Archive for April 2018 - Page 2

You can always count on Nathan Navarro to put together some creative bass videos. In this one, Nathan takes on 10 songs and 14 riffs (bass and lead) using his bass and a few effects pedals (Future Impact Bass Synth, Nemesis Delay, and Ventris Reverb). He’s even made the transcriptions and backing tracks available on his Patreon page.

IK Multimedia’s iRig lineup has gotten a little bigger with the iRig Stomp I/O. The USB pedalboard controller is designed for live and studio use with a built-in audio interface featuring 24-bit audio and up to 96kHz sampling rate. It also has a combo input jack for use with line, instrument, or mic input with phantom power. The controller connects...

Playing a lot of bass can lead to some serious issues with your hands and wrists. Ryan Sollee and Gabe Castro are combatting those issues with WristGrips, a one-size-fits-all compression wrap that aims at preventing health problems. “WristGrips help prevent and heal tendonitis, arthritis, and carpal tunnel issues, by compressing and supporting the wrist, increasing oxygen and blood flow to...

New Orleans is a city steeped in tradition, but a big part of their culture is constant evolution. That may be why James Singleton is one of the busiest bassists in town. He’s been a mainstay of the scene for over four decades by playing a myriad of styles with tons of music legends: John Scofield, Ellis Marsalis, Stanton Moore,...

We love it when these two get together to record a new video. Here’s bassist Evan Marien and drummer Dana Hawkins doing their thing at Man Made Music Studios in New York. The tune is “Glacier.” If you’re in Europe, you’re in luck. The duo is going on tour in May. Evan has the dates on his website.

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones are celebrating 30 years of music this summer with a handful of North American tour dates. The band will feature the original lineup of Fleck, Roy “Future Man” Wooten, Howard Levy, and Victor Wooten. The outing revolves mostly around festivals in late June, kicking off with the Rochester Jazz Festival on June 26th followed by...

Vovox has announced the Sonorous XL series of cables, which they describe as a “top-of-the-line cable series is designed for both musicians and studios.” The Swiss cable company explains their new line is set apart from their Sonorous line by a crystalline structure of the large, solid-core copper conductors. “As a consequence of their exceptional construction, the ‘sonorus XL’ cables...

Q: I’ve started learning jazz bass about 7 years ago, coming from over 20 years of violin (classical) training. The first thing I did to move from classical music to jazz was to get all Aebersold play-a-longs, and every transcription I could get on Earth, and dig them. I now feel that this is holding me back quite a bit,...

I spin Elton John’s 17-11-70 album regularly, mostly just to hear the remarkable bass lines of Dee Murray. It never gets old. There’s simply not enough footage of this incredible bassist (or Elton John’s trio) out there, but here’s a great clip of them performing the title track to Madman Across the Water, live in 1971.

Walrus Audio has revamped their Luminary Quad Octave Generator for 2018. The pedal, which offers four blendable octaves with filters, has been tweaked while retaining the same platform. “With several tasteful updates, the brains of the Luminary V2 are still built on the Sharc DSP platform for crystal clear tracking and high-resolution A/D and D/A conversion,” Walrus writes. Those updates...

Janek Gwizdala has expanded his line of educational bass books to beef up your technique. The Bass Player’s Ultimate Chop Builder is split into two books: one for major and one for minor. “Having chops is about being able to play anything you hear and seamlessly communicate that with your audience,” Gwizdala states. “The Ultimate Chop Builder series goes deep...

Darkglass Electronics is continuing their tradition of limited edition models with a decked out version of the Microtubes 900 bass amp. The amp has a new black chassis with artwork on its top. “We have collaborated with Christopher Lovell, a true social media sensation as of late with some of the most epic, dark artwork we have seen in the...