Top 10: Bass of the Week, Blast Cult Rises, Mod Shop, Snowboard Bass, Plus the Top Bass Gear and Videos

1. Signal Snowboards’ Duff McKagan Fender Snowboard Bass

Some people play bass, and some people ride it. Signal Snowboards is a company that makes handmade boards, and on every third Thursday they get a little adventurous. In their latest edition, they hook up with bassist Duff McKagan and build a snowboard out of his signature Fender bass. The kicker? It’s still playable.

2. A Guide for the Self-Taught Bassist

Q: I’m in the middle of high-school, and I’m really thinking of pursuing bass as a career. However, with a lack of decent teachers around, I’ve turned to teaching myself. But there’s so much to cover… where do I start? A: I would first suggest that you continue to keep your eyes and ears open…

3. Bass Of the Week: Xylem 5-String Black Limba Bass

This week we’re featuring a beautiful custom Xylem 5-string bass. This particular bass is a neck-through design featuring a black limba body with a bookmatched macassar ebony top, accented with bocote and maple. The quartersawn neck is bird’s eye maple and has an ebony fretboard and custom inlays of a tomoe and falling leaves. All…

4. Steve Metcalf: Red Hot Chili Peppers “Can’t Stop” Upright Bass Cover

Mind blown. Bassist Steve Metcalf, an undergraduate performance major studying at Indiana University recorded this (almost) all-bass version of the Red Hot Chili Peppers tune “Can’t Stop”. Steve says he creates these videos “to escape from the world of orchestral excerpts”. Keep ‘em coming, Steve. Steve posted the MP3 version of the tune, available as…

5. The Rise of Blast Cult

After settling up with customers left from the demise of King Doublebass brand, luthier Jason Burns went to work to create a new upright venture catering to the alternative bassist. Blast Cult officially launched this month with their One4Five model bass, a design cultivated from Burns’ 20 years of building. Among the first instruments built…

6. The Buzz Killer: How To Shield Your Bass

This month, we’re going to talk about an all too common problem: the humming and/or buzzing you get from radio frequency waves interfering with the electronic signal in your bass. These waves can be emitted from any number of sources, many of which are common on the stage and in the home. Neon and fluorescent…

7. The Jamiroquai Bass Book Released Worldwide

Bassline Publishing has announced the worldwide release of The Jamiroquai Bass Book, featuring transcriptions of 16 tracks from the group’s first two albums, Emergency on Planet Earth and Return of the Space Cowboy. Previously unavailable in the U.S., the 134-page book provides musical notation, TAB and chord symbols for all the lines played by founding…

8. King Crimson: “Sleepless” Live in Japan with Tony Levin

This song opens up just right: with some awesome percussive slap bass by Tony Levin. And he doesn’t stop there. The tune, “Sleepless” is from King Crimson’s 1984 release, Three of a Perfect Pair, with Levin on bass and Stick, Adrian Belew on vocals/guitar, Robert Fripp on guitar and Bill Bruford on drums. Levin’s bass…

9. Beyond the Metronome: A Look at Metronomics and Time Guru for iOS

I was planning on writing this article on Metronomics, an app developed by John Nastos offering quite a few new features that go beyond your basic metronome app. However, I was recently tried out “Time Guru” by Avi Bortnick (John Scofield’s sample guru and rhythm guitarist) which does many of the same things – and…

10. Thunderfunk Introduces TFB800-B2 Bass Amp

Thunderfunk has unveiled the TFB800-B2 bass amp, rated up to 800-watts RMS at 2 ohms. The new model is an update of the TFB750, combining all the mods that had been added to its predecessor. The TFB800-B2 is housed in an aluminum chassis, weighing in at 21 pounds, and has a plethora of tone-shaping capabilities…