Archive for 2011 - Page 46

Bassist Bryan Beller has teamed up with guitar virtuoso Guthrie Govan and drummer Marco Minnemann to form The Aristocrats, a rock/fusion instrumental trio of epic proportions. The group has announced that their debut album will hit shelves September 13th, with a three-week tour of the East Coast and Canada to follow. Beller broke the news in his e-newsletter. “The good...

Shawn May of May Custom Basses started playing as a teen and got interested in building after a chance visit to the local library. Inspired by the distinguished luthiers who came before him, he eventually turned his interests into a business. Intrigued with exotic and “intense” looking woods, May focuses on creating one-of-a-kind instruments for each of his customers. We...

Here’s TV One‘s documentary on Bootsy Collins, sharing the highs and lows of the funk legend’s life. There’s so much great stuff here, from Bootsy’s start with a guitar strung as a bass, to James Brown and more. Interesting to hear the difference between “Bootsy”, the funk legend, William Collins, the regular guy.

For 15 years, brothers Chris and Oliver Wood had separate musical careers. Chris, the bassist, is a founding member of the trio Medeski, Martin & Wood, while Oliver, the guitarist, worked in the rock/blues band, King Johnson. That changed one day at a family gathering in 2004, where the brothers decided to join forces to record their own material. The...

Kustom Amplification has introduced the KXB500 bass amp, a no-nonsense amp built for a big sound while staying compact. The amp is rated at 500 watts and has a total of five control knobs, and weighs in at five pounds. The KXB500’s input stage accommodates for a range of signal levels features a clip LED and mute switch. Tone controls...

Q: I am a very young bassist who plays in a band with some other young musicians. I’m having an issue with respect and competitiveness. Most of my bandmates say I’m the best musician among them. Our guitarist assumes he’s the best musician in the band, though his knowledge of theory isn’t there. How do I get him to listen...

Marcin Suchodolski shares this video with us, featuring bassist Krzysztof ?ciera?ski, who knocked us out with his cool bass loop performance (and late 60’s Fender Jazz). Thanks Marcin! Krzysztof submitted this video as part of the BOSS loop contest, and came in 2nd place for central Europe. Have a video to share? Send it to [email protected].

Alfred Music Publishing and Guitar World have teamed up to release How to Play Heavy Metal Bass!, an instructional DVD by Matt Scharfglass. The DVD contains more than 70 minutes of lessons and includes tab files to follow along. Scharfglass covers tone, fretboard patterns and techniques, chords and progressions, playing fingerstyle vs. playing with a pick, constructing bass lines over...

A few weeks ago, we shared bassist Rebecca Johnson and her band in our daily video feature, and reader feedback was terrific. So it was easy to pick Rebecca as our bassist in the spotlight for the week of August 9, 2011. Meet bassist Rebecca Johnson… Bio: Rebecca Johnson is a bass player/singer with 29 years professional experience in the...

In preparation of the upcoming soundtrack release from his audiobook, The Music Lesson, Victor Wooten is giving away free downloads of a track called “Lesson Prelude”. The track is a beautiful rendition of his song “The Lesson,” with a guitar doubling the melody. The full soundtrack will be available for download starting September 20th, but the Woot Crew has something...

Here’s another question taken from our Player Spotlight questionnaire. (By the way, the Player Spotlight is open to all bassists). The question this week: Who are your influences? Answer below in the comments, or on our Facebook page.

Always great to see videos from Viaceslav Svedov. Here’s a recent one, with his all-bass take on the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Hump de Bump”. What kind of coffee do you think Viaceslav drinks? I’ll take some.