Over twenty years ago, after playing a Frog Brigade gig in Vermont, I returned from a local bar late night only to have my road manager thrust a long piece of square aluminum tubing into my hands and said, “somebody left this for you.” It had a hinged handle at the top and a flat-wound string that lazily draped across a crude fingerboard, past a small pickup, then over a roller channel that guided the string to a hole in the square tubing, anchoring the ball end near the base where a string bass peg protruded from the bottom. “What the hell is this?” I laughed. Many an item has been gifted to me by fans throughout my career but this one was truly unique and intriguing. Heads were scratched, speculations were tossed out and inquiries were made. After deliberation, it was determined that this was some sort of electric washtub bass.
The next day I plugged it into my rig and started banging on it with a stick while pumping the handle like a mad ape. Sax man extraordinaire Skerik eyed it with immense glee. “What the hell is that Colonel?" he asked as I continued to crank the handle and bang away. Without skipping a beat I calmly replied, “I call it the WHAMOLA."
For many years folks have asked me about this instrument. That same day of discovery also bore the fruit of the song “Whamola” which would later become one of the South Park theme songversions. It made an appearance on the Robot Chicken theme as well and was predominant on the Les Claypool Of Fungi and Foe record. For two decades plus the WHAMOLA has been a highlight of many of my stage performances and now, after a redesign for efficiency and tonality, the official WHAMOLA is finally available to the public.