Archive for November 2014 - Page 7

As part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection, two more Wings albums are getting the deluxe box set treatment, with reissues featuring bonus audio and video and booklets with previously unreleased photos and new interviews with Paul McCartney. Wings was legendary singer/songwriter/bassist Paul McCartney’s band throughout the 1970s. The band racked up hits throughout the decade, and these mid-1970s albums,...

BassMods has introduced the K534, a 5-string bass that pays homage to a classic style. The model is built with a chambered alder body and a bolt-on maple neck with white binding and pearloid block inlays. Each K534 is made to order and built for a dual pickup configuration. Pickup options include Bartolini Dual Coil Brights, Bartolini Deep Tone Dual...

A couple of months ago, we featured a video from Berklee’s 2014 Alumni Reunion Concert featuring Abraham Laboriel Sr. performing with his sons. Here’s another song from that performance, with an additional family connection. Laboriel Sr. is once again joined by his sons – Abraham Laboriel Jr. on drums and Mateo Laboriel on guitar – as well as Jetro Da...

Another great bassist has left us. Rick Rosas, who served as longtime bassist for Neil Young, has passed away at the age of 65. The cause of death has not been released. Affectionately known as “Rick the Bass Player,” Rosas got his musical start in an instrumental surf band called Mark & The Escorts in the early 1960’s. The core...

If you’re a fan of Bob Dylan and/or The Band, you always knew that they made far more music together than was released on 1975’s The Basement Tapes. Now, all that music, originally recorded in the summer of 1967 in the basement of the West Saugerties, New York – home known as “Big Pink” – is available on a 6-CD...

Eve Guitars has expanded their instrument lineup with the IONA, a handmade bass fitted with the company’s Eve Jazz + Humbucker pickup configuration. Luthier Douglas Mullen says the bass spent lots of time in the development phase. “We’ve spent a significant amount of time getting this instrument right,” he shares. “We had a great starting point originally from the Elite,...

Many people have been introduced to the work of Bill Dickens through his jaw-dropping technique and finesse on his 7-string bass, but that’s not the whole story. Dickens, who started on drums at the tender age of 3, has been a songwriter since his teen years. His writing, producing, and arranging has gotten scored Billboard hits for several R&B artists,...

Dennis Chambers is on the short list of drummers I’d love to play with, and I’m sure most bass players would agree. Billy Sheehan is one of those bassists lucky enough to do just that, in the band Niacin. Here’s the trio with John Novello on keys performing “Blood, Sweat & Beers.” This one grooves. Oh yeah.

Genesis’ 1981 concert film, , is now available in standalone Blu-ray and DVD editions. While the film has been available to avid Genesis fans as part of the band’s extensive video collection, The Movie Box, and on VHS, this reissue features fully restored footage. Filmed on the Abacab tour, Three Sides Live documents Genesis — guitarist/bassist Mike Rutherford, keyboardist Tony...

La Bella has announced a new type of extended-life string called the Vapor Shield series. Instead of spraying or dipping the string into a coating, the process treats the entire surface of the string with a nucleated polymer vapor. “Using a highly sophisticated Ionic Vapor Process™ developed by Acoustic Science™, proprietary compounds are activated in a glow discharge electromagnetic plasma,...

Q: I’ve been wondering about what people really mean when they speak of “music as a language,” and how this applies to improvising. When I take a solo, I feel like I’m just running the same patterns over and over again and never really doing anything different from song to song. What thoughts do you have about this? A: This...

Before Yellow bassist Johannes Pehrson sent us this video of their new tune, “Following The Signs.” Featuring vocalist Anna Schonebeck, Pehrson said the song was recording using only a 6-string bass, drums and vocals. Great tune and sound from this trio.