Archive for May 2014 - Page 6

Snarky Puppy lovers, a cool thing is about to happen for you — the group’s bassist, Michael League, has produced, arranged, played on, and even released the debut album of the band’s UK-based keyboardist Bill Laurance. The album, Flint, on League’s GroundUP label, is available in a CD/DVD combo set, which is not only filled with great music, but also...

Meet Alejandro Masafret, a full-time musician and music educator from Spain. Alejandro keeps busy as an in-demand bassist, but his start was completely one of chance – and one he’s glad took place. Among the great stuff he shared was “I really love bass!” That of course is what we want to hear, and so it was an easy choice...

I’ve found many bass players have difficulty with transposing bass lines, so here’s a lesson that should help. Transposing on bass isn’t terribly difficult, since we can rely on shapes and patterns up and down the neck, to play a line in several keys. In the video below I demonstrate how to navigate the neck, playing the same pattern over...

Solo bassist Jesús Rico Pérez shared yet another incredible video with us. On this tune, Jesús starts with an Ebow, making his bass sound flute-like in this Michael Manring-inspired piece. Jesús has released his album, Scars – Solo Bass Guitar. Check it out on Bandcamp.

WAMI (White Appice Mendoza Iggy) – the new supergroup featuring Doogie White (Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen), Vinnie Appice (Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell, Dio), Marco Mendoza (Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake) and 16-year-old Polish newcomer Iggy Gwadera (Anti Tank Nun) on guitar – has released its debut album, . Mendoza, who was the first to connect with the young guitarist, calls the album...

Sandberg has added the new M-4 model to the Electra series of basses. This latest addition joins the previous models to round out the three most common classic bass styles with a single humbucker with a 2-band EQ. Sandberg says this configuration gives it a modern rock tone. Similar to the rest of the line, the bass is designed, assembled...

Original Foreigner bassist Ed Gagliardi has passed away after a eight years of battling cancer. He was 62. Gagliardi was the final member added to create Foreigner in 1976. The native New Yorker was of the American half of the band while the other three members of the sextet were British. Although he was right-handed, Gagliardi played a Rickenbacker bass...

When Victor Wooten was on tour in support of Sword & Stone and Words & Tones, my daughters and I caught a show in Falls Church, Virginia. Before that performance, Victor invited us to hang out with him and some of the other band members on the tour bus. I’ve often wished I could have recorded that conversation, which was...

Paul McCartney’s “Out There” Tour is set to hit the U.S. this summer. The U.S. leg opens June 14 with McCartney’s first-ever performance in Lubbock, Texas, hometown of rock and roll icon Buddy Holly. McCartney, who requested to play the city, is a well-known fan of Holly’s work and owns Holly’s music publishing catalog. The Lubbock show and dates in...

Time to crank up the bass. Here are the top 10 most read/most watched stories and videos on No Treble for the week of May 4-10, 2014. Thanks for reading, watching, commenting and sharing. 1. Bass of the Week: MonoNeon’s Microtonal Bass Most No Treble readers will recognize MonoNeon as a forward thinking bassist with a unique style that blends...

Breedlove Stringed Instruments has revamped their line of acoustic-electric bass guitars with three models including the Pursuit, the Solo, and the Studio basses. Breedlove Pursuit Bass The Pursuit is 32-inch scale bass built around the company’s Concert body shape that first appeared in 1992. The bass is built with a solid sitka spruce top and sapele laminate back and sides,...

The Kala U-Basses are a blast to play, but Ben Rouse takes things up a notch with his performance of Bach’s “Cello Suite No.1 – Prelude”. Ben shared this video with us and said he loves how the tune sounds on the U-Bass, which he’s running through a Fishman Loudbox mini acoustic amp.