Archive for January 2010 - Page 4

Jack Bruce recounts tales of life on the road, drug addiction, management problems, and family tragedies in the upcoming book, Jack Bruce: Composing Himself. Penned by Henry Shapiro, the book takes a detailed look at the life of one of rock’s most influential bassists, beginning with his study at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama as a child...

If you are a working musician – or aspire to be a working musician – you need to be able to sell yourself and your music. At some point you may have to present your work to a record label or publishing company and you will be competing against many other artists for a label representative’s attention. Believe it or...

I had an appointment at NAMM that forced me to leave the first night of Bass Bash early at NAMM. Fortunately, someone filmed this performance of Damian Erksine and David Dyson, so I could catch some of the great bass I missed. Here’s what Damian had to say about the performance: “David Dyson is one of my groove heroes so...

VOX Amplification has added a new product to it Pathfinder amplifier series. The new Pathfinder Bass 10 is a portable combo that boasts 10 watts of power with its two 5-inch VOX Bulldog speakers. Along with its treble and bass controls, the amp has a Bright switch, which adds an edgy boost to upper harmonics. The Pathfinder Bass 10 also...

The ever busy Victor Wooten will be launching his first ever library tour around Los Angeles, California this week (the tour started yesterday and runs through the 23rd). Wooten will be performing for library goers and talking about his own book, The Music Lesson. Admission to the events is free. RSVP at the Los Angeles Music Network’s web site. Appearance...

Q: So as I walked around the house, my wife asked me, “What are you doing, space cadet?” I guess I had a fairly blank look on my face and was walking around the house in circles. I replied, “Playing Bass… in my head.” She then said, “huh… you should write about that for the No Treble guys!” And I...

Check out Victor Bailey and this impromptu jam with Sekou Bunch and Andrew “The Bullet” Lauer at the TecAmp booth during the NAMM 2010 show. Editor’s note: the original video featured here was removed by the author. Here’s a shorter clip of the same performance:

There’s a new EUB on the market, designed by bassist Bunny Brunel. Brunel’s 35 year career as a bassist and educator includes performing with Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Tony Williams, Al Jarreau, Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder, Dizzy Gillespie, Larry Coryell and Al Dimeola. The bass has been in production for many years, with limited quantities available to ship...

Meet Marco Rodi, our bassist in the spotlight for January 19, 2010. Bio: My name is Marco Rodi and I’m a solo bassist from Montreal Quebec. I won several artistic competitions here in Montreal like: Cegep en spectacle, Université en spectacle, where I had 15 minutes to show the solo bass potential onstage. I was representing my country, Canada, as...

Note: This is part 3 of 3 of Dr. D’s current series. See part 1 and part 2. The Student The most important ingredient needed to acquire a skill is not a good Method or a good Teacher, but rather a good Student. Even with the highest quality Method and Teacher, a poor quality Student will not achieve the objectives...

Here’s bassist Doug Johns doing another incredible performance at the 2010 Bass Bash during the NAMM show. Apparently, Doug was called up last minute to do an impromptu jam. In this clip, he starts off with his own take on Jaco’s “Continuum” before jumping into to a whole other jam (all while playing on the drum kit). Holy smokes.

Boss has announced the newest version of their stompbox tuner, the TU-3 Chromatic Tuner. The pedal is an update from their TU-2 and has all the same features and then some. Built in a tough stompbox chassis, this pedal is tough. A new high-brightness meter mode allows for better visibility under bright sunlight, and it also has a 21-segment meter...