Archive for August 2015 - Page 6

Nordstrand Guitars has teamed up with bassist Dan Lutz to unveil the Nordy DL vM5. The bass is a take on the company’s Nordy vM5 model that brings together their NP5 and BigMan pickups for a unique configuration. Similar to the vM5, the DL vM5 is built with either an ash body and maple fingerboard or an alder body with...

Simone Masina has shared another terrific video with us of his project, known as Peekaboom. Here the duo of Simone and vocalist Angelica Lubian perform “Bye Bye Blackbird”. As an added bonus, Angelica takes over on double bass while Simone solos on his bass guitar.

Chicago bassist Pennal Johnson (PJ) combines jazz, funk, adult contemporary and rock and roll on his album, Cissy Strut. The bassist for The Chicago All-City Jazz Band from 1984-87, Johnson began playing bass at age 8. During his career, he has performed with artists like Andre and Sandra Crouch, Kurt Carr and Abraham Laboriel. Johnson is also working as part...

You know you’re doing something right when metal mainstay Kirk Windstein is singing your praises, and that’s precisely the case for Don Slater of Battlecross. The bassist brings an intense energy to the stage every night with a unique voice on his instrument. Battlecross is now gearing up to release , a 10-song collection that combines their thrash and groove...

When I see a video by Stuart Clayton, I’m usually at a loss for words. As many of you know, his transcriptions are stellar, and his bass playing is equally so. Here’s what Stuart had to say about his latest video: “This is my arrangement of Debussy’s ‘Golliwog’s Cakewalk’, from The Children’s Corner suite of piano pieces. I’ve wanted to...

Hundreds of thousands of people witnessed The Grateful Dead’s “Fare Thee Well” concert series, marking the final time the “core four” surviving band members would perform together under the band’s moniker. A month later, three of the four band members – Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and Mickey Hart – have announced a concert on Halloween night at Madison Square Garden...

Recording bassists have some new amp modeling software options with Universal Audio’s new Ampeg Bass Amp plug-ins. The two new plug-ins focus on the SVT sound with an SVT-VR model and an SVT-3 Pro model, both of which are included in UAD Software v8.3 and are made exclusively for UAD-2 hardware and Apollo interfaces. Each of the amp simulating plug-ins...

Q: How do I get myself unstuck from using the blues scale? Whenever I solo in fingerstyle or slap, I can’t help but to be stuck on the blues scale. I want to move on from it. Also, when I’m doing slap, I stick to octaves, but I want to be able to do different intervals and move around a...

Herbie Hancock has never been short on great bassists to play with over his career. Here’s a killer clip of his band being anchored by Tal Wilkenfeld on “Actual Proof” during the 2010 Montreux Jazz Festival. Wilkenfeld brings tons of energy to the performance and follows each soloist to support their ideas. She then takes a thoughtful solo of her...

Meet Esat Ekincioglu, a bassist who has what I think might be performing with the longest list of bands I’ve seen here. He’s equally versatile too. Esat is this week’s No Treble reader in the spotlight, and here’s his story. Bio: I was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1990 and picked up the bass guitar when I was 12-13. I...

Clear your calendar for the rest of the day, because it is time to celebrate (watch) the top 10 most watched videos on No Treble in July. Thanks for watching, commenting and sharing. Enjoy! 1. Primus: Lee Van Cleef Just about all of Les Claypool‘s bass lines are catchy and fun to play, but “Lee Van Cleef” is one of...

Mike Poggione is back with another death metal playthrough. This time the bassist tears through his band Doomsilla’s “Redlight Executioner” on his 7-string bass with lighting fast riffs and a biting tone. Warning: death metal vocals ahead.