Archive for April 2011 - Page 6

Korg has a new tuner on the market, dubbed the Pitchclip. As the name suggests, the device works by clipping it to the headstock. The Pitchclip uses a built in piezo sensor to detect vibrations and determine the pitch in the meter. Korg says the accuracy of the device is +/-1 cent. The device includes an LED display and is...

Meet Brad Bradly Jenkins, a bassist from Lafayette, Louisiana and our player in the spotlight for April 12, 2011. Bio: I hail from a Cajun family from hot and humid Lafayette, Louisiana. I’ve been playing for almost five years, and I’ve received no formal music training. Throughout my career as a bassist, I’ve always focused on experimentation, creating new sounds,...

Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band has released their fifth album, That’s How We Roll, on Telarc International. The collection has the 18-piece band showcasing 9 new original tracks from band leader Goodwin, as well as his arrangement of the classic Gershwin tune, “Rhapsody in Blue.” Bassist Rick Shaw holds down the low end throughout the album with the exception of...

Mark O’Connor recorded in 1991, with the help of over fifty Nashville musicians. O’Connor wanted to “showcase the instrumental side of the Nashville recording scene.” Here’s one particular line-up of interest, with Victor Wooten, Brent Mason and Paul Leim in a live performance.

Warwick has introduced the BC Combo series, a 5-model line ranging in strength from 20 to 300 watts. The company explains the new combos are good for when you need to be heard, but not “bend people’s eardrums.” The pinnacle of the series is the BC300, a 300-watt amp combined with a 15” driver and 4” HF horn. The combo...

I thought I would address a question left on No Treble’s Facebook page regarding string action on upright and volume discrepancies between different strings by talking a bit about set up on the upright bass. When someone talks about getting the upright bass set up, they are referring to a number of things, from bridge height to curve of the...

Bassist Les July recently sent us this video, featuring his tribute to Kate Bush, and his bass and vocal arrangement of one of Kate’s tunes, “Running Up That Hill”. Les plays a Steinberger bass with Boomerang Looper and an E-Bow on this recording.

Here are the most read, most popular stories and features on No Treble for the week of April 3 – 9, 2011. 1. Simon Fitzpatrick: “Bohemian Rhapsody” for Solo Bass Carl Palmer Band bassist Simon Fitzpatrick performs an all-bass version of the classic Queen tune, “Bohemian Rhapsody” in this video. This was filmed at the Cannery Casino in Las Vegas,...

Ashdown Engineering has unveiled their new entry in the compact bass amp space with the new MiBass amp heads. Ashdown says the head, measuring 8.2″ wide, 2.6″ tall and 6.3″ deep with an internal power supply and weighing in at 3.1 pounds, can fit in most standard gig bag pockets. The unit is about half the size of the Ashdown...

Cherry Lane Music has published a new series by Danny Gill, focusing on the music of Metallica. Metallica: Classic Songs for Bass is a book/DVD package, featuring note-for-note transcriptions of eight Metallica tunes. The book includes both standard notation and tab. The DVD includes instruction by Gill, demonstrating many bass lines from the song (run time: 1 hour, 24 minutes)....

Simon Hayden originally wrote and recorded “Soweto Groove” for fretless guitar. Then he recorded this double bass version. We may be partial, but we like the bass version best. (And here’s the first link ever on No Treble to a guitar video, if you want to see the original).

Dark Matter Audio has unveiled details of their premier product, the DMA1. The DMA1 is an app-enabled smart device tailored for musicians, featuring a color touchscreen, internet capability and tons of connectivity. It’s capable of effects processing, multi-track recording, playing MP3 files and more. Similar to a smartphone, users will be able to wirelessly download apps, including drum machines, loops,...