Archive for January 2011 - Page 2

Ernie Ball/Music Man has unveiled a new patent-pending pickup switching system called the Game Changer that will be available on their Reflex HH bass. By choosing the coils in any order, whether they are in series or parallel, and whether they are in or out of phase, the system allows for 250,000 pickup combinations without rewiring, digitizing, or remodeling. A...

This week, we’re celebrating the upright bass with a look back at the top 10 most viewed upright bass videos on No Treble. 1. Miles Mosley: Voodoo Child It is fitting Miles Mosley chose to cover Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)”, since he’s doing a Hendrix-like re-invention of his instrument of choice: the upright bass. 2. Esperanza Spalding: “Mela”...

In this video, electric bassist Larry Wilson plays his rendition of “Voodoo Child” by Jimi Hendrix. The best part of this video is that Wilson is playing in the New York Subway System, demonstrating that good music can happen anywhere.

Genz-Benz unveiled three new amps at the NAMM show, including two in the new Streamliner series and an update to the ShuttleMax line. Sporting a retro look and feel, the Streamliner 900 and 600 amps have straight-ahead controls, allowing players to “focus more on their playing and less on adjusting knobs.” The models feature Class A Six Stage All Tube...

I just got back from a week spent in a recording studio in Northern California, a singer-songwriter session with Alice DiMicele. The band was absolutely smoking and we tracked 16 tunes in four days (complete with horns). The band included some guys who have been around the block quite a few times and have recorded and played with just about...

In response to the NPR Bass Solo contest, bassist Blake Branch submitted his arrangement of “Raspberry Heaven” by Masumi It? and Y?ko Ueno. The tune comes from the anime series “Azumanga Daioh”. Thanks to Alex Kalicinski for sharing this video with us.

Jazz bassist Robert Hurst has released Unrehurst, Vol. 2, a straight-ahead trio album featuring pianist Robert Glasper and drummer Chris Dave. As the names suggests, the CD was recorded in 2007 without any rehearsals at Smoke in New York City, though that’s not how the jazz veteran had planned it. A taped-off crime scene prevented him from checking in to...

Meet Armando Flores, a bassist from California and our player in the spotlight for January 25, 2011. Bio: My earliest memories of music with my parents listening to 8 track tapes of Disco and Motown while driving along in our Mercury Montego. In the 5th grade I got the crazy notion that I could play the trumpet. This lasted about...

Bassist Billy Sheehan will be part of the “house band” of an upcoming heavy metal tribute to Frank Sinatra. The album, SIN-atra, is collection of twelve of the master jazz vocalist’s most famous tunes sung by the “finest voices in rock,” including Dee Snider, Tim “Ripper” Owens, and Joey Belladonna. Bassists/vocalists Glenn Hughes and Doug Pinnick will also be getting...

Bassist Todd Matthews gets the Led out with his unique double bass arrangement of Led Zeppelin’s tune “Kashmir.”

Alfred Music Publishing and Cartoon Network Enterprises have teamed up to release a new bass transcription book featuring the songs of Dethklok, the animated metal band from Adult Swim’s “Metalocalypse” TV series. Dethklok: Bass Anthology includes 14 tunes from the The Dethalbum and Dethalbum II, selected by Bryan Beller, Dethklok’s live performance bassist. Bonus materials include “The Duncan Hills Coffee...

Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton recently taped an update video for the band’s fan site AeroForceOne revealing that the group is working on new material “commencing immediately,” and should be touring by the end of the year. The group’s progress has been delayed by singer Steven Tyler’s new gig as a judge on the TV show American Idol, but according to...