From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chris Wolstenholme
Background information
Birth name	Christopher Tony Wolstenholme
Born	2 December 1978 (1978-12-02) (age 31) Rotherham, England
Genres	New prog, alternative rock, progressive rock, progressive metal, space rock
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Bass guitar, vocals, keyboards, guitar, harmonica, drums, synthesisers
Years active	1991 - present
Labels	Warner Bros. Records Eastwest Records Atlantic Records Helium 3
Associated acts	Muse

Christopher Tony Wolstenholme, D.A. (born 2 December 1978, in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England) better known as Chris Wolstenholme, is the bassist and backing vocalist for the rock band Muse. He also sometimes plays guitar or keyboard instead of bass, though the latter is occasionally handled by Morgan Nicholls during live performances.

Biography

Chris Wolstenholme grew up in Rotherham before moving to Teignmouth, Devon. While living there, he played drums for a post-punk band, while Matthew Bellamy and Dominic Howard played in another. After two years of failed bassists in Bellamy and Howard's band, Wolstenholme gave up the drums and joined with them as bassist to create The Rocket Baby Dolls (later renamed Muse).

Wolstenholme got married in 1997, at the age of only 19 and had his first child Alfie in 1999 at the age of 21.

He currently lives in Teignmouth with his wife Kelly and their 4 children Alfie, Frankie, Ava-Jo and Ernie, and is an avid supporter of his hometown football team, Rotherham United F.C. .He also injured his arm during a football match with Didz Hammond of The Cooper Temple Clause.^[1]

Wolstenholme holds an honorary doctorate of arts from the University of Plymouth.^[2]

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. Favouring the Russian Sovtek version of the Electro Harmonix Big Muff distortion / sustainer, 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 Line6 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 Line6 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 DVD he can be seen playing guitar, with Morgan Nicholls manning the bass, and Bellamy on the piano. Specifically, on the DVD, 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. 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.

References

Muse at Allmovie He has also used a Status S2 bass while performing Uprising, Live on Later with Jools Holland.

External links

• MUSE: Bassist Chris Wolstenholme, 8/01/2009