Les Claypool of Primus will be auctioning one of his primary basses to benefit his baby nephew Matthew, as well as Matthew’s family. Two years ago, two-month old Matthew was diagnosed with a rare form of infant leukemia. Matthew is currently undergoing bone marrow transplant therapy at St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis, TN. “Watching my younger brother and his wife go through one of the most heart aching situations that any parent can endure has been gut-wrenching,” Claypool said. “On top of that there is the unbelievable expense of the treatments ($80,000 for one particular shot alone and Matthew needed two of them).  I do what I can financially and the fellows in Primus have been very generous to do performances as well as create special merchandise items for Matthew’s cause but unfortunately we are just pushing against a tide of debt that my brother will be dealing with for many years.” The Ebay auction is currently live, here.
The bass available for auction is the final prototype of the Les Claypool brand Pachyderm, which he has been playing live for the past year and is the design that all future Pachyderm basses will be modeled after. Les describes his goal when designing the bass as creating “the most playable and ergonomically comfortable instrument I could think of and have them hand-made by a longtime friend and guitar maker extraordinaire.  Having played many basses over the years, I crossed different elements of my favorites as well as some innovations of my own.”