Archive for January 2016 - Page 3

Over the years I’ve been involved with ensembles of varying sizes and genres. As a result, I’ve experienced some extremely productive rehearsals, and some less than productive rehearsals. Below are a few things that can help your next series of rehearsals run well. Be Prepared It is important to have your part ready to the best of your ability before...

It was thrilling to see Alissia Benveniste perform with her group at this year’s Bass Bash at the Winter NAMM Show. Here’s Alissia laying it down with Common Thread in a 2013 video. The self-described “all-girl band” is performing the aptly named song “That Groove” – one the band says is “an original song we hope that you can groove...

Bassist Jimmy Bain, who laid down the low end for hard rock icons Rainbow and Dio, has passed away at the age of 68. A cause of death has not been announced. The announcement was made by Def Leppard guitarist and Last in Line bandmate Vivian Campbell. “It’s with the heaviest of hearts that I must confirm the news of...

This time of year is big for us – thanks to the Winter NAMM Show. The No Treble crew attended the show on a mission to find everything new in the world of bass. But that’s not all that happened this week. Readers enjoyed Ariane’s string jumping exercises lesson, some great videos, Bass of the Week and this week’s reader...

Aguilar Amplification is expanding their SL line of bass cabinets with the SL 410x. The cab is rated at 800 watts RMS and weighs in at 49 pounds, which the company states is nearly half the weight of a traditional 410. The SL 410x comes in either 4 or 8 ohm configurations and is loaded with four custom voiced woofers...

Videos from this year’s Winter NAMM show are starting to roll in, and this one really caught my ear. Cory Henry of Snarky Puppy performed at the ROLI event with his band The Funk Apostles, including bassist MonoNeon. The band spins out their own jaw-dropping versions of The Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back” and Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues...

Beginning bassists have a new option with the Washburn Sonamaster SB1 bass. The entry-level instrument, which comes in Black and Tobacco-Sunburst finishes, is inspired by their ’80s models in its body shape, reverse headstock, and offset position markers. It’s built with an alder body, maple neck, and fingerboard. Washburn fits it with a P-style pickup and passive electronics for an...

Bassist Johannes Pehrson shared this video by his duo with Maria Rosenberg, known as Me and Maria. This is their new single, “Wintertime in My Heart.” Johannes told me that the chords are played on his 4-string MusicMan bass, and the melodies and solos are played on his 4-string piccolo bass. In other words, outside of the vocals, everything else...

Electro-Harmonix unveiled the Bass Preacher at the Winter NAMM Show this year. The compact compressor/sustainer pedal is designed specifically for bass guitar to manipulate its dynamics. It begins with input sensitivity ranges from -10 dBu to +2 dBu, which EHX says makes it ideal for passive and active basses. The Bass Preacher has Volume and Sustain knobs with a three-way...

Slave’s “Slide” was one of those songs that created a wave of new bass players, thanks to the down and dirty groove pinned down by the late Mark Adams. Get a dose of some old school funk with this performance from a 1981 episode of Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.

German psych-rock trio Electric Moon’s live album, Theory of Mind, previously available in 2015 as an import, has gotten an American release. The band, featuring bassist Komet Lulu (who also created the album’s cover art), recorded the album in February 2014 in Heidelberg, Germany, and as the record has filtered out there, response to it has been good. Just check...

The eccentric effects creators at EarthQuaker Devices have released the Bellows Fuzzdriver, which they describe as a “back-to-basics, transistor-based dirt device.” The pedal is pared down to just Level and Drive controls for a straight-forward vintage vibe. “Similar to the volume control of a “non master” amp, the Drive determines how hard the signal hits the input. At lower drive...