Bass Archives

You’re in for a special treat in this edition of Old School. Bassist Daniel Bayer shares the story behind his 1960’s Baldwin/Burns Jazz bass – a rare beauty, which Daniel believes was made in 1965 or 1966. According to the Burns Guitars website, James Burns (1925-1998) was often described as the “British Leo Fender”, and this background on the man...

Editor’s note: Bass play-along week continues! If you have one you’d like to submit (by you or someone else), send it to [email protected]. Ah, YYZ. Geddy Lee’s bass line on this iconic tune has to be one of the most popular challenges and play-along’s out there. No Treble reader Troy Hughes sends us this video of him pulling off the...

The Fleabass line will be expanding with the coming of the Street Bass model, due to ship in late July. The Street Bass is an even more affordable version of the already available Touring Bass, which Flea himself is using to tour and write the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album with. The Street model varies from the Touring Bass...

Warwick has unveiled the Corvette NT “Neck-Through” Limited edition 2010 bass, which was designed to combine a modern ergonomic design and the tone of a vintage J-bass. The production of the bass is limited to 300 units. This Corvette’s body is made of light swamp ash with a dark ziricote top accompanied by a matching headstock. The back of the...

Q: How many hours a day do you practice? Do you have any practice tips? A: Admittedly, I don’t practice as much as I’d like these days. I’m married, with dogs that need walking and a mortgage and am very busy playing bass for many different people (which requires a lot of shedding of it’s own kind. Transcribing or memorizing...

The Ibanez Musician Bass series debuted 30 years ago this year, and Ibanez is celebrating with an extremely limited special anniversary edition, the MC30TH. Ibanez shares some background on the bass in a recent release: “While the Musician wasn’t the first bass to feature active electronics, it was the first with that technology that most working musicians could afford. Ibanez’s...

Epifani has released new additions to their performance series amplifiers, the PS1000 and PS400. It will be available for shipping on July 29th 2009. Epifani started as a creator of custom bass cabinets. It was not long before they moved into amplifier production and were pioneers in digital amps, working on them as early as 1999 with the first production...

Fender Musical Instruments is presenting a wide range of basses and bass gear at the Summer NAMM show. Basses Geddy Lee Jazz Bass Standard Jazz Bass V Bass Accessories Sub-Lime Bass Fuzz Pedal Bass Amps 115 Pro Cabinet Bassman TV Ten Bassman TV Twelve Bassman TV 15 Bassman TV Duo Ten For more information, visit Fender.com.

Q: How do you approach writing a harmony once a melody has been composed? And how do you make sure the harmonic progression works in the way you like it? I assume it’s not just trial and error! A: Admittedly, I’m a newbie when it comes to real composition and yes, it had largely been trial and error. Half of...

Our friend Sebastiano, aka monsterbazz, has just posted another multi-track video performance of Michael Land’s The Secret of Monkey Island. Sebastiano is playing bass and ukulele on the video. For the lead, he runs his bass through an effect to take the bass an octave higher. He shares: “This is simply a jam and I have never played this song...