CORVALLIS - Able to coax unearthly noises out of a bass guitar, Michael Manring has been hailed by many as one of the world's leading solo bassists.

Since his time as the house bassist for the Windham Hill label in 1980s, the Oakland, Calif.-based artist has toured alongside late acoustic guitar legend Michael Hedges, toured extensively as a solo performer and collaborated with artists as diverse as Patti Larkin, Henry Kaiser, John Gorka and Thomas Dolby.

Manring will share the stage with Oregon's Tony Kaltenburg (guitar) and Jarrod Kaplan (percussion) at 9 p.m. Friday, May 29, at Bombs Away Cafe, 2527 N.W. Monroe Ave. Admission is $12.

What brings you to Corvallis?

Michael Manring: I've played at Bombs Away a couple of times and it's always great. I just love it there. That's pretty much what I do. I kind of go everywhere, I've been all over the world playing and next stop: Corvallis.

When you travel, what do you bring with you?

MM: I would love to do it with just one (guitar), but I'm kind of addicted to bringing three.

They are all ones that I've designed myself with a friend (Joseph Zon of Zon Guitars).

Zon helped design these things so that they do weird stuff, but they work for me. I'd bring more if I could, because we have a lot of weird ideas that we put into different designs.

You're known for the innovative things you do with guitars, such as de-tuning strings while playing. When did you decide to start messing with the bass?

MM: Well, the cool thing about the bass guitar is that it is still a relatively new instrument. It was invented in the 50s.

It's not often realized, but it sort of is a new kind of instrument in that it is a combination of acoustic tone production with electronics integrated into it.

Because of that, it turns out, it has an enormous amount of possibilities that purely acoustic instruments don't have and that purely electric instruments don't have.

It's an instrument that kind of got locked into a role in pop music very quickly - and people made a lot of money with it in that role and that's great - but it also has all these other possibilities. That's what has always excited me about it is all this different kind of stuff it can do.

It's always surprised me that the high instruments are sort of looked at as more serious than the low instruments, because the low instruments have much richer tonal possibilities. It's a lot easier to make a high sound on a low instrument than to try to make a low sound on a high instrument. But then, I'm biased.

For your Corvallis concert will you be mostly playing songs off your 2005 album "Soliloquy"?

MM:I think there will probably be a range of stuff. I'm playing with Tony Kaltenburg too, who is a great local rhythm guitarist, so we'll play some pieces together and kind of mix it up a bit. For my solo stuff, I generally try not to pin it down too much before I start playing. Sometimes, I just hear something that needs to happen and just go there with it.

It's one of the nice things about playing solo - the improvisation. You can really take advantage of it.

I noticed that they released a Michael Hedges album in 2006. Because you collaborated with him for many years before his death, I'm curious what your reaction was to that album being released?

MM: Yeah, they are going back and reissuing a lot of his old catalog. You know, anything that helps let people know about him and furthers the interest in his music I'm all for, really. He was such a great musician and such a great guy and just a really, really good friend.

It was great to have a compatriot in this kind of weird little world of trying to go to some new places with the instrument.

Are you the type of person who is always working on "the next project"?

MM: Yes. It's an always ongoing process. In fact, for me the musical thing never really stops. I don't actually have time (anymore) to sit and compose music, but I usually dream of composing music all night.

I wrote a piece in my sleep the other night that wasn't too bad.

So, I can't really help it. It's just something that happens to me whether I like it or not.

Was composing an art form that you had to learn over the years (at places such as the Berklee College of Music) or is it something that came about more organically with your own style of getting stuff on paper?

MM: A lot of both actually. For me, definitely, it's very organic to who I am. Some of my earliest memories are making up little melodies in my head and taking melodies I heard on the radio and changing them.

But, one of the neat things about composing is, the more you learn, the more you can do and the more possibilities there are.

It's pretty powerful stuff. If you are as into it as I am, you find yourself kind of applying every aspect of your being into it: the emotional experience, the physical experience and the spiritual experience. All that gets wrapped up in there.

For a link to a mind-blowing video of Manring and Kaltenburg performing, see this story online.