Archive for 2012 - Page 9

No Treble columnists offered up a bunch of popular how-to’s and lessons in November. Here is the most popular among them, along with our most popular basses of the week and a few stories and features that got the most attention. Thanks as always for reading, commenting and sharing. 1. Bass of the Week: Convolution Bass When longtime friends Edwin...

As we celebrate the birthday of the world’s greatest bass player today, we look back at six reader favorite videos by Jaco Pastorius. From his incredible solos to his performances with Weather Report and his own Word of Mouth band, there’s never a shortage of bass greatness from the legend. Happy birthday, Jaco. We miss you. (Check out all of...

Lava Cable has introduced the Lava Power Tube Pedal Board Snake, a 7-cable snake that can be customized with a variety of connectors. The cables included are for AC Power, Amp In, Effects Send, Effects Return, Mono Footswitch, Stereo Footswitch or XLR, and CAT 5/MIDI 5 or 7-Pin. Each of the cables is color-coded, labeled, and shielded to prevent crosstalk....

Ernie Ball/Music Man has unveiled the Sledge basses, a new special offering available through their Premier Dealer Network. Designed in conjunction with Tony Levin, the Music Man Sledge has a custom metallic flake finish that shifts colors depending on your viewing angle. Offered on Classic Stingray 4 and 5s, the Sledge is also available on the Music Man Sabre bass,...

Mike Dimin is a bassist that focuses on stretching what he calls “The Chordal Approach.” Inspired in part by jazz guitarist Joe Pass, Dimin took his knowledge of melody, harmony, and rhythm to start making chord-melody arrangements of songs for bass. He also utilizes a looper to create “lush arrangements of everything from Jazz Standards to R&B and pop classics...

Tomorrow is Jaco’s birthday, so we’re thinking a lot about him around here. And so here’s an audio track of Richard Bona playing one of Jaco’s compositions, “Continuum.” (He throws in some extra Jaco stuff too). So much bass greatness all in one spot.

Steve Lawson has released a new duo album with saxophonist Andy Williamson entitled Nothing Can Prepare. The album is taken from performances captured on tour in church venues and features Lawson’s beautiful, ambient improvisation with Williamson joining in, starting from the back of the church for a gorgeous effect. While the title is taken from one of Lawson’s compositions, it...

Science just got a whole lot cooler thanks to Victoria University of Wellington engineering student James McVay. As part of Bachelor’s degree, McVay designed and built the MechBass, a 4-string robotic bass guitar. And yes, it rocks. Built with lasercut and 3D-printed parts, MechBass has four separate units for each string controlled with PCBs. The strings are plucked with picks...

Distributor John Hornby Skewes & Co. Ltd. have introduced a new line of Kinsman instrument amplifiers, including four bass combos. Ranging 15 to 100-watts, the amps all feature a built-in limiter and a headphone output but add features as they grow. The K15B sports a basic 3-band EQ, while the K25B adds another band to the EQ and a CD/Tape...

In late September, Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris released his first solo album entitled British Lion. Now he’s put out a music video for the first single, “Us Against the World”. The project is a bit of a step away from Iron Maiden, but Harris’ ballsy bass tone is still the center of the music.

Radial Engineering has introduced a new 500 series module called the Tossover. The new pro audio tool allows for dividing frequency bands of a signal to process lows and highs separately or to combine them in series to create a band-pass filter. While there are tons of possibilities for its use, Radial Senior Engineer Dan Fraser gave a couple suggestions...

Q: What do you think about Jeff Berlin’s approach to teaching music, specifically: no metronomes? A: Uh oh… This could mean trouble! Here’s my spin on it: I think different things and methods work for different people. I disagree with Jeff’s statements that metronomes are bad for everyone. I think he has a bit of a habit of speaking in...