Archive for 2013 - Page 88

Since we first featured bassist Aubrey Harris just about two years ago, we’ve known here simply as “BassGirl”. And for two years, she’s been impressing No Treble readers – including us. It has been great to watch Aubrey grow as a bassist and musician, and to see how she’s harnessed the power of the web to get her music and...

Hal Leonard announced a few new bass-focused books at this year’s NAMM Show, including a new one by author Chad Johnson. For many bassists, complete fretboard knowledge is lacking. Bass Fretboard Workbook – Essential Music Principles and Concepts for Fretboard Mastery was written to overcome these unknown spots with Johnson’s method for becoming comfortable with the whole neck. The method...

This review will cover two Cort basses, the T54, and the Curbow 52. These basses are not the Cort basses of years past you may remember when you went shopping for one of your early basses. For an entry level intermediate basses, I was truly impressed with the features, fit and finish, and the sound. It has been many a...

I recently picked up Milt Hinton’s book Bass Line, and it just reinforced what a wonderful life he led. Known for his incredible slap technique, “The Judge” was also known for his great sense of humor, and here’s a great clip that shows off his personality and playing. The recording comes from the 1992 Mid-America Jazz Festival in St. Louis,...

Kevin Ayers, who co-founded the 1960s British psychedelic band The Soft Machine, has passed away at the age of 68. The cause of death has not be released. Ayers formed The Soft Machine in 1966, naming the group after the classic novel by William S. Burroughs. The group became an influential force as part of the “Canterbury scene” and was...

After a limited release for their Premier Dealer Network, Ernie Ball has reissued the Music Man Sabre as a standard model. The original Sabre, first introduced in 1978, was Music Man’s first dual humbucking bass. The new Classic Sabre is the first production of the instrument in twenty years and brings back the vintage design with updated electronics, classic mini...

Ever since Vulfpeck released Vollmilch about a month or so ago, the tunes have been in constant rotation in my playlist. This video (along with the one for “Outro” we featured three weeks ago) are among my most favorite tracks from the album. Joe Dart, as usual, is head bobbing and laying down some sweet bass on this one, and...

John Patitucci has teamed up with David Gage String Instruments to release Episode 1 of the bassist’s new Kindle book, Melodic Arpeggios and Triad Combining for Bass. The book, which is made of exercises that Patitucci developed over 10 years, is the first of a six part series designed to take the tedium out of practicing valuable skills. “It is...

While perusing Facebook, I stumbled upon this uber-sleek, uber-unique instrument: The Stash Stainless Bass Guitar. Designed and built by Stanislaw Potyrala in Mississauga, Ontario, the bass is made entirely of stainless steel, which the company says improves stiffness, mechanical and environmental stability, sound quality and tunability. “The only disadvantage is that rock stars will not be able to destroy this...

If you are really serious about improving your bass playing, at some point you are going to realize that you need to have a solid practice plan in place. Merely working on a random variety of exercises or picking up your bass arbitrarily between performances will not put you on the fast track to solid and consistent progress. This is...

Holy smokes. How have we missed Marta Altesa all this time? Once again, our friend Sylvain Gros-Desormeaux sent us a gem of a video, saying, “This cover is very good. Killing tone, perfect timing, I love the smile on [Marta’s] face…” Marta is playing along to Jamiroquai’s “Time Won’t Wait” on her MusicMan StingRay 5. And she says she started...

Grip Studios has expanded their hand-shaped Guitar Grips with the GS Ladies series. Made in Detroit, the guitar hangers are shaped like female hands and mount to the wall to hang your instrument. Like the rest of their models, the Ladies series hangers are built from durable resin with felt on their “wrists” to protect your wall and TAH3 cushioned...