Buzz
Dead And Company, Featuring Oteil Burbridge, Announce Full Tour
After announcing their lineup and a single Halloween concert, Grateful Dead alumni group Dead and Company has revealed a 10-date run this fall. The band will kick things off in Albany, New York at the Times Union Center before a two-night run at Madison Square Garden and several other East Coast dates. Their final dates are set for the end...
Paul McCartney Offers Free Music Download
Want some free music? Paul McCartney is getting ready to continue reissuing his solo catalog with remastered versions of Tug of War and Pipes of Peace on October 2nd. To celebrate, the legendary bassist is giving away a free download of the 1982 single “Take It Away.” Though “Take It Away” appears on Tug of War, the remastered single edit...
Bass Players To Know: Colin Greenwood
I must admit, writing the “Bass Player To Know” series can be somewhat self indulgent… I selfishly spend hours listening to and researching some of my favorite players, expanding both my knowledge base and musical collection. Every column rekindles my fascination with a particular player and sparks the desire to investigate others of a similar style or musical era. I...
Cheikh Ndoye: Ngoni Bass
Bassist Cheikh Ndoye shared this awesome video of his work on the African Contrabass, also known as the bass ngoni. The West-African traditional instrument is fretless with three strings. Ndoye, who was born in Senegal, did some of his own modifications to get it to fit his style. “The traditional instruments are very hard to tune without the tuners,” he...
Pedalboard Supplies Introduces Pedal-Links Effect Mounting System
Bassists using pedalboards have a new option for keeping their effects in place with the Pedalboard Supplies Pedal-Links Effect Mounting System. Pedal-Links utilize the housing screws found on the bottom corners of most pedals to fasten them to your pedalboard. The fasteners are used by removing the housing screws, threading the screw through the Pedal-Link’s eyelet, then re-fastening it into...
Groove – Episode #9: John Campbell
Lamb of God was one of the headliners at this year’s three-day hard music festival known as Heavy Montreal. Bassist John Campbell was willing and able to sit down in the blazing sun to talk about everything from why he used to play with only three strings on his bass, to the sad situation that found his singer Randy Blythe...
Mark Marxon: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Mark Marxon sent this video to me recently (on his birthday!) Mark arranged Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” as a chill solo bass piece – complete with some smooth lines, chords and harmonics. Really enjoyed this one. Nice work, Mark – and happy belated birthday.
NOISE Audio Design Unveils The Perfect Storm Bass Preamp
Veteran tube amplifier tech Blackie Pagano of NOISE Audio Design has unveiled The Perfect Storm, a limited edition high-transconductance, high-current tube bass guitar preamp. The sleek preamp takes its moniker from a realization Pagano had after receiving a box of Russian-made 6C45pi tubes, which are sensitive to audio signals and, despite their small size, run the same currents of larger...
Developing a Solo Over Chord Changes
Q: I have a question about improvising. If one browses the internet for learning how to improvise on the bass guitar, one can easily find lots of great tips: learn familiar melodies and expand them, learn solos from other instruments and be inspired by others. I would like to know about how to approach improvising using musical theory. In this...
Miki Santamaria, DaBeat & Friends: Live at the Plygrnd Studio
We’re used to seeing Miki Santamaria as a solo bassist, but we know he can lay it down (and does) in plenty of band settings. Here’s Miki along with vocalist DaBeat and their friends performing Michael Jackson’s “Baby Be Mine”. If you dig this, check out Miki and DaBeat’s duet on “Man in the Mirror” from the archives.
Soilwork Releases 10th Studio Album, Changes Bassists, Sets Tour
Swedish melodic death metal band Soilwork has released its last album with bassist Ola Flink, who left the band in June. The Ride Majestic is a work informed by deaths affecting several band members, according to vocalist Bjorn “Speed” Strid. In June, Strid addressed Flink’s departure: “We all sooner or later come to a crossroad in our lives, when our...
Reader Spotlight: Gabriel Vilches
Gabriel Vilches’s father took him to see KISS when Gabriel was fifteen years old. The next day, he began playing the bass, and he hasn’t stopped yet. We love his story. Bio: I’m a bass player, composer and producer of Argentina, who loves music. I started playing in rock bands in my hometown, La Plata, later I played jazz and...