Archive for February 2017 - Page 3

Craig Butterfield first caught our attention with a burning note-for-note playalong of Charlie Parker’s “Donna Lee.” but he can do more on the upright than shred. Here’s a beautiful tune called “Lulu’s Theme,” written by multi-instrumentalist Jesse Jones, who accompanies on guitar. Butterfield brings tons of emotion to the gorgeous, sweeping melody to pull on your heartstrings.

Mike Lull introduced a new short-scale version of his P-style bass called the P430 at the Winter NAMM Show this year. The P430 will carry the same features of the full-size P4 – such as an alder, swamp ash, or mahogany body – but it will have a short 30-inch scale. That’s something Lull was not interested in doing until...

We first featured The Lemon Twigs here in January. We’ve been checking out more of their music ever since. Here’s another clip from their KEXP studio appearance, with Megan Zeankowski on bass.

Fuzzrocious Pedals unveiled two new creations at the 2017 NAMM show with the Baxstabber and Blast Furnace pedals. Both pedals, which are made in New Jersey, will be shipping later this year. We caught up with Fuzzrocious’s Ryan and Shannon Ratajaski at the show to get the scoop. “The Baxstabber is a tone shaper and an EQ,” Shannon explained. “It’s...

Mardi Gras Day, also known as “Fat Tuesday” is celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday and is the last big blowout before Lent starts and fasting begins. Mardi Gras is actually a season in New Orleans, Carnival Season. Interesting factoid – the word “Carnival” loosely translates to “Farewell to the flesh”. An iconic song played during Carnival season is “Mardi...

It’s a solo bass day around here at NT HQ. We just spotted this new one by Ray Riendeau, who took James Taylor’s iconic folk hit, “Fire and Rain,” and made it his own. “This song always reminds me of the loved ones who have passed away, and I miss so dearly,” Ray shares. “I dedicate this cover to my...

Fresh off of their performance at the Grammys, Metallica has announced a North American leg of their “WorldWired” tour. The trek, which kicks off May 10th in Baltimore, will be in support of their latest album, Hardwired… To Self-Destruct. It will be the band’s first full-scale North American tour since 2009. After the Baltimore, Maryland performance, Metallica will zig-zag across...

Warwick expanded their Rockbass Corvette series with an eight-string version of the Corvette Basic. The eight strings are set in four courses tuned E-A-D-G against a wenge fretted fingerboard. Its built with an alder body and three-piece maple neck with ekanga veneer stripes. The body is fitted with a pair of active MEC jazz pickups matched to a 2-band EQ....

Antonin Rubatat shared the latest (and last) video of his “Hungry Beats” project series with us. The duo of Antonin and drummer Romain Chenard wrote this tune in a short period of time, which is mostly improvised. We’ve really enjoyed the series by these guys. Hope to see more of them in the future.

More tough news for the bass community today: Doug Lunn has passed away after a long bout with pancreatic cancer. Lunn was a fretless aficionado, having ordered his first fretless Precision from Fender in 1974. He studied music in college and became a hired gun in the ’80s, working with many progressive artists as well as international pop stars. He...

ESP Guitars added the AP-4 and AP-5 basses to their LTD Series at this year’s Winter NAMM Show. The four and five-string models are traditionally-based designs with ESP’s own twist. Both models are built with an alder body, bolt-on maple neck, and an ebony fretboard. They are fitted with a set of EMG pickups in a P/J configuration with volume,...

Q: When I learn a song by ear, I can generally memorize it really well, probably because of all the work that’s gone into learning it. My ear is not great and concentrating on actually listening is harder to do than it sounds! I sometimes miss little bits here and there. However, when I read from a piece of music...