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Reader Spotlight: Russ Webster
Meet Russ Webster, who was first drawn to the low end when he was around 12 years old, thanks to bands like AC/DC, Kiss, and Rush. Today, Russ plays in a successful band in the midwest. Russ is this week’s No Treble reader in the spotlight. Here’s his story… Bio: My name is Russ Webster and I’m from Indianapolis, Indiana....
Creative Bass Lines: Increasing Fingerboard Knowledge – Part 3: Minor Arpeggios
Continuing our series on increasing fingerboard knowledge, here’s the accompanying Minor Arpeggio Exercises to play all across the fingerboard. This is the same principle as the Major types. I’ve given you a number of variations to try, and you’ll see this gives you more options when playing over a minor chord type. As usual, practice everything slowly, paying partucular attention...
The Other Brothers: Joe Dart’s Isolated Bass on “Boogie On Reggae Woman”
The Other Brothers guitarist John Morrison shared this clip with us after having Vulfpeck’s Joe Dart sit in with them on a performance of Stevie Wonder’s “Boogie On Reggae Woman.” They recorded the performance and isolated Dart’s bass from the rest of the band. And if that’s not enough, they set it to a Mario Bros. video.
Happy Eighth Birthday, No Treble!
Eight years ago today, we pushed the button and debuted this site to the world. It has been a fun ride – mostly, thanks to the connections we’ve made with you, learning about your music and life through Reader Spotlight, gassing over your Old School gear and sharing your videos. As always, I want to thank our terrific contributors who...
Bass of the Week: Roks Instruments Microtonal Futura
We’ve featured some gorgeous basses from Roks Instruments before, but this one comes with a twist. Luthier Axel Roks collaborated with bassist Sanne Verbogt to create a stunning microtonal bass. “Sanne started to see structure in music at the beginning of her conservatory study, which eventually led to her own music theory method: SV Method,” Roks writes on his website....
Bass Gear Roundup: The Top Gear Stories in April 2017
GAS attack! Here is your monthly dose of the most popular bass gear stories covered by us in April, 2017. Enjoy. 1. Markbass EVO 1 Bass Amp After introducing the prototype last year, Markbass has unveiled the final version of the EVO 1 bass amp. The innovative head unit offers six amp tones over two channels: one clean and one...
Radiohead: Nude, Live at Coachella
Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood always plays the perfect supporting bass lines. One of my favorites is “Nude” from the album In Rainbows. Utilizing octaves in the upper register of the neck provides a gorgeous thick tone that sets the mood for the song. Here’s the band playing it at the Coachella Music Festival this year. Building from a whisper, the band...
Fuzzrocious Pedals Now Shipping Blast Furnace Fuzz Pedal
One of the coolest new pedals we saw at NAMM this year was the Fuzzrocious Blast Furnace, an original gated fuzz circuit with a short-timed delay. The pedal, which is a collaboration with Lehigh Mining & Navigation, is now available. “Blast Furnace expands the sound possibilities by adding a short-timed delay (via the left momentary footswitch),” a press release explains....
Mastodon: Show Yourself
I’m a longtime Mastodon fan, so I can safely say that is one of their best albums. Anchored by Troy Sanders, it’s chock-full of killer riffs and melodies that will stick in your head. Here’s a nice clip of the band performing “Show Yourself” live on Jimmy Kimmel. Sanders delivers his big, fat tone that sits right in the pocket...
TC Electronic Introduces the PolyTune 3
TC Electronic has updated their Polytune stompbox tuner with the Polytune 3. The polyphonic tuner now incorporates their BonaFide buffer for preserving your tone over complex pedal setups. It still retains the true bypass as well, and the company added a switch to toggle between true buffer and true bypass modes to suit all players. Another new feature is an...
Grace Potter & The Nocturnals: Paris
Yesterday’s video of Béla Fleck & The Original Flecktones performing at Mountain Jam VII took me down the rabbit hole. That brought me to Grace Potter & The Nocturnals performing “Paris” at the previous year’s jam. Catherine Popper is laying it down with some sweet, fat P-bass tone on this one. Put your headphones on for this one.
Fender Adds Options to Mod Shop Instruments
Fender’s online Mod Shop has expanded their set of options for 2017 with new colors, a new neck profile, and new pickups. Users can pick a model to begin with (Jazz and Precision for bassists), then choose colors, hardware, woods, and more. The instruments are built in Fender’s Corona, California factory and shipped out within 30 days. Starting this spring,...