Archive for May 2017 - Page 6

Funk bass legend Bootsy Collins has canceled all of his current tour dates after being diagnosed with a tumor behind his ear. The bassist will undergo surgery very soon with the doctor recommending canceling his performances. Collins announced the news on his Facebook page with a positive attitude. “Yep Funkateers! I found out last week that I had to get...

Meet Simon Poulton, a bassist from London. Simon says he got a late start on the bass, but he’s made the most of his time on the instrument since then. Simon is this week’s No Treble reader in the spotlight. Here’s his story… Bio: I started seriously playing quite late, around 16 years old, I had my first gig a...

Jack Casady and Epiphone are celebrating twenty years since the introduction of the bass legend’s signature bass. Launched in 1997, the bass will be offered this year in a special limited edition outfit defined by a flame maple veneer top and a Wine Red finish. It will also come with a custom gig bag, deluxe leather strap, and a certificate...

Bassist Johannes Pehrson sent us this live video of his duo with Maria Rosenberg performing live in 2016. This time, they’re joined by keyboardist Claus Thorzager in a stunning performance of “Wintertime in My Heart.” “I’m playing my old Warwick Streamer Stage 1 with piccolo strings in this video. Thanks to the big stage, I did not need my reverb...

Time for some fun – aka the top 10 reader favorite videos on No Treble. Here are the most watched videos for the month of April, 2017. Thanks as always for watching, commenting and sharing. Enjoy. 1. Yes with Geddy Lee: Roundabout, Live There were rumors flying that Rush bassist Geddy Lee would be filling in for the late Chris...

Bass builder Stephan Mongeon sent me some photos of his latest build and I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. The Stellart Guitars Nemesis is a six-string neck-through semi-hollow fretless bass. Judging by these pictures, it’s a work of art, too. Mongeon builds basses with his wife, Ella, in Quebec where they’ve been honing their craft for...

This episode is part one of a three-part challenge. Those time tested permutation exercises (you are doing them, right?) are getting two fresh twists in this episode: descending by their mirror image for an additional right-hand alternating challenge, and what I call the wicked “Pivot Permutations” – a great fun way to spice up that vital practice. I have a...

Bassist Gustaf Fjelstrom has a new album coming out called The Peripheral Arc: Volume 1. The 8-song instrumental release will feature the bass with an ambient, postrock, electronic twist. He’s just shared the first single from the album, called “Revenant,” which is built around a gritty Rickenbacker tone. The track also has some thick synth bass in the mix. For...

After introducing the pedals at the Winter NAMM Show this year, Ampeg is now shipping the Classic analog bass preamp and Scrambler bass overdrive. The all-analog stomp boxes are compact effects derived from the larger SCR-DI. The Classic offers up the company’s 3-band EQ complete with Ultra Lo and Ultra Hi shelving switches for dialing in your tone. A volume...

We’ve seen a few bassists take Herbie Hancock’s class tune, “Chameleon” and turn it into a solo bass performance. Karl Clews took it up a notch with a three-bass arrangement, using his 2003 Status Graphite Kingbass Artist. Funky!

GHS Strings has updated their short-scale bass strings to be a bit longer. The extra length, they say, is to accommodate for short-scale basses that have a tailpiece or are strung thru-body. “Traditionally, the winding length (ball end to taper/silk) of a short scale bass string has been 32 [inches],” the company writes. “However, this measurement did not work easily...

Here’s a crazy lineup: John Scofield on guitar, Gary Grainger on bass, Dennis Chambers on drums, and Jim Beard on keys. The quartet is on top of their game as they rip it up on the songs “Time Marches On” and “The Nag” in this clip. The first song is a slower jam with Grainger laying down a fat groove,...