Articles by Kevin Johnson - Page 828

Ernie Ball has released the Music Man Reflex, which they were showing off at their booth during this summer’s NAMM show in Nashville. The bass is an evolution of the 25th Anniversary Bass, and features multiple pickup options. Choose from a standard single humbucker, dual humbuckers, or a humbucker plus two single-coils to suit your tone interests. The bass also...

Charnett Moffett has just released his 11th album, Treasure, on Motéma Records as his follow-up to 2009’s Art of Improvisation. The album sees Moffett tear through his original compositions, varying in styles from classic jazz to East Indian and country, on fretless electric, upright, and his piccolo bass. Moffett has had lengthy stints with Ornette Coleman as well as Wynton...

Victor Wooten has released his hit novel, The Music Lesson: A Spiritual Search for Growth Through Music, as an audiobook, featuring the voices of Vic’s family and friends, as well as bass legends like Chuck Rainey. Original music performed by Victor, Regi Wooten, Steve Bailey, Bela Fleck, and more accompanies the reading of the novel. The Music Lesson contains the...

Boulder Creek’s display at NAMM this summer featured a nice array of acoustic bass guitars, including their new Koa model. One of the unique things about these basses, as well as their other basses, is the Boulder Creek Suspended Bracing System. The system utilizes tone bars with a brace instead of traditional bracing to support the top. The “SBS” works...

Another stop on our Summer NAMM exhibit journey brought us to the Innovation Strings booth. Innovation makes handmade strings at their factory in Wales, and boast the use of non-metallic cores that hold pitch and are “virtually unaffected by climate changes.” Their different string sets are made with specific genres in mind, ranging from classical and jazz to psychobilly, and...

South Florida bassist Jamie Ousley has released his second solo album, Back Home. The album is a mix of many styles, but the theme comes back to Ousley’s roots in Tennessee. “I’ve lived away from home for a long time, like so many of us do,” Ousley says, “but my heart is still there in the mountains of Tennessee, and...

In addition to announcing the album debut of Floored by Four, Mike Watt has revealed that he is finishing up work on a punk rock opera, entitled “Hyphenated-Man.” You read that right, a punk rock opera. This will in fact be his third punk rock opera, following Contemplating the Engine Room and The Secondman’s Middle Stand. Watt explains that this...

During our Summer NAMM adventure, we stopped in at the Better Audio Technologies booth to check out their new custom SMB-series of bass cabinets. The cabinets, which are available in a variety of finishes, utilize innovative 6″ long-throw woofers that give a –3dB cutoff frequency of 37Hz for great low-end extension. That’s lower than many manufacturers’ bass cabs, which generally...

Will Lee, bassist for the Late Show with David Letterman, and his band The Fab Faux have been confirmed for a special event celebrating John Lennon’s 70th birthday. The show, entitled “A Night in the Life- A John Lennon 70th Birthday Celebration,” will include two sets of the songwriter’s greatest music, ranging from The Beatles through his solo career. The...

After recently naming Geddy Lee as an endorsing artist, Orange Amps was proudly showing off their newest bass goodies at Summer NAMM. Orange expanded their Tiny Terror line to the low end, with the Terror Bass 500 and 1000. A compact head weighing in at 5kg (11.02 lbs), the Terror bass is a hybrid amp with a Class D solid-state...

Original Kinks bassist Pete Quaife passed away June 24th at the age of 66. The exact cause of death is uncertain, but he had been going through kidney dialysis treatments over the last 10 years. Quaife was a founding member of the Kinks, which hit the scene in 1962 and was a part of the British Invasion. It was during...

The new Vee Strap is an innovative solution to the problem of finding the right way to hold a heavy or uncomfortable bass. It features a dual-shoulder strap design that evenly distributes weight and stabilizes your instrument. Essentially, it is two straps built into one, coming together in a “V” on your back and buttoning onto your bass like any...