Archive for January 2016 - Page 2

“Come Dancing”, “Play With Me”, “Led Boots”… these were some of the funkiest songs I had ever heard! It was 2005 and a bass player friend had just turned me on to Jeff Beck’s Wired. The groovy keyboard parts, punchy bass lines, and space-age sounds of Beck hooked me like a fish. It was a magical time; strolling down the...

The amazing Craig Butterfield is back with another jaw-dropping video. He’s once again teamed up with mandolinist Jesse Jones for an upcoming album, entitled Pisces. Here’s the duo tearing through the title track, with Butterfield burning up the fingerboard. The bassist gets creative during the breakdown with a pizzicato line punctuated by hand percussion on the bass’s body.

Gary Peacock, the legendary jazz double bassist known for his numerous collaborations, including his work within a trio featuring pianist Keith Jarrett and drummer Jack DeJohnette, has added another collaborator to his list: Robert Kaddouch. Kaddouch is a French jazz researcher interested in the dynamics of duos. Peacock and Kaddouch encountered each other in a recording studio in July 2015...

Nineteen years after it debuted, Peavey reintroduced the Cirrus bass to their instrument lineup at the 2016 Winter NAMM Show. The neck-thru design will once again be available in four-, five-, and six-string models featuring a 35-inch scale maple and mahogany neck. Its alder body wings will be topped by either red oak or walnut. Similar to the previous versions,...

Q: I’m making a custom 5 stringer tuned from E to C. It’s a 34 inch scale and the string spacing are 18mm. What strings are recommended, and what gauge are preferred to get both tighter E and a great high C? I’m used to nickel medium gauge. My luthier promised me it wouldn’t have a floppy C, but I...

At first, Ray Riendeau produced a bass arrangement of Michael Jackson’s “Black Or White”. After that, he wanted to see how the vocals fit with it. He said after only a few edits, it all came together. “I’m jamming’ with the king of pop…well not really but pretty cool nonetheless,” he shared. We thought it turned out spectacular. If you...

The Catastrophist is the first release from the quintet Tortoise in seven years. The band, which features Doug McCombs (Eleventh Dream Day, Brokeback) on bass, creates music that’s hard to categorize, and this time out, the primarily instrumental group called in vocalists for a cover of David Essex’s 1970s hit, “Rock On” as well as the ballad, “Yonder Blue.” Check...

Meet Dean Milano, a long-time bassist with a ton of gigs under his belt. We loved his story, and his 1966 Fender Precision gave us some serious GAS. Here’s Dean’s story… Bio: I’ve played bass at one time or another in probably 75 bands over a 50 year long career that encompasses my love of rock and roll, folk music,...

Reed James Engineering was at the 2016 Winter NAMM show to introduce the VVN NEOA5 set of pickups. Based on their VVN RJNEO set, the new pickups differentiate themselves by creating a relationship between the neodymium magnets and vintage Alnico 5 rod magnets. “We mated precise amounts of each magnet material to create the magnetic pull and field in order...

We got to check out Project RnL performing at NAMM, and it was a real thrill. Here they are in a recent live, pre-NAMM performance of Maroon 5’s “Moves Like Jagger”, Project RnL-style. Bassist Or Lubianiker brings it!

Deluxe editions of Black Sabbath’s first three studio albums – Black Sabbath, Paranoid and Master of Reality – have been released, coinciding with the groundbreaking metal band’s final tour. Each edition features the 2012 remaster of its respective original album, available on CD for the first time, and a disc of outtakes previously unreleased in North America. The deluxe editions...

This week we’re checking out the Puntundo 5 by Spain’s Ele Custom Basses. This version of their El Puntundo bass was made for Fabio Lessa and features the headless version of the striking singlecut design. One’s eye is led straight to the buckeye burl top, which is accentuated with matching pickup covers. The set-neck bass is also built with a...