Metal Fanzine’s Full-Length Interview with Cliff Burton Now Available
A new, longer edit of a 1984 interview with Metallica bassist Cliff Burton has been released. The interview, conducted by Ken Kitt of Metal Fanzine, took place a little over two years before Burton’s untimely death. The clip had been previously released, but was trimmed to just over six minutes long. The full interview, with Metallica songs played between dialogue,...
Gear Watch: AweSome B-35 Bass Guitar
AweSome Musical Instruments has unveiled their line of B-35 bass guitars. Available as a 4 or 5-string, the bass features three J-style pickups with six switches as part of their TW-35 Patented Pickup Switching System. After a little math, it adds up to 35 different pickup tones. The passive pickups are switched between on and off, in-phase and reverse-phase, and...
Duff McKagan’s Loaded Set To Record New Album
Duff McKagan’s Loaded has announced that they will begin recording a new album in August. The group has been writing material for the upcoming project during the last few months, during which time McKagan has also been working with Jane’s Addiction. “We have been writing for the last few months and next week we start pre-production on the new LOADED...
Dave Holland and Pepe Habichuela Release “Hands”
Jazz master Dave Holland has collaborated with flamenco guitarist Pepe Habichuela to release a Gypsy-flavored album, Hands. Habichuela, who has been on the scene since the ’80s and even worked with Jaco Pastorius, also recruited his sidemen and son, Josemi, for the project. Hands features tons of Gypsy rhythms as well as jazz influence, especially on the Holland tunes, “The...
Ernie Ball Debuts Music Man Reflex Bass
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 Releases “Treasure”
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’s “Music Lesson” Released as Audiobook
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...
Gear Watch: Boulder Creek Koa Acoustic Bass Guitar
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...
Gear Watch: Innovation Strings at Summer NAMM
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...
Jamie Ousley Releases “Back Home”
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...
Mike Watt Working on Third Punk Rock Opera
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...
Gear Watch: Better Audio Technologies at Summer NAMM 2010
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...