No Treble Archive for October 12th

Rush returns, new bass designs debut, and Ryan Madora shares groove wisdom — all in No Treble’s Weekly Top 10.

Michael Anthony’s thunderous bass and vocals shine in this live “I’m the One” jam with Sammy Hagar, Phil X, and Kenny Aronoff.

Sandberg introduces the Yolanda Charles Signature Bass, built with European ash, Delano pickups, and a 3-band EQ for rich tone and versatility.

Japan’s Vola Guitars has announced the ZVA 5 Bass. The handmade five-string bass is crafted with an alder body, maple neck, and either a rosewood or maple fingerboard for a classic vibe.

Charles Berthoud has been breaking down his favorite bass solos and arrangements. In this episode, he focuses on Kinga Glyk and her 2016 video where she performs Jeff Berlin’s arrangement of Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven.”

Legendary thrash metal band Slayer formed in 1981 and, as you can imagine, they picked up lots of stories along the way to the top. Fans can now dig deeper into the group’s history with a new online museum on their website.

The use of the fretless bass in metal has been on the rise thanks to a few key players, and you can’t make a list of those players without Linus Klausenitzer. In this interview, we go deep on his new album, writing concept, new bass, and more.

Julia Przybysz (better known as Juliaplaysgroove) performed her Bachelor of Arts Recital at Academy of Music in June. She just shared a video of the performance, which includes a nice mix of tunes.

Welcome to your monthly roundup of the best bass videos. Dive into today’s playlist featuring the top 10 most-viewed bass videos on No Treble for September 2023.

In this “Keep It Groovy” lesson, Ryan Madora shows how to play the E minor pentatonic scale across two octaves, both ascending and descending. Then, she adds a bit of rhythm to the scale to create a simple yet effective bass groove.

Tedeschi Trucks Band performed at The Beacon Theatre on October 8th, and once again, cameras were rolling. In this clip, TTB performs a soulful rendition of Harry Styles’ “Sign Of The Times.”

Stuart Clayton of Bassline Publishing has just released a new transcription book featuring 14 lines from the Brothers Johnson. The track list includes the band’s biggest hits like “Stomp,” “Strawberry Letter 23,” “Ain’t We Funkin’ Now,” and more.

Meet Edo Castro Woodhouse, a self-identified composer/arranger who happens to play bass. As such, Edo’s approach is quite remarkable. Here’s his story...

Ever since we first saw a video by Ellen Alaverdyan, we’ve been completely knocked out. This video is as impressive as any by the young bassist. Ellen simultaneously handles the bass and vocals on The Beatles’ “Penny Lane” in this clip.

Deon Estus, best known for his work with Wham!, has passed away. He was 65 years old. The news was shared on his official Twitter account.

This week we’re looking at a short-scale ROOM 4 bass recently completed by Kristall Basses. Handmade in Germany, the instrument is built entirely from maple and Pau Ferro.

Master bassist Joel Quarrington has been spending his extra time this year to nail down a piece he’s been studying for a long time. Luckily, he had the finished product recorded. Bach’s Preludio was written for violin and requires some serious agility on the bass.

After Percy Jones announced his departure last week, Brand X has announced his replacement for their upcoming tour. Virtuoso bassist Jeff Berlin will be filling the spot.

AP International is now shipping a five-string version of the Ray Ross Bass Bridge. Designed by inventor and luthier Aaron Ross, the bridge utilizes a saddle-less design that instead employs a tone pin that keeps the string straight from bridge to nut.

Theo Katzman has a new album coming. “Modern Johnny Sings: Songs in the Age of Vibe” will once again feature his Vulfpeck bandmate, Joe Dart. Here’s an early preview of the album, with the video for “You Could Be President.”

SonoTone has unveiled a new line of strings called the Vintage Series. Each set is created to “replicate the strings of yesteryear.”

Here’s a great way to end the work week: with a celebration of the top 10 reader favorite bass videos on No Treble. Enjoy. 1. Vulfpeck: Lost My Treble Long Ago Exciting news, Vulfpeck fans. The band has just announced their new album, Hill Climber. In celebration of the news, they’ve just released the video for the track “Lost My...

Witherfall is gearing up to release their second album, A Prelude to Sorrow, on November 2nd. The metal band draws from a lot of influences for an incredible sound, which is why it’s perfect that bassist Anthony Crawford is holding down the low end. His background in heavy music mixed with jazz and progressive rock led him to craft perfect...

Scary Pockets has put out another killer video with this cover of Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.” Daniel Aged holds down the funky groove behind guest vocalist Charles Jones.

If you dig the classic R&B of the late ’60s and early ’70s, you’ll want to check out the new album The Right Time by Ural Thomas and The Pain. Thomas was a soul singer back in that very era and released a few singles including “Can You Dig It,” though he was forced to find other work to make...

GHS Strings has expanded their line of bass strings with the new Balanced Nickels set, which they describe as a combination of traditional string materials and modern string design. “Traditionally, bass strings are made by wrapping one cover wire around the core to create the G, two covers for the D and A, and three covers for the E string,”...

The three founding members of XTC, bassist Colin Moulding, drummer Terry Chambers and guitarist/vocalist Andy Partridge, initially got together in 1972, calling the band ‘The Helium Kidz’. They took some of their early influence from The New York Dolls and attached themselves to the developing ‘glam rock’ scene that was popular in the UK at the time. When guitarist/keyboardist Barry...

Leonid Vorobyev is back with another Chicago cover by his group, Leonid & Friends. The group was created as a tribute “to one of the greatest bands in the world.” This time around, they tackle “You Are On My Mind,” from the multi-platinum Chicago X album, released in 1976.

Get ready, West Coast: Tal Wilkenfeld has announced a fall tour of California. “I’m excited to announce the California Fall Tour, where I’ll be performing new songs off my upcoming vocal album which I’m releasing early 2018,” she wrote. “Can’t wait to see you there!” Wilkenfeld will be joined by drummer Tamir Barzilay and guitarist Owen Barry for the trek,...

Here’s a great way to spend your evening (or afternoon, or morning): browsing through the top 10 most watched bass videos for the month. Thanks as always for watching, commenting and sharing. 1. Octavision: Three Lives Victor Wooten made an appearance with the progressive metal band, Octavision on their single, “Three Lives”. If you’ve ever wondered what Vic would sound...

Q: I’m in a band and most of us are of the mind that we should have as much material out there on social media as possible. We’ve started posting snippets of rehearsals, live streaming gigs and encouraging people to post videos of our shows online, etc… One member of the band is very much against it all. He wants...

It is always a good day at No Treble HQ when a new Vulfpeck video is released. This one has lots of extra bass goodness – and funkiness – thanks to Joe Dart and some killer beats. The tune is “Dean Town”, which is a track from Vulfpeck’s upcoming album, The Beautiful Game, due to be released on October 17th.

Sad news to report today: bass builder Tim Cloonan has passed away. The Philadelphia-based luthier owned and operated Callowhill Guitars, creating basses for some of the world’s top players including Tim Lefebvre, Dywane “Mononeon” Thomas, Owen Biddle, Derrick Hodge, Steve Jenkins, and more. Cloonan was a guitar player that saw the need for better bass care. “I’m a guitar player...

Peterson Tuners is bringing together hardware and mobile apps with their latest release, the PitchGrabber Mobile. The clip-on tuning pickup works by capturing you instrument’s vibration via piezo and sends the signal to your mobile tuning app via the headphone/mic input on your mobile device. The PitchGrabber Mobile can clip onto the headstock of electric basses or the bridge of...

This week we’re checking out the Chowny CHB-1, a semi-hollow body bass with lots of flair. Designed in the UK and manufactured in China, the bass centers around a maple body and neck. It comes in a variety of flamed maple finishes as well as flat black or flat white colors, all of which are accented with 5-layer binding. Its...

Karl Clews is back with another catchy solo bass pop tune cover. This time he’s given the treatment to Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill,” covering the bass line, melody and harmony all at once. Clews utilizes a variety of picking, slapping and strumming techniques to fill the song out and keep you wondering how he manages it all.

The Paul McCartney Archive Collection album series is going strong, with the dual release of deluxe editions of the famed bassist/multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and songwriter’s 1982 Tug of War and 1983 Pipes of Peace. Tug of War, which featured the hits “Take It Away” and “Ebony and Ivory” as well as “Here Today” – McCartney’s song for his former bandmate in...

If it is Sunday, and it involves a lot of bass, it probably means No Treble has a new Top 10 list for the week. So much bass goodness in one spot, from the week of October 4-10, 2014. Enjoy! 1. Five Things to Remember to When Moving from Electric to Upright Bass If you’re thinking about making the leap...

MU-FX has announced it will be reissuing the classic Musitronics Octave Divider pedal. The new pedal will retain all the qualities of the original thanks to MU-FX creator and builder Mike Beigel, who co-founded Musitronics in 1972. Equally useful for both bass and guitar, the Octave Divider has Bass, Tone, Dry Mix, and Ringer knobs, where the ringer is a...

Sylvain Audet’s bass got abducted by aliens and was recovered a year later from a corn field in rural Pennsylvania. At least that’s what the bassist claims is the reason behind the new song “Contact” from his experimental bass/drum duo Audet-Morissette. The track, which also features drummer Christian Morissette and guitarist Claude Laflamme, is a cool spacey groove with some...

Cristian Tisselli was the No Treble Reader Spotlight back in May 2012 and now his band, Contusion, has released its self-titled debut album. The Argentinian progressive fusion band cites Allan Holdsworth and Tribal Tech as influences, Tisselli said in that Spotlight piece two years ago. Contusion’s songs have been percolating for a while and live versions of several tunes have...

Fender has rolled out two new basses as part of their Vintage Hot Rod series, an American-made lineup that the company describes as incorporating the best of old and new features. The Fender Vintage Hot Rod ’60s Precision Bass and ’70s Jazz Bass riff on classic designs while adding new features like a 7.25″-12″ compound-radius fingerboards, new neck profiles, and...

I’ve been super impressed with Miki Santamaria since the first video we shared by him. It goes beyond his bass playing, which is remarkable enough. It is his musicianship that impresses me even more. Here’s Miki performing a solo bass arrangement of “Somewhere Over the Rainbox”, which he says is “One of the prettiest melodies ever!” Now it is one...

Eventide and Danish company Cioks have teamed up to release the PowerFactor 2, a power supply that can run up to four Eventide pedals as well as up to four other pedals. It has eight regulated, isolated DC outlets – four rated at 400mA, two rated at 200mA, and two rated at 100mA – all of which are protected from...

Traveler Guitar has gotten into the mobile interface market with the MI-10, a device that connects your bass or guitar to your iOS device. Once connected, you can use your mobile device as a tuner, effects unit, recorder, and more by using various apps. The MI-10 has a 1/4? input for your bass and a 1/8? TRRS stereo plug for...

This installment of “other instruments” takes a look at playing the drums. Yes, they are fun. Yes, you can play loud and beat on things with sticks. No, you won’t have to fall victim to the jokes. On a more serious note, the attention paid to rhythm and feel is one and the same while playing bass. Plus, within an...

Our friend Sylvain Gros-Desormeaux shared this video with us, saying, “Here is Jeremie Coke, a French bass player in a band called Electro Deluxe. I really like this band.” The song is “Peel Me”, and Sylvain added, “Jeremie plays a crazy funky bass line.” Funky indeed! Have a video to share? Send us a note at [email protected].

UK-based manufacturer FM Cables has launched their FM Pro Silent and FM Pro Standard Series cables. Designed and manufactured in the UK, the cables feature a 2-core cable made from high-grade copper covered with a hard-wearing transparent PVC jacket. The Pro Silent Series is set apart by utilizing Neutrik’s silentPLUG connectors, which automatically mute the cable when changing instruments. The...

Bergantino Audio Systems has announced a new line of bass cabs called the HD Series. The new models all feature 100% Baltic birch construction, newly designed woofers, tweeters, phase-coherent crossovers with a tweeter control, tolex covering, and metal corners. The HD112 Most compact of the new line is the HD112, which features a 12″ woofer with an 80 ounce magnet....

I whole-heartedly believe that who we are as people translates to who we become on our instrument. I’ve been kind of meditating lately during any down moments on every aspect of my personality and how it may or may not relate to any given part of my style of playing – the good and the bad! This includes focusing on...

This clip comes from the 1979 film, The Kids Are Alright, featuring the isolated bass work of John Entwistle on the Who’s classic “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. Give it a little time before the Ox dives in, around the 50 second mark.

William Parker has put out a limited edition box set of his works, Crumbling in the Shadows is Fraulein Miller’s Stale Cake. Limited to 1,000 copies, the set contains 3-discs of Parker’s solo bass albums, including his long out-of-print first solo bass album Testimony, as well as a 48-page booklet of writings. The improvisatory and often avant garde bassist got...

Meet Yair Loewenson, a bassist from Haifa, Israel and our player in the spotlight for October 12, 2010. Bio: Yair Loewenson was born in Haifa, Israel, and has been playing, composing, and teaching music professionally since his late teens. Jazz has always been his main genre, along with late classical and contemporary compositions. His extensive track record on stage includes...

When we posted photos from Summer NAMM in June, there was a huge uproar over pictures that included custom extended range basses by luthier Oscar Prat. We showed an 8-string and a 12-string bass, and the debate on what qualifies as a bass was on! Since then, we’ve caught up with Prat to find out how he got his start...

I recently picked up the GR2 Envelope Filter from 3Leaf Audio and decided to give it a spin in front of the camera. This is a great little pedal that offers a lot of possibilities. For the demo, my set up includes: Bass: Sandberg California JJ Strings: Dunlop Nickel plated Medium gauge 45 -105 Amp: TC Electronic RH450 Cab: TC...

Bassist/author Glenn Letsch has a new book of bass transcriptions and lessons out. 25 Great Bass Lines is an 84-page book with CD set featuring notation and tab for 25 classic bass lines, lessons on how to play them, bios, equipment listings, photos and historical facts. Full-band demos of every bass line in the book is included on the CD,...

We’ve talked in previous columns about anchors and pivots occurring primarily on roots and fifths. What do we use for pivots in the case of chord inversions? We often see these inversions and other sorts of alternate bass notes in the form of compound chord symbols: C/Bb Bb/A Db/F Ebmin/Gb Go/C etc In these chords, there is a triad over...

Our Twitter friend Russ Sargeant had a busy weekend, recording two live performances on Ustream, and showcasing his looping skills. “Beauty” was a favorite. The song, written for Russ’s wife, is performed on a 4 string fretted bass with looping. Well done, Russ.

In case you missed them, here are the top features from the week of October 4th, 2009. Jon Burr offers some sound advice in his latest lesson, To click or not to click? Or, what’s in a metronome?. Damian Erskine answers a reader’s question on playing with and around the beat Evan Kepner‘s latest lesson covers Melodic 2-5-1 Mutation Ray...