Archive for January 2014 - Page 8

Bruno Tauzin sent us this video of himself jamming out a smooth fretless bass groove on his Ibanez Gary Willis Signature bass. The laid back track has the bassist playing some soulful licks and a double-time feel to spice things up.

Vail Johnson has released his sixth solo album, entitled . Describing the music as having a “relaxed intensity,” Johnson’s latest effort features his bass as the lead in fully fleshed out songs. Flow acts as a timestamp for his musical ideas. “This CD is all about simply playing what was in my heart and how I felt about music presently...

This year marks Gibson’s 120th anniversary and they’re celebrating with a plethora of new and upgraded models including the 2014 SG Special Bass. The 30-inch scale bass incorporates features from several of Gibson’s electric basses to create a unique and affordable bass. Starting with a solid mahogany body in the classic SG shape, the bass is built with a glued-in...

Iconic Sound has announced they will be unveiling the Light Lead, the world’s first optical analog, jack-to-jack instrument cable at NAMM this month. The new technology uses analog fiber optics which provides zero capacitance and zero loading. This in turn offers completely uncompressed and full analog signal transmission no matter the cable length. The Light Lead’s cables are high density,...

This week’s top 10 spans the last few days of 2013 and the first few of 2014. And so that means it also includes some of our Best Of lists… And that means there’s a lot of great bass-related stuff to read about! Here are the most popular stories, columns, videos and more on No Treble for the week of...

Fender’s Custom Shop has unveiled the 2014 edition instruments of their annual Custom Collection. The lineup includes two basses: the 2014 Proto Precision Bass and the 1964 Heavy Relic Precision Bass. Fender Custom Shop 2014 Proto Precision Bass Formerly named the Pro Series, the Proto Series is the Fender Custom Shop’s “proving-ground” line built with distinctive features requested for master...

Bassist Bryan Ladd sent us this terrific video, which offers up a nice arrangement of the Jaco Pastorius tune, “Havona”. Bryan is joined by Justin Stanton on the Fender Rhodes and Jason Patterson on drums. And these guys are tight! Bryan takes an incredible solo too. I’ve watched this several times already. I bet you will too.

Metal legend Max Cavalera and his group Cavalera Conspiracy have named Converge’s Nate Newton as their new bassist. Newton broke the news in a statement online: “Hello friends! Just wanted to get some info to everyone since I’ve been getting so many messages…. Yes I am playing bass on the new Cavalera Conspiracy record. No…I am not going to leave...

Chad Villar sent us this video of a duet he performed with Jim Joel Santos of the great Joe Zawinul tune, “Mercy Mercy Mercy”. These guys do such a terrific job, and it reminds me of another great bass duet of this tune from the archives.

After being diagnosed with cancer in October, John McVie is back to performing with Fleetwood Mac. The health scare forced the band to cancel a tour of Australia and New Zealand as McVie underwent treatment. But the veteran rockers returned to the stage for a December 30th gig at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Singer Stevie Nicks spoke with ABC...

Getting hired for a gig is great! Knowing that you’re getting paid well is awesome! And then finding out they’ve got backline? The stars have aligned. This gig just got easy. Will you have to wrestle your cabs into the car? Nope. Drag them back into the house at 2am? No way, Jose! What if it’s pouring rain and there’s...

Wow, I’m so glad I stumbled upon this video… it takes me way back to high school when I had some Tania Maria cassettes (yes, old school). This is Tania and her band at the Java Jazz Festival in 2005, performing “A Felicidade” with bassist Marc Bertaux kicking things off.