Top 10: The Best of No Treble: Top Bass Gear, Lessons and Stories (April 2012)

1. Bass of the Week: Lemmy Kilmister’s Nick Page Gott 4 Bass

Apparently, Lemmy Kilmister has one of the coolest bass collections on the planet. One of our very first Bass of the Week features was of the Motorhead frontman’s signature Rickenbacker. This week, we’re checking out his Nick Page Gott 4, which the luthier built specially for him. “The Lemmy Bass was a very special move…

2. Bass Lesson: Expand Your Fretboard with Major Triads

In this new lesson, we’ll break down the concepts of utilizing triads in expanding your fretboard knowledge and control. We’ll explore triad inversions, different fingerings and using triads as target notes to achieve this goal. The video starts with a demonstration of a solo over a G Major chord. I’m playing a G Major triad….

3. A Guide to Making the Switch Fretless Bass

Q: I’ve just removed the frets from my first bass, and this is my first experience with a fretless bass. What advice do you have to start out? A: There are two areas of focus for making the switch. At a glance, these might seem to contradict each other, but one applies to practicing and…

4. Bass of the Week: Lane Poor Minima

While looking up videos of Jack Casady on YouTube, I stumbled upon a real head-turner of a bass: the Lane Poor Minima. Poor, who is renowned for his pickups, designed and manufactured the bass in the early ’90s. Besides the obvious headless and stepped-tuner body design, the Minima had a graphite fingerboard with special epoxy…

5. Fodera Announces Janek Gwizdala Signature Imperial Model Bass

Fodera is now offering a Janek Gwizdala Signature Imperial model, based on Gwizdala’s own bass. Hand-built in Fodera’s New York shop, the 5-string bass sports a 33? scale and comes tuned E to C. The instrument has a walnut body with an alder tone block and a stunning non-solid Buckeye Burl top. The 3-piece ash…

6. Bass Lesson: Getting to Know the Fretboard

This is a lesson mostly for beginners, but it should serve as a great refresher for the rest of us. Unfamiliarity with the fretboard has a lot of downsides. It’ll slow your playing, because your mind has to figure out where your fingers should go, rather than just instinctively knowing where you need to be….

7. Alex Webster on Making a Successful Death Metal Band

A new interview with Cannibal Corpse bassist and songwriter Alex Webster has been posted by O2 Academy TV. During the interview, Webster speaks on what it takes to become a successful death metal band, consistency, and how to release negative energy. Cannibal Corpse’s latest album, Torture, was released in March and sold 9,600 copies in…

8. Basone Guitars Unveil 6-String Bass Guitar

Canadian custom shop Basone Guitars recently unveiled a new 25-fret, 6-string bass guitar. The elegant instrument features a chambered body made of Honduran Mahogany topped with spalted maple as well as walnut and ebony accents. The bolt-on neck is also honduran Mahogany supported with dual truss rods, with a black walnut fingerboard. As an interesting…

9. Warwick Celebrates 30th Anniversary with Limited Edition Streamer Bass

In 1982, Warwick opened up shop in Germany as a boutique company and launched their flagship Streamer bass. Thirty years later, the company is celebrating with the Streamer LTD 2012 Warwick 30th Anniversary Bass. Limited to 75 pieces, the bass is said to “represent the soul of Warwick.” Made in Germany, the Anniversary bass’s body…

10. Better Soloing: An Introduction to Key Center Improvising

There are many methods we can use to come upon satisfying note choices when improvising over a predetermined set of chord changes (i.e. a tune). One common way to approach note choice is using chord/scale theory, equating every chord to a scale. For example: A minor 7 = A dorian. It’s this approach that has…