Archive for 2012 - Page 16

Meet Chris Lomas, a bass player with nearly 40 years experience hailing from Stourbridge UK. Chris is an active player who currently plays an interesting mix of music, from semi-acoustic roots to power blues to a “muscular sound reminiscent of the floor filling music of New Orleans”. Chris is our player in the spotlight for the week of November 6,...

Dwarfcraft has unveiled the PitchGrinder, a new sequenced pitch shifter that will interest fans of exotic effects. The PitchGrinder, which is their first digital pedal, “smashes” your signal down to 8 bits before shifting it anywhere from an octave down to two octaves up. The onboard sequencer has 8 steps with corresponding knobs to control the amount of pitch shifting...

Check out this Snarky Puppy video featuring the tune “Thing of Gold”, from their groundUP release. It takes a bit for the bass to kick in, but once it does, Michael League makes it groooooooove.

Nathan Navarro has released his debut album, featuring 11 original tracks showcasing the bassist’s unique style. They Came from the Sky ranges from raging dubstep to ambient grooves to bouncy solo bass, with guest appearances by vocalist Dylan Patrello and guitarist Annie Shred. “During the writing process of They Came From the Sky I was inspired by considering the human...

Hard rock outfit Clutch is readying their next release entitled Earth Rocker, which is being produced by Machine and will drop in March 2013. Fans can check out the album’s progress via a website dedicated to updates. Bassist Dan Maines checked in with a short video interview talking about the band’s approach. “The approach was… not to overthink the songs...

One way to give more interest to your improvisations is to add enclosure tones to otherwise simple note choices. Enclosure tones are two tones which “enclose” (i.e. one higher, one lower) another note. Generally, but not always, the note which gets “enclosed” is a chord tone. For example, if we begin with the root of a C7 chord: …and precede...

“In My Life” is one of the most touching Beatles songs, and Rob Smith brings that passion and soul to his solo bass arrangement. Rob really nails the bridge with some awesome two-handed tapping.

We love lists. Lists of bass awesomeness are even better. Here are the top 10 most read stories and most watched videos on No Treble for the week of October 28 – November 3, 2012. Thanks for reading, sharing and commenting! 1. G&L Unveils Black Ice Collection Basses G&L has unveiled a new line of instruments labeled the “Black Ice...

With nearly 100 years in the string manufacturing business, La Bella Strings is getting into producing instruments starting with the Olinto Bass Guitar. Taking its name from one of the company’s founding brothers, the Olinto is handcrafted in New York City’s Lower East Side by renowned luthier Mas Hino. The vintage style bass is built with hand-carved Alder that is...

This is part one of a new series on underrated bass players. First up is Colin Hodgkinson, best known for the innovative blues, rock and jazz group Back Door. While players like Jaco Pastorius were still in high school, Colin Hodgkinson was playing solos, counter-melody, bass lines and chords with Back Door. In my opinion, Colin ranks up there with...

Here at No Treble HQ, we like things that are a little out of the ordinary. Check out this video of La Vague performing their song “Straight Contrariwise”. The duo is made up of Francesca Pirami on vocals and Alessandro Corsi on resophonic bass, stomp box guitar and back up vocals. Corsi’s unique style incorporates finger-style plucking and flamenco-style strumming...

Bassist and producer Bill Laswell‘s amazing career in music has spanned the spectrum. Looking at a short list of the musicians Laswell has worked with says it all: Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop, Public Image Ltd, Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno, Bootsy Collins, Motorhead, Sting, Carlos Santana, Herbie Hancock… It was Laswell’s work with Hancock that brought the 1980’s hit, “Rock-It” —...