Archive for August 2013 - Page 5

Bobby Vega is hands down one of my favorite bassists. Here’s a clip of him with fellow San Francisco heavyweights Prarie Prince and Chris Rossbach performing a flowing tune called “Mercury.”

Le Fay has updated the ROB 344-66/IIIa with a new pickup system that brings together four single coils under three covers. The coils are selectable with a 6-way rotary knob and offer a variety of sounds. Position one activates the coil closest to the bridge, the next adds the coil closest to the neck for a J-style configuration, and the...

Do you have five minutes of free time? Yes, you do. You may say that you don’t, but really, you do. It’s easy… wake up five minutes earlier than you usually do and pick up your bass before work. Or, go to bed five minutes later. Or, DVR your favorite TV show, watch it and fast forward through the commercials,...

Marvin Gaye’s tune “Let’s Get It On” featured one the great Motown bass lines, played by Wilton Felder. Bassist Adam Stevens took the tune, his bass and a looper, and made it his own. Once again, Adam turns in an amazing all-bass performance.

In July, we posted a cool video of Bart Soeters displaying a wide variety of basses, and one of his instruments really stood out to me: the Toby Chennell Arco Acoustic Bass Guitar. The electric bass and upright bass share several qualities, but overall they’re really different instruments. UK-based luthier Toby Chennell set out to bring more of their elements...

Behind every major pop star, there’s usually a cast of talented musicians backing them up. This includes the wildly popular boy band One Direction, who get their groove from bassist Sandy Beales. Since 2011, the London-based low-ender has been touring the world with the “What Makes You Beautiful” singers and playing to sold-out crowds. But his playing doesn’t stop there....

Name That Bass Line! is a fun show on YouTube that mixes skit comedy and famous bass lines. What more could you want? Each segment has ten mystery bass lines played by fellow YouTubers that the viewers have to guess. This episode features bassists Dave Baron, Will Lee, MarloweDK, DavidSinRocks, TJH3113, MusicLisha, Paul from “How To Play Bass Dot Com”,...

Dream Theater frontman James LaBrie has released his third solo album, Impermanent Resonance, on August 6th in North America and July 29 in Europe. LaBrie maintained the same lineup as his previous album, which includes bassist Ray Riendeau, LaBrie’s longtime songwriting partner, keyboardist and background vocalist Matt Guillory, guitarist Marco Sfogli, drummer and Dream Theater audition finalist Peter Wildoer (Darkane,...

TC Electronic has upgraded its flagship tuner with the Polytune 2. The polyphonic tuner, which displays the pitches of all your strings when you strum them simultaneously, now offers a bigger, brighter display as well as chromatic strobe tuner. The Polytune 2 features much brighter LEDs than its predecessor and the brightness of the display is adjusted automatically with an...

Q: Is it cheating to have lines on the fretboard of a fretless bass? Also, what would be better for a first fretless: picking up a quality used instrument and de-fretting it (assuming I cant find a used fretless) or a brand new entry-level one? The only fretless basses I’ve played so far I liked was a Warwick Corvette and...

In honor of Larry Graham’s birthday today, we wanted to look back at his earlier work with Graham Central Station. This is some serious old school funk right here – with Larry and the band making an appearance on Soul Train – I believe in 1975. Happy birthday, Mr. Graham!

After releasing four collaborative albums last year, legendary keyboardist Chick Corea has gotten back to creating his own songs with The Vigil. The effort includes a brand new band filled out by saxophonist Tim Garland, guitarist Charles Altura, drummer Marcus Gilmore and bassist Hadrien Feraud. The band, which is also called The Vigil, gives Corea the opportunity to return to...