Archive for January 2012 - Page 6

Our featured bass videos in December broke all kinds of records for views on No Treble in a single month. The top 10 featured many familiar faces, plus some newcomers to No Treble HQ and readers. Bassist Nick Mason (no, not the drummer), took the #1 slot with his solo bass arrangement of Randy Newman’s Toy Story classic, “You’ve Got...

Time for some more musical goodness from bassist Adam Ben Ezra. This tune, “The Busker” is one of Adam’s original compositions. Is there anything he can’t do with a bass?

Drummer Jack DeJohnette, widely regarded as one of the great jazz drummers in history, is about to have a pretty remarkable year. DeJohnette, who will celebrate his 70th birthday this year, is set to receive a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Fellowship, which is the highest U.S. honor for jazz musicians. Today, DeJohnette releases his latest effort, Sound...

Höfner has reintroduced the Shorty Bass, a model they ran in the 1980’s featuring an extremely short scale and body. The updated version bumps the scale up from 28″ to 30″ for easier playability, as well as utilizing better string spacing, similar to that found on their trademark Violin Bass. Available in black, the Shorty Bass has a basswood body,...

Note: For Left Hand Thumb positioning, check out the previous installment. When there is excess tension in the hands, the source is often improper use of the thumb and its corresponding muscles. The thumbs of both hands, just like all the fingers, should use minimum effort and pressure to achieve any particular technical goal. Pressure When in standard “neck position”...

Our Facebook friend Charles Hoernemann shared this video with us, with a word one comment: “Awesome!” This is bassist Samuel Haynes, who wrote this tune named “Rapture”, for solo bass and programmed drum accompaniment. Samuel’s bass is strung with piccolo strings.

The big Winter NAMM show kicks off later this week, but the bass gear news started coming early this year. And readers love it. Four of the top 10 stories last week were about gear, and that’s just the beginning. Be sure to follow our NAMM coverage all week — including some updates live from the show. Our most watched...

Jens Ritter has introduced the R8-Singlecut, a new design featuring a single cutaway and bolt-on construction. The new instrument also introduces the luthier’s new C-3-S electronics, an active/passive switchable 3-Band EQ with custom adjustable frequencies and integrated boost, all controllable by the bassist. The new model was debuted with four pieces, and though each has different woods and finishes, there...

GoGo Tuners has expanded their lineup with the debut of The GoGo, the brand’s first pedal tuner. Housed in a metal chassis, the stompbox is colored the orange for better visibility on dark stages. The large, high-definition display follows the company’s signature “Green you’re in, Red you’re Out,” meaning that the display turns green when you’re in tune. The GoGo...

Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee” is just one of those tunes that act as a benchmark for skill. Ever since Jaco’s take on it from his debut album, bassists have been giving it a shot. Here’s a mind-blowing version by University of South Carolina double bass professor Craig Butterfield, playing along with Parker’s original recording. Not only does he nail the...

IK Multimedia will be showing off their new iRig STOMP at NAMM, which the company says is the first stompbox interface for iOS devices. Based on the Amplitube iRig, the interface is compatible with any iOS instrument app and can be used inline with other effects or sent direct to a PA system. The iRig STOMP features an aluminum-cast housing...

Luthier Paul Lairat will be debuting a new model at the NAMM Show, named the Sirya. The radically designed body incorporates five types of wood, as the sides are made of walnut, mahogany, maple and ebony while the body itself can be either wenge, maple and mahogany or maple, walnut and mahogany. The laminate neck then contains four types of...