Flea's 10 craziest bass licks revealed as YouTuber slap, pops and picks his way through 'em all

We all love us some Flea, right? Well, YouTube bass guitar supremo Charles Berthoud clearly does.

And in honor of what we’ll call, um, Flea Friday, in the accompanying video Berthoud slaps, pops and picks his way through his 10 (actually, more like 12 or 13) favorite Flea basslines, including Red Hot Chili Peppers classics like Can’t Stop, Higher Ground, Aeroplane and more.

And keep your eye out for his ridiculous fret work on number 3 (spoiler: it’s the Mother’s Milk deep cut Stone Cold Bush).

And while you could, of course, grab yourself a Fender Signature Flea bass to try these licks out yourself, Berthoud does it all on a Glarry GJazz bass, which he proudly states retails for just $79 - a price so low the company is practically giv(ing) it away…

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Richard Bienstock

Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.