Articles by Kevin Johnson - Page 555

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has announced the list of nominees for the 2014 induction, and the bass world is well represented. Half of the artists have been nominated before, with several returning from last year’s picks, while the other half are all first-time nominees. This includes Linda Ronstadt, Peter Gabriel, Hall and Oates, the Replacements, Yes, Link...

Darkglass Electronics has unveiled the Duality, a fuzz pedal that offers up two separate fuzz circuits that can be used individually or blended for a wide variety of textures. The first side is a saw-tooth shape shifting circuit for an old school vibe while the second circuit is a 4-stage CMOS high gain distortion for a more brutal tone. The...

A couple weeks ago we celebrated the birthday of the late great Allen Woody. On that day, we posted a question on our Facebook page, asking readers which of his bass lines they liked the best. You all roared back with one of the baddest rock bass riffs ever: “Thorazine Shuffle”. Here’s the original Gov’t Mule lineup featuring Woody on...

San Francisco-based bassist Aaron Germain has released Chance, a jazz album with influences from all over the world. Germain enlisted musicians from San Francisco and France to create songs ranging from Senegalese Mbalax to Vietnamese traditional folk. While each song’s style varies, the album is balanced between electric and acoustic compositions. Germain lays down the low end on his upright...

EBS has introduced the FuzzMo, a fuzz pedal for bass that fills the gap between their distortion pedals and vintage fuzz effects. In addition to Gain and Volume controls, the Fuzzmo has a Blend knob for mixing your clean tone with your dirty signal. The pedal’s Shape control changes the shape of the gain engine from triangle to square wave...

Ryan Martinie is one sick bassist. Judging by this video, he might also be a little crazy. Here’s the music video for Mudvayne’s “Dig,” featuring Martinie’s infamous bass line.

Buckcherry and bassist Jimmy Ashhurst have parted ways, according to a post on the band’s website. Ashhurst had been with the band, known for their hit “Crazy Bitch,” since their 2005 reunion. “With heavy hearts and with great difficulty we have decided to part ways with our long time bandmate Jimmy Ashhurst,” the band wrote. “This was not an easy...

This week we check out the AVB1 from AV Basses, a versatile custom bass that comes in 4-, 5-, 6- or 7-string versions. Made in the Czech Republic by luthier Aleš Vychodil, the AVB1 comes with tons of options ranging from bolt-on or neck-thru construction to choice of woods to choice of pickups. While the bass can be made in...

Jauqo III-X is a bassist that plays by his own rules. After coming up in a household filled the sounds of jazz and Motown, Jauqo picked up bass as a teenager and never looked back. “My interest in Bass grew into—for lack of a better word—an obsession,” he shared on his website. “If it was anything Bass-related, I wanted to...

Earlier this year, Steve Swallow released a new album featuring a revised lineup of his quintet to include organ, guitar, bass, sax and drums. “I had in mind a small band but one with interesting textural possibilities, a diversity and variety of sound,” Swallow said of his new lineup. “The knee-jerk reaction to a band with electric bass, electric guitar...

Electro-Harmonix has expanded their Next Step series of pedals to the bass realm with the Crying Bass Wah/Fuzz. Similar to other Next Step effects, the pedal features no moving parts and uses a motion sensor to translate movement. The pedal’s fuzz circuit adds distortion and harmonics to the signal and helps accentuate the wah effect. The pedal also has a...

David Pastorius adds some serious fire to Tech N9ne’s song “Questions” by riffing off of rapper’s lyrical rhythm as well as throwing in his own freestyle licks. The bassist brings his incredible technique and creativity together to dish out some really cool lines and add a new dimension to the track.