Colin Edwin

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Colin Edwin
Colin Edwin on stage with Porcupine Tree, Falls Church, VA, Oct. 2007
Colin Edwin on stage with Porcupine Tree, Falls Church, VA, Oct. 2007
Background information
Born July 2, 1970 (1970-07-02) (age 37)
Melbourne,Australia
Genre(s) Progressive Rock
Neo-Psychedelia
Art Rock
Occupation(s) Musician
Instrument(s) Bass guitar
Fretless bass
Years active 1993 - present
Associated acts Porcupine Tree
Ex-Wise Heads
Random Noise Generator

Colin Edwin (born 2 July 1970 in Melbourne, Australia) is a member of the British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree, where he plays fretted and fretless bass guitar as well as Double Bass. He joined the band in December 1993. He is also a member of Ex-Wise Heads, a three-piece group that mixes ethnic, ambient, and post-modern influences, as well as a metal-influenced project, Random Noise Generator.

In 2001 Colin played Double Bass on one of the most acclaimed albums by the British duo No-Man, which is Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson's side project. Colin and Steven are friends from school, "Steven was instrumental in introducing me to several types of different music.", he explains.[1]

Colin is known to be a big jazz fan, and incorporates an atypical jazz-inspired style into his playing in a rock band. Also unusual for a rock bassist, his main bass was a Wal Mach I four-string fretless bass for 13 years until retiring it from the rigors of live touring in 2004. He used a Music Man StringRay and after a MusicMan Bongo for the Deadwing tour, which can be viewed on Porcupine Tree's DVD release Arriving Somewhere. During the same time period Colin was introduced to Spector basses and purchased an EuroLX 4-string model in Natural Oil. The company then gave him as a gift one of their extended scale-length models (35" as opposed to the "standard" 34" scale for 4-string basses), an Euro 4LX-35[2] in transparent black. This proved to be useful as over 1/2 of their next album, Fear Of A Blank Planet was downtuned C/F/Bb/Eb to which the 35" scale length give better definition to the lower notes as well as the general rigors of touring ("The Euro 4LX-35 has a graphite-reinforced neck, which means it can come out of a freezing-cold trailer into a hot gig every night for a month without going out of tune or having any trussrod problems."[3] For the second leg of the Fear Of A Blank Planet tour starting in October of 2007 a ReBop Deluxe FM[4] unlined fretless bass in Natural Oil was brought out on tour for the song "A Smart Kid" among others, and well as using his Music Man Bongo bass guitar as his spare/encore bass. Colin currently endorses Spector basses and uses their basses on Porcupine Tree's current tour, as well as EBS amplifiers, speaker cabinets, and effects pedals. He also endorses Ernie Ball bass strings [5] while using Spector Medium Stainless Steel strings on his fretted Spector basses.[3]

In the credits for the 2005 film Four Brothers, he is credited as Colin Balch, he is also credited under this name in the manuscript book for Porcupine Tree's Deadwing.

Contents

[edit] Previously Used Equipment

  • 1994 Wal Mach I fretless 4-string bass (Natural finish, Ebony fingerboard) with a Hipshot Bass Extender installed for downtuning the E-string to D.
  • 2004 Music Man Stingray fretted 4-string bass (Natural ash finish, Rosewood fretboard [1]) with a Hipshot Bass Extender installed for downtuning the E-string to D.
  • 2005 Music Man Bongo fretted 4-string bass (special "Stealth" flat black finish [2]), both with a Hipshot Bass Extender installed for downtuning the E-string to D.
  • Trace Elliott AH350 amplifier and speaker cabinets
  • Tech 21 LM300 amplifier and two 4x10" speaker cabinets ("trashed on a European tour by some slack local crew" [3])

[edit] Current Equipment

  • 2006 Spector EuroLX 4-string bass in Natural Oil finish with a Hipshot Bass Extender installed for downtuning the E-string to D [4] strung with Spector Medium Stainless Steel strings. [5]
  • 2006 Spector Euro 4LX-35 4-string bass downtuned to C/F/Bb/Eb in Transparent Black. [6] strung with Spector Medium Stainless Steel strings. [7]
  • 2007 Spector ReBop Deluxe FM unlined fretless bass in Natural Oil.
  • 2005 MusicMan Bongo 4-string bass in "Stealth (flat) Black" (currently used as a backup/encore bass on the "Fear Of A Blank Planet" tour)
  • BassLab Soul-IV in Black (currently used as a backup/encore bass on the "Fear Of A Blank Planet" tour [8]) strung with Ernie Ball Hybrid Slinky strings [9]
  • BassLab Soul-IV in Metallic Orange (prototype bass borrowed from Heiko Hoepfinger [10])
  • EBS TD 650 amplifier and two 4x10" Proline neodymium cabs. [11]
  • EBS ValveDrive tube preamp/overdrive pedal, EBS MultiDrive distortion, EBS OctaBass octave, and EBS MultiComp compressor. [12]

Online posting of former and current equipment by Colin Edwin [13].


[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ Porcupine Tree. Free Williamsburg. Retrieved on 2008-04-13.
  2. ^ Spector Bass - Europe Series 4LX-35. Retrieved on 2008-04-14.
  3. ^ a b Colin Edwin On Riding A Sonic Storm. Bass Player Magazine (September 2007). Retrieved on 2008-04-13.
  4. ^ Spector Bass - Europe Series ReBopDLX Bolt-On. Retrieved on 2008-04-14.
  5. ^ Ernie Ball - News. Retrieved on 2008-04-14.
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Porcupine Tree
Richard Barbieri · Colin Edwin · Gavin Harrison · Steven Wilson
Chris Maitland · John Wesley
Albums
Singles and EPs
Compilations
Live albums
DVD
Other releases
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