Best of 2011: The Top 10 Bass Gear Stories
Gear! Readers can’t get enough, and neither can we. Here’s a big dose of the most read gear stories of 2011 on No Treble.
1. Fender Modern Player Series Bass Guitars
Fender unveiled their Modern Player Series in October, with three new basses: the Modern Player versions of the company’s Telecaster, Jaguar and Jazz basses. These entry-level instruments offer modern features and “unconventional” takes on their predecessors…
2. Spector Alex Webster Signature Bass
Spector released their new Alex Webster Signature Model bass in March. The bass is designed around the company’s Euro5LX, and one of the instrument’s key features is a faster neck, which is slimmer front to back, to facilitate playing the fast and technical riffs the Cannibal Corpse bassist is known to play…
3. Gibson Krist Novoselic Signature RD Bass
Gibson helped celebrate the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind album with the introduction of the Krist Novoselic Signature RD Bass back in September. The grunge bassist used an RD Artist series bass during his years with the trio and as such, the new bass is a recreation of its predecessor, with Novoselic’s own customizations…
4. Warwick Steve Bailey Signature Bass
Fretless bassist Steve Bailey teamed up with Warwick as an endorsing artist, and the company created a new Steve Bailey Signature Bass in April. The model is a six-string fretless based on their Streamer, though the design has been modified for better access to the upper register of the neck…
After discontinuing it in 2010, Fender began shipping the Jaguar Bass once again in October. Originally introduced in 2006, the Fender Deluxe Jaguar Bass now comes in three finishes: 3-Color Sunburst, Candy Apple Red, and Cobalt Blue…
6. Fodera Yin Yang Standard Bass
Fodera announced a new Yin Yang Standard bass, based on their Victor Wooten Yin Yang Deluxe during the Winter NAMM show in early 2011, to make the bass more widely available. The bass utilizes all the same materials and specifications from their Brooklyn-made instrument with a lower price…
7. Fender Blacktop Series Basses
Fender’s busy year included the release of the new Blacktop Precision and Blacktop Jazz Bass guitars in July. The line of basses are made for a thick, heavy sound and are what Fender describes as “two of the most distinctive iterations of the instruments.”…
8. Brian May Bass Guitar Model
House Music released the Brian May Bass back in August. The guitarist (we won’t hold that against him) gave the low-end treatment to his infamous 6-string called the Red Special, which he made with his father as a kid…
9. Fender Classic ’70s Precision Bass
Fender released the Classic Series ’70s Precision Bass in September, paying homage to the P-bass of the past. Made in Japan, the basses include era-specific features like the bass-side thumbrest, the ’70s-style large headstock logo and a bound neck with block inlays…
10. BOSS RC-3 and RC-30 Loop Stations
BOSS celebrated the ten year anniversary of the first Loop Station with the release of the new RC-3 and RC-30 loopers. Both loopers feature three hours of stereo looping, 99 on-board memory locations, and USB 2.0 connectivity for importing and exporting audio to your computer…
Alright! My bass made it to #2! :D
And no offense to Krist/Nirvana, but you should have swapped him and the Jaguar. Just my opinion.
Very excited about the prospect of an affordable Tele-bass from Fender, but made in China? Fender?
I like fender.. :)) 4 in 10.
What about Mike Lull’s signature Jeff Ament bass? That seemed to be even bigger news than the RD Artist re-creation, though maybe it hit too late to be included..