Archive for November 2014 - Page 3

Fishman is now shipping the Platinum Pro EQ and Platinum Stage acoustic preamps. The all-analog preamps have been redesigned with a discrete, high-headroom Class-A circuitry as well as a new switchable guitar/bass EQ that the company says makes them more musical for bass instruments. The Platinum Stage preamp has a four-band EQ with a sweepable mid-frequency and low frequency filter...

Steve Bailey recently sent me a cool video of bass players congratulating Eddie Gomez on his recent honorary doctorate from Berklee School of Music. A recurring theme in everyone’s praise was Eddie’s playing on the song “Humpty Dumpty,” which led me to revisit the song and find a few versions. Here’s a clip of Eddie playing it alongside Chick Corea,...

After releasing the Scott Devine Series bass in 2011, Overwater Basses has announced the J Series “Scott Devine Model.” The new model is based on the 4-string bass he uses in the majority of his YouTube bass lesson videos. “Based on the original custom 4 string bass we built for Scott back in 2010, encompassing all the physical attributes associated...

Bassist Davide Medicina shared this video of his band Maktub Project performing a reimagined version of Simon and Garfunkel’s classic hit, “The Sound of Silence.” Medicina describes their band as influenced by R&B, jazz and neo-soul, and it shows. The trio reharmonizes the song and adds a healthy dose of modern groove. Medicina lays a thick foundation while taking time...

The 10th annual Encuentro Latinoamericano de Contrabajos will take place Saturday, November 22nd through Thursday, November 27th at the Tijuana Cultural Center in Tijuana, Mexico. The week-long Latin American bass workshop is presented by the Contrabajos de Baja California and will include quartets, group classes, masterclasses, a bass orchestra, and much more. This year’s guest artists include world-renowned bassists Catalin...

Reed James Engineering has expanded their line of neodymium pickups with the RJ Neo Bucker, a split coil design built in a soap bar shape with a reverse P-bass format. Utilizing the company’s Vintage Vibe Neo technology, the pickup boasts noiseless operation. The pickup is constructed with pole pieces powered by neodymium magnets. Other features include ABS plastic covers, a...

This month’s transcription is “Cowboy from Prague,” a short piece by Polish slap bass wizard Wojtek Pilichowski, recorded at the Aguilar Artist Loft earlier in 2014. Wojtek has made a name for himself in recent years with his hard-hitting and energetic slap technique. True to form, he packs a lot of ideas into this short piece. Wojtek takes influences from...

In celebration of Gail Ann Dorsey’s birthday today, we’re looking back to a terrific acoustic performance of David Bowie’s “Heroes,” which took place in October 1996. Bowie is on acoustic guitar, with a bottlecap taped to the bottom of his shoe for percussion. Reeves Gabrels is also on guitar, and of course, the wonderful Gail Ann is on bass and...

The Art of McCartney may be the most spectacular tribute album ever assembled for a bassist. McCartney, a legendary singer/songwriter/bassist (The Beatles, Wings and solo), has one of the most enviable catalogs of songs in popular music and a host of his musical contemporaries and descendants signed to sing on the collection of his work. Compiled over more than a...

Dream Studio Guitars has released a 5-string version of their Maverick Bass called the M5. The bass retains many of the same features as its predecessor while adding a low B string. The M5’s body is built from a single piece of swamp ash that is given a vintage offset shape with extra contouring. Its bolt-on, hard maple neck is...

In part 1 of this series, we were experimenting with using substitutions that allowed us to play familiar major and minor scale shapes over various basic chord types. Now, let’s move on to melodic and harmonic minor mode choices. First, let’s make sure that we’re all familiar with these two scales: Harmonic minor = Aeolian (natural minor) with a major...

If you’ve been a No Treble reader for a while, you’ll likely recognize the name Fernando Lamadrid, thanks to the video we shared in August 2013 of his tune “Mollete Express” (this was such a great tune, we even published a transcription by Stuart Clayton). Fernando is back with a new video that shows off another side, with the tune...