Buzz
Bass of the Week: Simnett Guitars 5-String Fretless
Jon from Simnett Guitars shot us an email with his latest build, and it’s a beauty. This five-string fretless has some gorgeous features that the luthier put serious time and effort into. “It’s a 33-inch scale (tuned E-C) ‘piezo-only’ fretless. The Black Limba body is chambered and has a spalted Hornbeam top,” he explains. “There’s matching Hornbeam headstock veneers on...
Joyo Audio Releases the Iron Loop Looper Pedal
Loopers have a new option from Joyo called the Iron Loop. The digital phrase looper features a stripped back design with a single footswitch and a single level knob. Pressing the footswitch will toggle recording and playback modes to layer loops, while a ring around the level control shows the length of your recorded loop. As part of the company’s...
Robin Zielhorst: Release
Robin Zielhorst has recorded a special four-piece suite for solo bass. Although the bassist has played with heavy bands like Cynic, Exivious, Textures, Our Oceans, and OneGodLess, he took a more hauntingly beautiful and ambient approach for the music. Check out the sweeping melody of “Release”:
Reverend Guitars Unveils 20th Anniversary Mercalli Basses
Reverend Guitars is celebrating 20 years in the business with a special 20th Anniversary Mercalli Bass. Available in four and five-string versions, the bass carries many of the same features as the standard Mercalli with several special features. Most notable is the eye-catching sky blue flame maple top adorned with a brushed aluminum pickguard. It also has a 20th Anniversary...
Miët: Blame
Miët is a one-woman group that utilizes a bass, an amp, and a pedalboard. When you listen, it sounds like a lot more than that. French bassist Suzy LeVoid melds pop melodies with rock noise that her label describes as “offering an electric and introspective set.” Buckle up:
Metallica: Enter Sandman (Rare Live Performance)
We’ve unearthed a very rare performance of one of Metallica’s most popular tunes. Robert Trujillo and the gang really change it up on this one.
Bass Gear Roundup: The Top Gear Stories in March 2017
Time to celebrate some new and popular gear. Here are the top 10 reader favorite gear stories for the month of March, 2017. Thanks for reading, commenting and sharing. 1. Ashdown Engineering B-Social Lite Desktop Bass Amp One of the biggest hits of NAMM 2015 was Ashdown Engineering’s B-Social desktop bass amp. This year Ashdown expanded the range with the...
TWA Introduces the DM-02 Dynamorph
TWA has introduced the DM-02 Dynamorph, an envelope-controlled harmonic generator. The versatile pedal gives distortion, fuzz, filter, and synth effects in one unique unit. “Featuring a distortion circuit where the amount and type of saturation is intricately linked to the input signal level, the TWA DM-02 Dynamorph creates multi-layered, highly complex waveforms that “morph” your instrument’s harmonic structure in bizarre...
Donny McCaslin with Tim Lefebvre: Faceplant
Donny McCaslin’s latest release, , recruited his dream team with Mark Guiliana, Jason Lindner and Tim Lefebvre. The group has just put out a new video for the track “Faceplant”, and it’s epic. Lefebvre lays down a ferocious line while the rest of the band gets wild.
Mastro Valvola Introduces the Millibar Mk2 Compressor
Italy’s Mastro Valvola has unveiled the Millibar mk2, a studio-grade optical compressor designed for both bass and guitar. The new version takes their retro-styled pedal and adds a new feature. “Inspired by the performance of the Universal Audio 1176 and Teletronix LA2A, we have managed to recreate and implement their characteristics in the Millibar, in terms of both, transparent compression...
Creative Bass Lines: Increasing Fingerboard Knowledge – Part 1: Triad Visualization
This column finds us looking not at bass line creation, but some solid foundation ideas that help to increase knowledge of the fingerboard. We are going to start with some easy stuff and ramp up over the next few installments! The concepts in the video are a good place to start. There’s no transcription, as I want you to work...
Dominic “Forest” Lapointe: B.A.R.F.’s “Leader” Playthrough
Dominic “Forest” Lapointe is one of my favorite metal bassists. His unique bass lines bring out his voice in the music and his killer chops make it impressive to watch. Here’s a great clip of Lapointe tearing through “Leader” by B.A.R.F. Although he typically plays fretless, his monster playing translates perfectly to a fretted six-string. He kicks things off with...