Articles by Kevin Johnson - Page 642

Armin Metz has created a piece of art with his latest video for his song “Infin.” Using harmonics and a long reverb, Metz builds an ethereal soundscape with a minimalist video of just himself and his bass.

Three years after selling Lakland Basses to a private investment group, Dan Lakin is getting back into the bass building business. His new company, D. Lakin Basses, is launching two new models that with his signature artists Joe Osborn and Bob Glaub. The Joe Osborn 4 is defined by a pair of single coil D. Lakin pickups with a 1.5″...

Derek Frank has some serious groove, and he put it to work on this cover of Stevie Wonder’s “All Day Sucker.” Frank shares that his version is “played ala Marcus Miller, with some fun analog synths and vocoder in addition to bass.” Get ready to nod your head.

Dutch luthier Rikkers Custom Basses turns thirty this year, and to celebrate the company has introduced two new bass models: the Acoustiline and the Acidline. As with the rest of their instruments, the basses are hand made in the North of Holland. The Rikkers Acoustiline is a unique hollow body acoustic bass defined by its bass-reflex ports in the upper...

Few musicians can change the way others play their instrument, but Scott LaFaro was one of those special few. LaFaro’s free and floating style was more reminiscent of a saxophonist. His playing, especially with pianist Bill Evans, made people see the bass in a different light. Like too many of our favorite musicians, LaFaro’s life was cut short in 1961,...

Music lovers all over were heartbroken last year at the dissolution of Mars Volta. The group, which in the end was anchored by bassist Juan Alderete, split after a dispute between founders Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala. Now, the duo has apparently made amends to form a new band called Antemasque. The quartet is rounded out by drummer Dave Elitch...

Shredneck, a company that specializes in practice and travel instruments, has introduced the Z-Series of travel basses. At a total body length of 36.25″, the Z-Series bass is approximately 5/8ths the size of a standard bass guitar. The instrument’s 2-piece nato body is loaded with a PJ pickup configuration with volume and tone controls. The maple neck is topped with...

Bass and voice duets can be so powerful. Here’s a gorgeous song by the Mexican duo Boisse, comprised of bassist Hector Baños and vocalist Majo Saenz performing “Flor.”

Or Lubianiker shared this video of his group Steroid Puppets’ new video for the song “Muddy Bright.” “[It’s a] very bass heavy tune of course, like all tunes should be,” he explained. And we agree. Starting out with some ambience, the song develops into a huge groove before morphing through various styles. The pocket is held down by Lubianiker and...

Murray Kuun is a South African luthier who admits he came to the profession relatively late in life, but his passion is in creating fresh designs. “I am not keen on making copies of instruments that have been copied ad nauseam,” he shared. “All my instruments are original designs.” His first bass model is the Elemental, a neck-thru bass with...

Anthony Crawford sent us this video of a rehearsal with drummer Virgil Donati for their upcoming European tour. This is his bass solo from Donati’s tune, “Eleven.” Good luck keeping up with it!

Italian string manufacture D’Orazio has announced a new set of strings for upright bass called the Spyrachrome. Designed for psychobilly slap style players, the new strings are described as soft to the touch with high magnetic response for improved use with pickups. The Spyrachrome is made with a flat wire steel/chrome winding over a steel rope core created by D’Orazio....