Articles by Kevin Johnson - Page 379

It’s another tough day in the music world. Steely Dan co-founder Walter Becker has died at the age of 67. A cause of death was not announced. Fellow Steely Dan songwriter Donald Fagen paid tribute to him in a piece for Rolling Stone: “Walter Becker was my friend, my writing partner and my bandmate since we met as students at...

Swope Guitars has unveiled a new bass model called the Dakota. The retro-styled bass features a slickly contoured lightweight alder body in Candy Apple Red. Its neck is flat or rift-sawn hard rock maple that is topped with a quarter-sawn rosewood slab fingerboard. Luthier Chris Swope gives the bass a nitrocellulose lacquer with something he calls the “Knock-around” treatment. “I...

Lemmy Kilmister was always a big fan of other people’s music. Now that’s evidenced even further with a new Mötorhead album called Under Cöver, which sees the trio putting their own spin on their favorite songs. Taken from recordings over the past 25 years, the collection includes cover versions of songs by artists ranging from Metallica to The Rolling Stones...

Chowny Bass has introduced another artist signature model by teaming up with YouTube sensation Davie504. The new release is called the Retrovibe by Chowny EVO Davie 504 Signature. “Featuring the Retrovibe Stinger ’77 pre-amp that is designed to the spirit of the original bass pre-amps to give a great unique bass tone, the EVO features a Red Cedar Body and...

I’ve been on a real War kick this week, which was kicked off by watching this clip of the band from The Midnight Special in 1973. “The Cisco Kid” is a simple but fun song, and bassist B.B. Dickerson lays into it with tons of pocket.

Longtime Stryper bassist Timothy Gaines is no longer in the band, he confirmed in a recent interview. Rumors had been swirling for the past year, but Gaines told KNAC.com that the split is true. “The Stryper thing is a touchy subject right now,” Gaines said. “I can’t really elaborate on too much of it. You would probably be the first...

Analog Alien has beamed up a new clean boost pedal designed for both bass and guitar called the Power Pack. Billed as simple yet versatile, the pedal features a buffered input and a unique gain stage to pump up your signal or maintain unity gain and tonal balance in your signal path. “If you use pedals, especially older vintage pedals,...

Earthquaker Devices has released the Data Corrupter Modulated Monophonic PLL Harmonizer. The pedal features three voices starting with a square wave fuzz that is multiplied, divided, and modulated with a master oscillator. “The Master Oscillator is the central nervous system at the heart of the Data Corrupter’s cyberpunk hive mind,” Earthquaker writes. “The three-position switch on the Master Oscillator control...

Rex Brown has traveled the globe playing bass in some of the world’s greatest metal bands, but that’s only one facet to his musicality. Now fans are able to hear another side of the musician on his debut solo album, entitled Smoke On This. The record draws on Brown’s early influences from the ’70s and showcases his abilities as a...

KNOWER has returned with a new live band version of their track “Overtime”, and it’s a killer. The duo of Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi are joined by keyboardist Rai Thistlethwayte, saxophonist Sam Gendel, and bassist Sam Wilkes. Wilkes (who No Treble readers may remember from the Scary Pockets version of Creep) is an absolute beast in the clip. He...

Electro-Harmonix has upgraded their Cock Fight to introduce the Cock Fight Plus. The tradition rack and pinion style filter features two distinct wah sounds with a switchable and adjustable fuzz. Its Wah toggle selects between the Crying Tone and the dual formant filter of the Talking Pedal. Bassists will appreciate the Bottom control, which blends in clean bass frequencies to...

Cannibal Corpse bassist Alex Webster has teamed up with the Seymour Duncan Custom Shop to introduce a new signature set of bass pickups. The Alex Webster Hammer Smashed Bass pickups are based on the company’s active Blackout soapbars but have been voiced to match Webster’s “aggressive attack and expressive tone”. “As a founding member of Cannibal Corpse, Alex Webster’s monstrous...