George Porter, Jr. Returns to UK With Tour
George Porter, Jr. will be returning to tour the UK for the first time in years. The bassist will be taking his band The Runnin’ Pardners on a four-date run of Brighton, Manchester, Nottingham, and London. Porter is famed for founding the legendary New Orleans band The Meters and can be heard on such classics as “Cissy Strut,” “Just Kissed...
Bass of the Week: Jon Willis’ Billy Sheehan “Wife” Bass Replica
Jon Willis shared a photo of his pride and joy on our Facebook page, and needless to say I was floored by the instrument. But the story behind it is even better. The bass is a near perfect replica of Billy Sheehan’s famous Wife bass, which the Mr. Big bassist used from his very first gig in 1971 until the...
Milt Jackson & Ray Brown: “Slippery”, Live at Montreux 1977
Here’s another great video of Ray Brown doing what he does best. This clip is taken from his performance at the 1977 Montreux Jazz Festival with Milt Jackson. With the help of a star-studded band, the duo tackles “Slippery,” which is also found on Brown’s album Something for Lester. The rest of the band includes Clark Terry on trumpet, Eddie...
Ibanez Introduces Fieldy K5 Signature Limited Edition Bass
The members of Korn are getting new signature instruments from Ibanez this year including bassist Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu’s K5 Signature Limited Edition bass. The updated K5 takes an opposite aesthetic approach of Fieldy’s black signature bass and features a flat white finish as well as a white painted maple fretboard. The white theme is accented with a set of blue...
Aretha Franklin with Jerry Jemmott: “Make It With You” (1971)
Sometimes you just need a nice buttery groove to make your day. Here’s Jerry Jemmott making it happen with Aretha Franklin on the song “Make It With You” during her 1971 concert at Fillmore West.
HELLYEAH Announce Lineup Change
HELLYEAH has split ways with guitarist Greg Tribbett and bassist Bob “Bobzilla” Kakaha, according to a new post on Blabbermouth. The supergroup didn’t give a specific reason for the split, but posted about it on their Facebook page. “Things happen for necessary reasons,” they wrote. “It’s so easy for people to assume or makeup reasons for things. Don’t ASSUME anything!...
Zon Introduces Mosaic Mojo Bass
Zon is going old school with their new Mosaic Mojo model. The new bass carries a classic style and are fitted with a set of Aguilar 60 series pickups to get a vintage sound. The Mosaic Mojo is built with a three-piece maple neck with either a maple or rosewood fingerboard. Zon offers the bass with either ash or alder...
Carvin Launches Xccelerator Series with X54 5-String Bass
Carvin unveiled the Xccelerator Series of basses at NAMM this year with its introductory model, the X54 5-string bass. The X54 sports several new features for the company including a fast-playing, thinner maple neck that’s reinforced with graphite. Its body also has a new shape with deeply sculpted cutaways for better access to the higher registers. The bass is built...
Spector Announces NS-2000/5 Dan Briggs Signature Bass
Spector was showing lots of new instruments at the NAMM show this year, including the NS-2000/5 Dan Briggs Signature bass. It’s modeled after the same NS-2000/5 that Briggs has owned and played since he was 16. The bass features neck-through construction with a 3-piece rock maple neck, a rosewood fingerboard, maple body wings, and a quilt maple top. The body’s...
Yolanda Charles: NAMM Bass Bash 2014
One of the great hangouts during the annual NAMM show is the Bass Bash held at JT Schmid’s in Anaheim. This year was no exception as players ranging from the great Uriah Duffy to Ethan Farmer to Snarky Puppy all laid it down to a crowd of bass fanatics. Here’s one of our favorite videos taken from the two night...
Carlo Chirio Releases “Double Thumb Technique For Electric Bass”
Bassist Carlo Chirio has released a new instructional eBook called Double Thumb Technique for Electric Bass. The technique, popularized by Victor Wooten, makes use of the thumb almost like a plectrum by striking down and up. Chirio’s book uses short patterns to get readers comfortable with the technique and groove before building on it. “I think that the choice of...
NS Design Adds CR4 to Radius Bass Guitar Lineup
Following up on the introduction of the NS Radius Bass Guitar last year, NS Design has announced the CR4 Radius bass. The newest addition to the line is a 4-string version of the Czech Republic-made headless model. Similar to the CR5 Radius, the CR4 features bolt-on construction with the company’s Fusion one-piece maple neck, which features an embedded continuous carbon...