L'Arc~Compendium

– 1969 is the year you were born, right, tetsu-san. Do you have particularly strong feelings towards that year?
[That’s to be expected. I’ve thought “1969 was pretty cool, wasn’t it?” ever since I first started getting into music. In Japanese, you can say the “69” in “1969” as “ro-ku” (1). Also, 1969 was the year Woodstock happenned. Apollo 11 landed on the moon for the first time. Humanity successfully reached the moon’s surface. There were a lot of meaningful things happenning that year, I’d say that’s pretty cool. So many wonderful things happenned, didn’t they, in 1969. Also, I like that number a lot, so I like the year too.]

– By the way, which sign(2) was it?
[It was the year of the rooster. I don’t like that very much. (laughs)]

– Were you thinking “I want to hurry and be a grown up!” since all the way back then
[Absolutely not! Not even once. That’s something that a kid, because they’re young, would say alot, isn’t it? I think it’s pretty common. But that line, “I want to hurry and be a grown up” isn’t something that I thought. It’s because it’s inevitable. Even if you ignore it, even if you don’t like it, you can’t do anything about growing up. On the other hand, at that age, there are still a lot of things you can’t do, so I think it’s understandable to be a bit envious of adults.]

-Interviewer : Toujou Sachie

Translated by Natalie Arnold.

1. The digits 1 through 9 are often shortenned when said in rapid succession, such as when giving out a phone number. 6, roku, becomes simply ro and 9, kyuu, is shrunken down to ku. Roku is also how the Japanese would pronounce rock, as in rock music. Go back.

2. Signs of the chinese zodiac, mythology well known in Japan. Go back.

This site holds the English translation of Tetsugaku. This English translation was undertaken by me, Natalie Arnold, better known around the internet as Nanani. The site was designed and created by Ilán Terrell.

As of March 19th 2006, this project is complete. Every chapter of the book is availble in English for your reading pleasure. Thank you to all those who helped and supported me along the way.

Before jumping in and reading everything, take note of these RULES :

1)I am not in any way associated with tetsuya, and this is not an official translation in any sense.

2)I am doing this of my own initiative, without checking or assitance, which means there may be mistakes left in the work here and there. Please be understanding.

3) NO STEALING! This is a time-consuming project that I am putting a lot of work into, so do NOT steal my work.

4)Do not repost these translations anywhere. Ever.

5) Lastly, please support tetsuya and buy the book yourself, even if it’s just to look at the pretty pictures inside. Notably, it is available from Amazon.co.jp.

This website was put together and maintained by Ilán Terrell. He also pays for the hosting. Do thank him some time.

The graphics, including the banner above, was made by Myriam. Thank her, since without her services this site would be much uglier. Needless to say, the graphics are not to be taken either.

All the images from the book itself, from the covers through the photo galleries, were scanned by macgirl_13. Many thanks to her for letting me use the scans.

The book you are about to read is really a collection of interviews. Therefore, they are written as conversations. As such, the level of language sometimes slips into the less formal, all the way down into Osaka-ben, tetsuya’s hometown dialect. I’m trying to keep this translation as true to the original as possible, while not making it sound too weird, but it may help to keep the above in mind while reading this.

Writing tetsu in lowercase is not a typo. That’s how he wanted his name written at the time this book was released. Same applies for writting TETSU69 in capitals.

The title, Tetsugaku, is a bit of a play on words. It is written with two kanji. The first, tetsu, besides being in his name, also means philosophy. The second, gaku, means the study of something. Taken together, they are usually read to mean the study of philosophy. The English subtitle of the book reads tetsu’s philosophy, but it could also be taken to mean ‘a study of tetsu’ which is just as telling.

The book was published in March 2004, just before the release of SMILE. This will be useful to know when he mentions things about the upcoming album.

The content has not been updated to reflect his name change. It will remain as printed, with his old tetsu/TETSU69 name.

Occasionaly, the subject will mention something that non-Japanese people aren’t likely to know about. To the best of my ability, I will footnote these mentions to clear things up.

Your humble translator is Canadian, so expect Canadian spellings throughout this translation.

Many know L`Arc~en~Ciel for its driving bass lines and intoxicating melodies. The bassist; tetsu, uses left hand techniques used by guitarists known as “slides” and “hammer-on’s” and “pull-offs” extensively throughout all of his recordings, taking the bass guitar from the back of the rhythm section to front and center stage as a first class lead instrument. Favourites such as forbidden lover, HONEY, and cradle repeatedly show off tetsu’s melodic yet rhythmically driving bass lines that have catapulted Laruku to the stardom they so enjoy today. For those of you who remember, Laruku’s first album DUNE, which was released in June of 93′ contained bass lines like no one had ever heard before. The bass consisted of constantly moving patterns outlining the songs melody using both major and minor modes with breathtaking slides up and down the neck of his bass that sounded like they would never end!

One example of a very cool slide is on the track Be Destined from the album “DUNE”

track time: 1:55.

This slide contains depth and clarity both up and down the neck requiring only one pluck of the string. Not many basses can do this.

Another example of tetsu’s mastery of the bass guitar and his signature sound is on the track “Cradle” from the album “ark”

track time: very beginning (0:00)

This sound speaks for itself. Its so cool it can’t be described in words.

Along with tetsu’s left hand mastery comes his right hand picking speed. Tetsu crosses strings with his pick like a grasshopper jumps

from one lilly to another in a pond; with grace and finesse. Examples can be heard on the following tracks:

“HONEY” from the album “ray”

“Blurry Eyes” from the Album “Tierra”

One can assume that tetsu uses a myriad of electric basses for his recordings. Top quality instruments, combined with the best recording and signal processing equipment money can buy, run by the best sound engineers in Japan, you can assume that his sound is a direct result of being a rock star and having access to gear that most bassists can only dream of playing on/through. I have researched tetsu’s recording equipment by speaking with artists in Japan who also love his tone, reading magazines, and searching the web for fan sites and webring’s dedicated solely to tetsu’s bass playing. I have even gone so far as purchasing some of this equipment (well, ok, a little more than some.. try all) myself and playing bass through each piece of gear individually, slowly getting closer to the sounds that come from Laruku’s recordings. Out of the thousands of dollars that I have spent (many many thousands) building my arsenal of “tetsu” equipment, there’s one thing I am most certain about: the mots important piece of equipment tetsu owns is his ZON Legacy Elite II. (pictured below)

“Having acquired it in the spring of 1993, just before his debut, tetsu has immense confidence in this, his main bass. In addition to its graphite neck, it has no dead point and is capable of producing a clear, wide range of tonality.” – Bass Magazine, Japan

My research shows that tetsu has used this exact bass on more recordings than any of his other basses. I first learned of the Legacy Elite through a TalkBass forum. Later I purchased just about every back issue of every magazine that tetsu or L`Arc~en~ciel was mentioned in. One bit of info that confused me was that the bass he plays live and poses with isn’t actually a ZON, but a ZON copy. Its called an ESP “ELT” Artists Model bass as shown below.

These basses, which are currently produced by ESP are not exact copies of the ZON tetsu uses on his recordings. In fact, tetsu has never stated he uses his ESP basses for recording. In fact, in a Bass magazine issue, tetsu explicitly states that he “really trusts his ZON Legacy Elite bass”. This is partly because the ZON Legacy basses are made with composite necks that are well known for keeping the bass in tune under harsh weather conditions. The composite neck, combined with the unique phenowood fingerboard and custom wound Bartolini pickups produce an low end “growling” sound that can’t be reproduced through a wood neck and fingerboard. To try and reproduce the strength of the ZON Legacy neck, ESP has constructed its copy basses out of 7 pieces of Maple, Walnut, and Padauk wood. Even though this neck is very strong, it’s still susceptible to the warping and twisting and will not produce the same sounds that are capable through a Legacy Elite bass.

Both basses contain Bartolini pickups but the ZON pickups are custom wound specifically for the Legacy Elite series… another feature that ESP is unable to copy. The headstock of the ESP artists model bass was designed by tetsu himself. You will not find this on a ZON Legacy Elite bass. Other features key to the sound of the bass that are not found on the ESP but are standard on the ZON are the bridge ZON uses, the preamp, and the craftsmanship.

BunnyBass.com’s Bunny Bass shown

holding a ZON Legacy Elite 5 String bass.

BunnyBass‘s article describes Joe Zon as someone “exhibiting major ‘Type A’ personality traits. The author goes on to note the cleanliness of the shop and the passion and seriousness Joe Zon exhibits when discussing his basses. Although Japan is well known for its ‘Type A’ workers and strict quality control habits but no company as large as ESP can produce an instrument as fine as one where the founder of the organization inspects each instrument before it is shipped to the customer.

The most obvious difference in tetsu’s sound can be heard on his later recordings from the Smile and AWAKE albums where he uses other basses besides his Legacy Elite.

One example is his Sadowsky NYC bass. This bass features Bartolini pickups, a flamed maple top (as does one of his ZON legacy basses), and maple neck. Sadowsky basses are very popular right now. Many top name artists are using and endorsing Sadowsky instruments both for recording and live performances. tetsu’s own Sadowsky is shown below:

This bass is used most on the SMILE album. You can really hear the tone of this bass on the songs “Lover Boy”. The sound is a very thin and distorted sound. No where near as good as the ZON Legacy series basses in my opinion. If you don’t want to take my word for it, look at the ratings the SMILE album received compared to every other album in Laruku’s history. Another example would be on the song 叙情詩 which is currently Laruku’s second most popular song (to ‘New World’) on the newly released AWAKE CD (2005). It is very clear that regardless of if the fans know the technical details about tetsu’s recording equipment, tetsu’s signature, most loved sound comes from his ZON Legacy Elite II bass, built in Redwood City, California, U.S.A in 2003.

Do not be mislead by copies or look alike’s. There is only one ZON Legacy Elite. There is no substitute.

For information on purchasing a ZON Legacy Bass, please visit ZON on the web.