Archive for 2015 - Page 65

This week, we lost one of the giants in the world of bass with the passing of Louis Johnson. We also shared the news of Chris Squire’s fight with leukemia. Both pieces of news made the top 10 most read stories of the week, making this a tougher list than usual. 1. In Memoriam: Louis Johnson Bass legend Louis Johnson,...

After announcing the pedal at the NAMM Show this year, Dunlop is now shipping the MXR M85 Bass Distortion. The pedal was designed with Fuzzrocious Pedals founder Ryan Ratajski and is described as revamp on a “famously nasty sounding distortion circuit” that’s been retooled for the modern player. The M85 has separate Dry and Wet level controls to retain low...

Gospel bass legend Andrew Gouche has started posting videos of his church performances, and this one of his “church flow” with his trusty 1968 Fender Jazz Bass is on point. Gouche accompanies the choir on “Is My Living In Vain” during a recent service. The clip is a treat as a performance, but it also serves as a lesson in...

John Patitucci isn’t just a famed jazz double bassist and jazz bass teacher. He’s also an electric bassist, and his latest album, Brooklyn, features him playing electric exclusively. Credited to the John Patitucci Electric Guitar Quartet, the album also features Brian Blade (drums) and electric guitarists Adam Rogers and Steve Cardenas. By the way, a documentary about Patitucci, called, fittingly...

If you caught Victor Wooten and his band during his tour supporting Sword And Stone / Words and Tones, you know how epic a show that band put on. Here’s a video filmed from the audience at Billboard Live in Tokyo (August 20, 2013) show – with two cameras to capture it all. What a groove… and dig it when...

Devi Ever FX is re-releasing the Silver Rose with some upgrades. The company, which was acquired by the people who run Dwarfcraft Devices in 2013, says that the monster fuzz pedal’s updated circuitry allow for extreme versatility. “[The Silver Rose] covers all the ground of the original with some serious improvements, like swapping out the IC Muff clone for a...

Bassist Lukas Pamminger shared this video with us of a musical project called “Proberaumsession”. Lukas said the band just meets “in the practice room with no preparation at all and start to jam… if we like an idea we make a song out of it. The rapper comes up with a hook and freestyles the verses. This particular song “Gerda”...

Nashville bassist and educator Roy Vogt has teamed up with Kiesel/Carvin Guitars to release the RV69K Roy Vogt Signature Vanquish Bass. The 6-string bass, which is the first bass to carry the Kiesel badge, is made in the USA in the company’s custom shop and can be ordered with a variety of options. Standard features on the RV69K include an...

Bass legend Louis Johnson, the funk session musician who played on Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean”, has passed away of undisclosed causes. He was 60 years old. Nicknamed “Thunder Thumbs,” Johnson was born in Los Angeles in 1955 and learned to play bass alongside his brother George. The duo would work alongside each other with Bobby Womack, the Supremes, and Billy...

Not many bands can release a live greatest hits record as its debut. But not many bands have a personnel roster like Sammy Hagar and The Circle. At Your Service features Hagar’s onetime Van Halen bandmate Michael Anthony on bass, and late Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham’s son Jason on drums, as well as Vic Johnson, Hagar’s longtime guitarist. The...

Maxon has announced the BD10 Hybrid Bass Driver, a bass overdrive pedal that features a symmetrical clipping circuit for “heavy yet articulate distortion.” The company teamed up with famed Japanese bassist Masaki to design the unit to keep up with extended techniques. The BD10 has a dedicated clean level for mixing in your dry signal. It also boosts up to...

Miles Mosley is a man that keeps busy. Since we last talked with the Los Angeles native, he’s done extensive touring and been featured on several albums including Kendrick Lamar’s chart-topping To Pimp A Butterfly. His most recent work can be heard on bandmate Kamasi Washington’s album The Epic, where Mosley supports a wall of sound in an innovative new...