No Treble Archive for June 26th

Oteil Burbridge’s signed Dire Wolf Bass #2, built by Asher in the spirit of Jerry Garcia’s Wolf, is up for auction to support music education programs.

Michael Landau, Tim Lefebvre, and Keith Carlock stretch out on “Rascal Balls,” a tight and experimental trio performance.

Blackstar has added native NAM A2 Lite support to the Beam Solo, giving bassists access to TONE3000 captures through its compact, app-connected headphone amp.

Peavey's flagship Cirrus Bass is back for 2025, featuring upgraded VFL electronics, exotic wood tops, and a neck-through design.

At Tiny Desk, Doug Wimbish proves why he's a bass icon, blending tone, technique, and looping mastery in a standout performance.

Carrtoons returns with “Thursday Disco,” a bass-heavy groove previewing his new album Space Cadet and a fall tour with stops in NYC, LA, and more.

Get ready to work up a sweat, because Joe Hubbard has launched a new instructional book. “Intense Bass Warm-Up Guide” aims to help elevate your technique while getting you ready for the gig.

Remco Hendriks got a new Stradi bass, and he’s clearly digging it. Plus, he’s giving us a first-hand look with this new video.

Lake Street Dive has released their new album, “Good Together,” which expands on their sound as each member contributed to the music in its earliest stages. They gathered in drummer Mike Calabrese’s Vermont home to work together from the beginning.

Luthier Tom Molstad of Bird on a Wire Stringed Instruments recently posted photos of his first-ever bass build, and he’s off to a great start. “Sil Nora” is a six-string, multi-scale bass with a rich combination of colors.

I stumbled upon the musician known as KNULP on Youtube, and I was blown away. KNULP performs multiple tunes on multiple instruments. Here she is performing Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb.”

Knower has returned with a brand new album called “Knower Forever,” marking their first full-length release since 2016’s “Life.” The album’s low end is covered by MonoNeon and Sam Wilkes.

2022 marks the 25th Anniversary since Ashdown Engineering set up shop, and they’re celebrating with new bass gear. In addition to unveiling the newest evolution of their ABM line, they’ve also announced a limited edition of their ABM-400 head.

Bassist Mohini Dey and drummer Marco Minnemann visited Sweetwater’s and put on a show. The duo plays a fun game involving konnakol.

Our top 10 roundup this week includes some more gear news from NAMM, a terrific interview from the bassists of the Mingus Dynasty, Ryan Madora’s latest “Keep It Groovy” lesson, a story about Lemmy being memorialized, and more.

Blink-182 bassist and singer Mark Hoppus has announced that he’s battling cancer, stating that he’s been undergoing chemotherapy for the past three months.

The Fearless Flyers released another video showcasing their live performance at Madison Square Garden, with this clip of Joe Dart and the band performing “Lost My Treble Long Ago”. (And we obviously dig the tune’s name.)

Between The Buried and Me have been forced to cancel their upcoming Canadian tour dates, but that won’t stop them from marching on this August and September. The band has added several new U.S. dates.

When was the last time you listened to a groove that was so funky and remarkably precise that you couldn’t resist being in awe? For Ryan Madora, it was the last time she listened to Rhonda Smith. Rhonda is the focus of this “Bass Players To Know” column.

Jorge Roeder is releasing his debut solo album, “El Suelo Mio”, on July 3rd and today we’re proud to premiere this performance for “I’ll Remember April.”

Former Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman has donated his enormous bass rig used for the Steel Wheels tour for auction. The system will be auctioned on September 9th as part of a collaboration between MusiCares and Julien’s Auctions.

A reader sent Damian a note this week saying he's just starting to learn modes on the bass but is struggling with the finger patterns. He asked for help, and Damian decided to make this week’s column a video demonstration on the topic.

Bernard Edwards was the king of making danceable bass lines. Case in point: “Everybody Dance” by Chic. This clip of the band performing on a 1977 broadcast of TopPop, and starts off with a look at the bassist's unique right-hand technique to kick off the song.

Over a decade after their last album, The Raconteurs have returned to release “Help Us Stranger.” The band consists of Jack White, Brendan Benson, Patrick Keeler, and bassist Jack Lawrence, although it started as a collaboration between White and Benson.

Guild is bringing back some of their vintage acoustic bass guitar designs with two new models introduced to the Westerly Collection. The B-240E and B-240EF recall the B-50 of the mid-1970’s, which was a “boomy jumbo with an arched mahogany back and 30 3/4? scale length.” Each of the new models carries those features as well as a solid Sitka...

Scary Pockets keeps bringing it with their excellent re-imagined covers of classic songs. Here’s their take on Bonnie Raitt’s “Something to Talk About,” with vocalist Raquel Rodriguez. The arrangement and mastering on this one is something special. As always, Sam Wilkes lays down the low end.

Oytun Ersan has released his second album, Fusiolicious, featuring a killer lineup of jazz musicians. The bassist recruited Dave Weckl, Eric Marienthal, Gary Husband, Gerry Etkins, Dean Brown, Mike Miller, Brett Garsed, Karen Briggs and Okan Ersan for the jazz fusion affair. “Fusiolicious presents a ‘delicious’ combination of Funk Jazz and Progressive Jazz and is a must have album for...

BasstheWorld.com just released a new demo of the GV Guitars NeoFang Steambass, and it’s too cool not to share. Made in Slovakia, the bass’s design revolves around the steampunk aesthetic of blending old-time and modern looks. They achieve this with an alder body wrapped in carbon fiber against a full rosewood neck as well as cool gear inlays on fretboard...

Who doesn’t love a good vintage bass? Our friend Jan Östlund sent us this video of studio bassist Sven Lindvall playing a riff over 17 of the most iconic vintage basses. It’s so cool to hear all the subtle (and not so subtle) differences in each of the instruments. Lindvall plays through each axe twice: once with a finger-style riff...

Time to celebrate the best of the best from the world of bass… AKA the top 10 No Treble reader favorites of the week. Thanks for reading, watching, commenting and sharing. 1. Fender Introduces The Mod Shop If you’ve been wanting to get a customized Fender, the company has got you covered with the Mod Shop. The online “immersive digital...

Ernie Ball introduced a pair of expression pedals for bassists and guitarists at the Summer NAMM show this year. The Expression Overdrive and Ambient Delay pedals, which will be available later this year, offer dynamic foot control for on-the-fly tweaking. The Expression Overdrive is described as tonally versatile, delivering “everything from a hint of natural tube-amp-like overdrive and rhythm crunch...

Olivier Babaz has done it again. The bass and kalimba king has transformed another rock gem onto the two instruments simultaneously. This time Babaz tackles Radiohead’s “Paranoid Android”, trading the song’s focus between each instrument while nimbly navigating them with his right hand. The result is an ethereal and intimate take on an already epic piece of music.

You can learn to play bass lines created by one of rock’s best-ever bassists, the late Jack Bruce, with the help of a new play-along book. Hal Leonard Corp. has published “Cream – Bass Play-Along Vol. 52” includes tab and companion audio to help you learn some of the power trio’s most well-known songs: “Badge,” “Cross Road Blues (Crossroads),” “Politician,”...

Fender shared a great video featuring Geddy Lee talking about his right-hand picking technique – one he says developed after touring with Primus back in the early 2000s. Geddy was inspired by Les Claypool, and incorporated more of a flamenco-style approach as a result.

The best basses come together through a mixture of inspiration, art, and technology. This week we check out a one-of-a-kind instrument that was born of all three ingredients: the Diana Bass by Ribbecke Guitars. In late 2012, bass legend Jack Casady lost his wife Diana after a hard-fought battle with cancer. Casady pondered ways he could honor her memory before...

Think of your favorite reggae song and chances are what comes to you is actually the bass line. That’s because the bass line is often the actual musical hook of the song, which leaves people humming for days. No reggae music has reached as many people as the songs of Bob Marley, and no reggae bass lines have been as...

Aaron Gibson is back with another single in his “Demos” series, “See The World.” Aaron said his “Demos” series “are solo bass renditions of songs in preparation for my next produced album.” The video work is terrific as usual, and Aaron shared a note about that too: “I wanted to do more with this video in the way of art,...

Legendary drummer Ginger Baker has returned with the release of , his first album in 16 years. The record showcases his new bandmates in his group, Jazz Confusion, including jazz bassist/composer Alec Dankworth (Van Morrison, Stephane Grappelli, Alan Barnes, Million Dollar Band.) Check out the title song “Why?” performed live: Why? is available on and digital download ( and ....

Q: I play with the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots (Arlington, VA). The only founding member of the band who’s been with the band longer than I have has just decided to call it quits. He was responsible for the riffs on our first album, which is also still under production. Now while I am the band’s primary vocalist/bassist/songwriter, he...

A few months ago, Marta Altesa impressed us with her play-along to Jamiroquai’s “Time Won’t Wait”. We just heard from another impressive young bassist, Poliana Magalhães, who shared some of her videos with us. This play-along to Jamiroquai’s “Runaway” is a lot of fun. Poliana said, “I tried not play like the original song. It’s just a simple version.” Whatever...

Meet Robert Asencio, a bassist from NJ who has overcome a lot through his music. We love his description of his day gig: “playing bass 24/7”. Nice. Robert is our player in the spotlight for the week of June 26, 2012. Bio: “All is possible through faith in the Lord & hard work.” These words have come to symbolize my...

Seeing as I’ve always had a somewhat “snobbish” aversion to Tab, I had avoided most every app in the store that provided it. So I’m happy to report I overcame that for a minute to try out Tab Toolkit, and I’m glad I did. Tab Toolkit is a pretty wonderful app, beautifully executed and immensely useful. The app comes pre-loaded...

I’ve always enjoyed Evan Marien’s “Hiii”, a track from his Here We Are EP, though I wondered how it could be pulled off live. I can now cross that off the list. Here’s Evan with drummer Dana Hawkins (who is awesome, btw), performing the tune live at Matt Garrison’s Shapeshifter Lab in New York.

Bassist/vocalist Casey Abrams has released his self-titled debut on Concord Records. Abrams caught national attention on the tenth season of American Idol after performing some rousing renditions of pop tunes while accompanying himself on bass. Through that experience, he hooked up with fellow bassist and Idol judge Randy Jackson, who produced the album. The album is laden with upright bass...

Charlie Haden has been named as a recipient of the Lifetime Honors award from the National Endowments for the Arts, a recognition they describe as the “nation’s highest honor in the fold and traditional arts.” Haden started playing bass on his family’s folk and country radio show and eventually became a jazz legend, performing with Keith Jarrett, Ornette Coleman and...

Here’s bassist Marc Johnson, performing with Peter Erskine on drums and John Scofield and Bill Frisell on guitar, filmed on February 14, 1986 in Frankfurt, Germany. This tune, “Samuari Hee-Haw” comes from Johnson’s 1985 album, .

Spanish jazz bassist Javier Moreno has released his debut album, Brisa. Moreno enlisted the talents of pianist George Dulin, drummer Tony Moreno, and sax virtuoso George Garzone for the eight song collection of original compositions, which is capped with an inspired open improv between the bassist and Garzone. The album covers a wide spectrum of textures while the ensemble floats...

During a live performance at a 2004 jazz fest in Seoul, Marcus Miller and his band played their version of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata.” Marcus explained that his 14-year-old son (at the time) was practicing the piece on his piano and that they “just needed to put a beat to it…”

After recently naming Geddy Lee as an endorsing artist, Orange Amps was proudly showing off their newest bass goodies at Summer NAMM. Orange expanded their Tiny Terror line to the low end, with the Terror Bass 500 and 1000. A compact head weighing in at 5kg (11.02 lbs), the Terror bass is a hybrid amp with a Class D solid-state...

Right up until the end of his life, Joe Zawinul could still bring it (and pick bass players). Check out the Zawinul Syndicate’s version of Weather Report’s “Fast City”, a tune originally recorded for the Jaco Pastorius-era Night Passage album. Bassist Linley Marthe is a monster on this one. This clip comes from the Syndicate’s “75th” DVD. I was lucky...

Bassist Nate Mendel has returned to play with Sunny Day Real Estate, after playing with the Foo Fighters. The reunion will be followed by a tour scheduled for this fall. Sunny Day Real Estate has split and re-formed two times already (once in 1998, reuniting without Mendel, and then again in 2001). Mendel’s comments on the reunion: “I wasn’t around...

Bassist Ian Hill, from Judas Priest, was a featured guests on this past weekend’s “The Classic Metal Show”. The buzz is that Judas Priest is working on a new album, A Touch of Evil: Live, to be released July 14 during the band’s summer tour. The album will feature 10 songs never released live. Rob Halford told Billboard.com, “I love...