Weekly Top Ten: The Best in Bass for the Week of August 4

Last week was full of bass greatness in the form of some mind-bending, face-melting videos, a great behind-the-scenes look at songs from Will Lee’s vast catalog (told to us by the man himself), a great lesson, new gear and more.

Here are your top ten most popular features on No Treble for the week of August 4-10, 2013. Thanks for reading, commenting and sharing!

Stories Behind the Songs: Will Lee

1. Stories Behind the Songs: Will Lee

Will Lee’s bass playing is heard by millions of people every week on The Late Show with David Letterman. Millions more listen to him every day thanks to his prolific recording career of nearly 40 years and over 1,700 albums. With such a deep well of musical experience, we reached out to Lee for a retrospective of some of his favorite songs he’s recorded on…

Eric Czar: Caffeine

2. Eric Czar: Caffeine

When we interviewed Eric Czar last year, he told us that as a 7-string bassist, he’s “survived [his] share of ‘string bashing’”. But Czar is a versatile bassist and composer, adept at pretty much any bass we can imagine. Here he is performing his own tune, “Caffeine” on a 4-string modified Matsomoku Jazz bass copy…

Ampeg Reintroduces V-4B All-Tube Bass Amplifier

3. Ampeg Reintroduces V-4B All-Tube Bass Amplifier

Ampeg has reintroduce the V-4B, a 100-watt all-tube bass amp. Based on the company’s classic amp from the ’70s, the new head is described as offering the tone of an SVT while weighing half as much…

Vulfpeck: Wait for the Moment

4. Vulfpeck: Wait for the Moment

Yes, I’m a huge Vulfpeck fan. It starts with bassist Joe Dart, who always seems to find the right bass line and then do something quite unexpected, but it just fits. But truth is, the whole band is just stellar. And fun. From their new release, My First Car, here’s the opening track…

Misa Introduces Tri-Bass MIDI Controller

5. Misa Introduces Tri-Bass MIDI Controller

Australian company Misa is all about enabling live bands to play electronic music, and their new Tri-Bass is a great example of that. The Misa Tri-Bass is a MIDI controller built for use with synthesizers or computers while fundamentally feeling like a bass…

Viaceslav Svedov: Solo Bass Cover of RHCP’s “Easily” on a Contrabass Balalaika

6. Viaceslav Svedov: Solo Bass Cover of RHCP’s “Easily” on a Contrabass Balalaika

I did a double take when I saw this new video by Viaceslav Svedov. That’s because Viaceslav decided to take the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Easily” and try it out on a Contrabass Balalaika. “…It’s freaking hard to play, but that beast sounds good!” Viaceslav said. No doubt!

Getting the Feel: A Guide for Bass Players

7. Getting the Feel: A Guide for Bass Players

Damian Erskine offers his take on finding that “feel” when playing the bass in this week’s Ask Damian column…

PercussionTutor: A Look at the Rhythm Reference App

8. PercussionTutor: A Look at the Rhythm Reference App

PercussionTutor is an app designed for percussionists, but the app and free ebook combine to offer a huge reference for any musician wishing to better understand rhythms and learning how the different percussion parts fit together to produce the groove. Check out our review…

Player Spotlight: Eric “Pedals” Thompson

9. Player Spotlight: Eric “Pedals” Thompson

Meet Eric Thompson, a bassist who goes by the nickname “Pedals”, who keeps busy with a life devoted to music… including owning and operating a store dedicated to (as you may have guessed) effects pedals. One of our favorite parts of Eric’s profile here is the description for one of his bands. Check it out…

Lesson: Soul/Funk Fingerstyle Bass Groove

10. Lesson: Soul/Funk Fingerstyle Bass Groove

In this lesson, we’ll explore some fingerstyle soul/funk with a nice groove in A. As with the previous lesson, I’m making use of open strings to achieve some fast note doubling (this time, A and D). Follow along with the video and transcription…

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