Buzz
ESO Launches With The ESO Strap
ESO Strap has launched their brand with their self-titled product, the ESO Strap. Made in Seattle, the strap features a contoured “S” shape to avoid pressure points on the shoulder, neck, and back. The strap length adjusts from 46.5″ – 54″, while its width varies from 1.5″- 2.5″. The ESO Strap is constructed with a high density foam core, interior...
Malekko Heavy Industry Introduces The Scrutator
Malekko Heavy Industry has unveiled the Scrutator, a sample rate and bit reduction pedal built around the company’s new DSP platform. It offers external control over any combination of Rate, Bit, Filter, and Q controls via expression pedal or control voltage as well as a switchable 2-pole bandpass or lowpass filter. The pedal begins with a Preamp control for controlling...
Leo Lyons and a Double Sided Bass
I’m surprised I’ve never seen this – a video that’s been out since 2010. In this video, Ten Years After bassist Leo Lyons shows off a unique bass built by Inspire Instruments. We’ll let Leo explain:
Christian McBride and Edgar Meyer Team Up For Bass Duo Tour
Double bass virtuosos Christian McBride and Edgar Meyer are teaming up for a duo tour this October. The tour begins in Edmonds, Washington at the Edmonds Center for the Arts before bouncing around the country over seven dates including several college appearances. The final performance is slated for October 30th at Emerson University’s Schwartz Center for the Arts in Atlanta,...
Brubaker Guitars Announces Rodney “Skeet” Curtis Signature Bass
Parliament Funkadelic and Maceo Parker bassist Rodney “Skeet” Curtis has teamed up with Brubaker Guitars to create the a signature bass called the JXB-Extreme II Skeet Model. The bass, which was developed over two years, is based on the company’s JXB series and comes in four-, five-, and six-string versions. It features a buckeye burl maple theme for the body’s...
James Brown (Featuring Bootsy Collins): Live at the Olympia, 1971
If you haven’t seen the James Brown documentary Mr. Dynamite yet, you’re missing out. It follows the iconic soul singer’s rise to the top of charts with incredible interview segments with his musicians. Of course, one of the film’s highlights is the introduction of Bootsy Collins into Brown’s band. Collins offers deep insight into his relationship with Brown as well...
Incognito Celebrates 35th Anniversary with Live Recording
Acid jazz band Incognito celebrated its 35th anniversary with a 2014 performance in London at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire. That show is now available on record as Live In London — 35th Anniversary Show. Featuring the tremendous Francis Hylton (Afro Celt Sound System, Gianna Nannini) on bass, the two-disc set ranges across the band’s long history and includes favorites...
Dwarfcraft Devices Announces The Paraloop
Dwarfcraft’s new Paraloop is a utility pedal designed for adding flexibility to your signal chain. The stompbox features two effects loops that are “normally closed,” which the company explains as meaning a buffered clean signal comes through each. It has a single Send level knob that allows for boosting each loop or – if both loops are empty – acting...
Old School: 1969 Gibson Les Paul Bass
Emre Kayaalp reached out to me with one beauty of a bass – his recently acquired 1969 Gibson Les Paul. According to the Wikipedia artcile on the instrument, the Gibson Les Paul bass “is a bass guitar first manufactured by Gibson in 1969, just after the relaunch of the Les Paul guitar in 1968.” That bass didn’t sell well, and...
Kate Davis: Keep An Open Heart
Sometimes it’s not the notes you play, it’s how you play them. Kate Davis proves that point in this beautiful duet with guitarist Rob Moose on her song “Keep An Open Heart,” filmed for the One On One Sessions at City Winery in New York City. Davis keeps a simple beat with roots and fifths while playing up on the...
Brand X Official Bootleg Released
The personnel of Brand X ebbed and flowed over the years for the jazz fusion band. Famed drummer and vocalist Phil Collins was often a member, and one of the more stalwart presences in the both the band’s mid-1970s-to-1980 and 1992-99 incarnations was bassist Percy Jones (Tunnels, ex-Soft Machine) who appears on a new Official Bootleg Series Release, Brand X:...
Freeing Up Your Walking Bass Lines
Q: I’ve been getting my walking together and have started to become comfortable and natural sounding playing perfectly functional harmonic lines through changes that highlight the harmony well. It’s all just basically chord tones and scalar patterns with occasional chromatic approaches. In sum, I think I’ve passed walking 101 and am ready to move on. When I listen to and...