Archive for 2016 - Page 109

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...

The No Treble Crew is in Anaheim, California to cover all the bass-related news from the 2016 Winter NAMM Show. Be sure to check in throughout the show and in the days following for the most complete coverage from the world of bass.

Bassist Olivier Babaz sent us this video of himself taking an arco solo over the gypsy jazz standard “Minor Swing”, and I had to watch a few times. Besides playing some great ideas, he gets a huge tone that will make your ears happy.

Charles Lloyd & The Marvels’ latest album on Blue Note Records, I Long to See You, features not only the jazz group’s longtime bassist, Reuben Rogers, but also some special guest vocalists. Norah Jones is the featured vocalist on “You Are So Beautiful,” while Willie Nelson steps in for “Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream.” While the album features...

Q: I have recently made the move from 4-string to 5-string bass. I love the extended range (my bass is tuned E-C), but I’m finding I need to add more practice time to accommodate the additional string. There were exercises that I played on 4 strings and I am now expanding that to include the additional string/range. I can see...

I’ve been getting pumped up for the Guns N’ Roses reunion this year by checking out older performances, and this one caught me. Shot in Tokyo in 1992, the video starts with Duff McKagan riffing for Axl Rose to intro the band with “Sail Away Sweet Sister” and “Bad Time” before kicking into “Sweet Child O’ Mine”. The song, of...

There’s been a great wave of instrumental/jazz-rock bands as of late, and Vels Trio is one of them. Anchored by bassist Cameron Dawson, the group explores genre bending grooves and textures. Here’s a great clip of the trio performing “Yellow Ochre,” which has Dawson alternating between a bubbling, filtered bass line and a straight groove.

British rockers Skunk Anansie have released their sixth studio album, Anarchytecture. The band features founding member Richard “Cass” Lewis on bass, and its camp is calling the record “a collection of hard-hitting alternative rock anthems, brimming with punchy riffs and the sort of fire that can only burn from the heart and soul of vocal powerhouse, Skin.” This is the...

Meet Dmitry Lisenko, a bassist and teacher who seemed to have some outside forces working against him in his early days. Despite that, he went for it and is now making his living in music. Dmitry is this week’s reader in the spotlight. Here’s his story… Bio: I started playing bass at the age of 16. When I went to...