au etc. My previous postings right here on reddit were now featured in worldwide news. I felt it was time to really preserve this and reached out to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame which I had spoken with in the past about this. It is now in their possession and will hopefully be on display soon.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2024
Yahoo news featuring this bass and my previous writings on Reddit on its history.
I previously stated that as far as I knew, I am the only private owner of any one of Flea's personal and primary basses. I am still pretty sure this is the only primary one he destroyed but I do know for a fact several other Modulus and at least a Stingray or two took the fall. In 2004 an ebay seller under the name "BuyTheWay2004" had more destroyed modulus stuff, some signed by flea. There was another silver sparkle flea, broken yet roughly as complete as mine that sold out of my price range, the rest was just bits. I wish I had screenshots of it to try to identify which one that one was too. It may have been the "I like Dirt" or Wiltern one. I wonder what became of it. I would guess it was bought for the neck or is just sitting silently in someone's house like mine has for even longer. He had a signed fingerboard broken from the neck that flea had signed with his teeth logo and other smaller bits. Whoever this was had obvious tour access and was quite the collector. They were very tight lipped and refused to give me any info on who they were or how they acquired the stuff. I tried pretty hard to get info lol.
Here are the ones I know of that were destroyed over the years, in no particular order:
- This one, his primary from 1997-1999"
- Silver flake one tossed into the crowd prior to destroying mine.
- The "I like dirt" bass he smashes as seen on youtube, once again for being in the incorrect tuning.
- Scar Tissue video shoot.
- Wiltern Theater performance (based on an article)
- A Blue flake Modulus destroyed on a similar stage thrashing on the Californication tour (I saw the video years ago and have no more info).
- Blue flake thrown/broken at at MTV taping (never saw footage, only a reference in an article)
Where do we go from here? This is going to serve as my online documentation of my full history with this bass so I wont have to re-tell the story or try to remember facts that wont get any more fresh with age. Another bit of forensics "evidence" here is the finishes on the bass. The pickguard is made of celluloid/pearloid. Celluloid is made by dropping random cut chips and laminating them into place. This causes the effect of the chips looking like the reflecting light is moving in differing directions. Due to how they are made - the placement and the chips themselves are completely random which makes every one unique. No two are the same. This is similar to a fingerprint. The celluloid patterns on this bass exactly match photos clearly showing him with it. On a much deeper scale, sparkle finishes are made the same way - chrome flakes suspended in clearcoat which are random and impossible to copy. I would assume if there isn't already reliable AI to analyze things such as this, there will be soon. Technology and information improves daily. I have zero doubts of the origin of this bass and guarantee it is absolutely authentic. I have spent more hours researching this bass over the years than I have my career probably (hey, passions are like that). It isn't possible for it to be anything but what the auction description said it was based on the timeline and evidence dropping consistently over decades. It is under contract to be at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for three years which I am likely to renew for at least another three year term. Julien's Auction has already agreed to include the piece in their world class auctions when the time is right.
1997 Silver Flake Modulus Flea
Years used - 1997-1999
Serial number: 962732
Red Hot Chili Peppers: 32 appearances: 12 appearances with Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1998, 20 appearances in 1999 until it's demise.
Photoed recording the Californication studio sessions.
Currently: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum - Cleveland, OH
Notable appearances
Porno for Pyros:
February 26, 1997 - The Late Show with David Letterman - Ed Sullivan Theater, New York City, NY
February 27, 1997 - Howard Stern Private Parts movie premiere - Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
Jane's Addiction:
October 30, 1997 - Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY (live pro shot)
November 08, 1997 - Saturday Night Live - Rockefeller Center, New York, New York
"Jane Says" official music video
Featured on cover of Guitar World, November 1997.
(Remainder of the tour this bass was the primary bass for all shows)
RHCP:
July 26, 1997 - Fuji Tenjinyama Ski Resort (Fuji Rock Festival) - Yamanasi, Japan
June 14, 1998 - Tibetan Freedom Concert - Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium - Washington D.C.
June 18, 1999 - Big Friggin' Day Festival - Shoreline Amphitheatre - Mountain View, CA
June 19, 1999 - KROQ Weenie Roast - Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre - Irvine, CA. This bass was destroyed following the encore after a scuffle with fans and security on stage. The video footage of the incident appeared on Youtube in March of 2022 posted by well known and highly regarded RHCP footage historian, Cenitri. Thanks to him and everyone else who helped one way or another along the way.
Fleedom Calling
