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Archive for November 2012

Ernie Ball/Music Man Unveils Sledge Basses, Including Sabre Reissue
Basses

Ernie Ball/Music Man Unveils Sledge Basses, Including Sabre Reissue

Ernie Ball/Music Man has unveiled the Sledge basses, a new special offering available through their Premier Dealer Network. Designed in conjunction with Tony Levin, the Music Man Sledge has a custom metallic flake finish that shifts colors depending on your viewing angle. Offered on Classic Stingray 4 and 5s, the Sledge is also available on the Music Man Sabre bass,...

New School: Mike Dimin
New School

New School: Mike Dimin

Mike Dimin is a bassist that focuses on stretching what he calls “The Chordal Approach.” Inspired in part by jazz guitarist Joe Pass, Dimin took his knowledge of melody, harmony, and rhythm to start making chord-melody arrangements of songs for bass. He also utilizes a looper to create “lush arrangements of everything from Jazz Standards to R&B and pop classics...

Richard Bona: Continuum
Bass Videos

Richard Bona: Continuum

Tomorrow is Jaco’s birthday, so we’re thinking a lot about him around here. And so here’s an audio track of Richard Bona playing one of Jaco’s compositions, “Continuum.” (He throws in some extra Jaco stuff too). So much bass greatness all in one spot.

Steve Lawson Releases “Nothing Can Prepare” with Saxophonist Andy Williamson
New Albums

Steve Lawson Releases “Nothing Can Prepare” with Saxophonist Andy Williamson

Steve Lawson has released a new duo album with saxophonist Andy Williamson entitled Nothing Can Prepare. The album is taken from performances captured on tour in church venues and features Lawson’s beautiful, ambient improvisation with Williamson joining in, starting from the back of the church for a gorgeous effect. While the title is taken from one of Lawson’s compositions, it...

Bass of the Week: MechBass
Bass of the Week

Bass of the Week: MechBass

Science just got a whole lot cooler thanks to Victoria University of Wellington engineering student James McVay. As part of Bachelor’s degree, McVay designed and built the MechBass, a 4-string robotic bass guitar. And yes, it rocks. Built with lasercut and 3D-printed parts, MechBass has four separate units for each string controlled with PCBs. The strings are plucked with picks...

Kinsman Announces New Bass Amplification Line
Amps

Kinsman Announces New Bass Amplification Line

Distributor John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd. have introduced a new line of Kinsman instrument amplifiers, including four bass combos. Ranging 15 to 100-watts, the amps all feature a built-in limiter and a headphone output but add features as they grow. The K15B sports a basic 3-band EQ, while the K25B adds another band to the EQ and a CD/Tape...

Steve Harris: Us Against the World
Bass Videos

Steve Harris: Us Against the World

In late September, Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris released his first solo album entitled British Lion. Now he’s put out a music video for the first single, “Us Against the World”. The project is a bit of a step away from Iron Maiden, but Harris’ ballsy bass tone is still the center of the music.

Radial Engineering Introduces Tossover Variable Frequency Divider
Accessories & Strings

Radial Engineering Introduces Tossover Variable Frequency Divider

Radial Engineering has introduced a new 500 series module called the Tossover. The new pro audio tool allows for dividing frequency bands of a signal to process lows and highs separately or to combine them in series to create a band-pass filter. While there are tons of possibilities for its use, Radial Senior Engineer Dan Fraser gave a couple suggestions...

Metronomes: The Debate for Bassists
Ask Damian Erskine

Metronomes: The Debate for Bassists

Q: What do you think about Jeff Berlin’s approach to teaching music, specifically: no metronomes? A: Uh oh… This could mean trouble! Here’s my spin on it: I think different things and methods work for different people. I disagree with Jeff’s statements that metronomes are bad for everyone. I think he has a bit of a habit of speaking in...

Edmond Gilmore: “Port Of Entry” Weather Report/Jaco Pastorius Play-along
Bass Videos

Edmond Gilmore: “Port Of Entry” Weather Report/Jaco Pastorius Play-along

Bassist Edmond Gilmore is a bassist we’ve featured before, and one who loves to take on Jaco Pastorius bass lines and tunes. Here’s Edmond performing along to the Weather Report tune, “Port of Entry”. Great stuff, as usual.

Making the Scene: Nashville – How to Live, Network, and Succeed in Music City
News

Making the Scene: Nashville – How to Live, Network, and Succeed in Music City

Location can be a very important factor in a bassist’s musical career. Larger cities bring more opportunities, but also more obstacles and competition. Author Liam Sullivan offers advice for living and working in Music City with his new book Making the Scene: Nashville – How to Live, Network, and Succeed in Music City. The 300-page book dives into how the...

Reader Spotlight: Ankadiov Subran
Reader Spotlight

Reader Spotlight: Ankadiov Subran

Meet Ankadiov Subran, a bassist from Indonesia who made it easy to select him as reader spotlight with a single line in his profile: “My dad bought me a bass guitar, I threw my guitar away, and I’ve played the bass ever since.” You can’t beat that. Ankadiov is our player in the spotlight for the week of November 27,...