Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2019 i Bass Player

Welcome! We enter 2019 with a renewed mission, and a definite sense of excitement for what the new year will bring in bass world. As you read this, we’re preparing to hit the annual Winter NAMM Show in California, where we hear there are plenty of essential innovations in the low-frequency zone; while we’re writing up our report for the March magazine, enjoy this features-stuffed issue, our most value-packed in quite some time. We’re delighted to have finally placed the great Rudy Sarzo, a veteran of no fewer than six successive decades in bass playing, where he belongs—on our cover. A man who has played with a series of huge names, witnessing mighty triumphs and tragedies along the way, Rudy has tons of wisdom to impart to all bassists. He’s…

As I read a TalkBass thread about the best cab for small clubs, I found myself wondering how many ‘Best’ threads exist. How much space has been filled with attempts to find the best thing for a particular job? Then I think of the time I have spent on finding the best amp, best bass, and best excuse for buying them. I’m not sure I could justify all the gear I have owned, but ultimately rejected in my search for the best. FOBO, the acronym for ‘fear of better options’, has entered the popular lexicon as a source of indecision, unhappiness, and perfectionism. Is this what inspires all the ‘Best’ threads and propels my carousel of gear? I don’t think it’s driven by a fear of something better existing. As…

Caitlin O’Riordan was born in Lagos, Nigeria in 1965 to Irish and Scottish parents; the family relocated to London, UK in 1967 following the outbreak of civil war. She met Shane MacGowan—then of the Nips—at a record shop in the late 70s, bonding over his band’s single ‘Gabrielle’. MacGowan formed the Pogues in 1982, and O’Riordan accepted his invitation to join. Her bass and vocals can be heard on the Red Roses For Me and Rum, Sodomy, & The Lash albums, and rumor has it that the legendary ‘Fairytale of New York’ was originally written with her vocals in mind, although the late Kirsty MacColl appeared on the recorded version. O’Riordan, nicknamed ‘Rocky’, became involved musically and personally with Elvis Costello in the mid-80s before they split in 2002. Subsequent…

“I THOUGHT WHAT THE HECK, I MIGHT AS WELL HAVE THE HIGH F STRING, TOO!” The imposing sight of Jason Everett’s seven-string fretless belies the transcendental, collective nature of his music on his new album and video package, Playing With Fire. Joined by Trey Gunn on his lap-held Warr Guitar, seven-string violinist Radhika Iyer, V Selvaganesh on kanjira and custom drum kit, Anil Prassad on tabla, violinist Rachel Nesvig, violist Aleida Gehrels, and cellist Paul Hirschi, Everett delivers melodies rendered with Eastern vocal vibrato, and engaging ensemble improvisation – all over a spectrum of ever-shifting world grooves and natural-sounding odd meters. Born in Colorado and raised outside of Phoenix, Everett began playing woodwinds at the age of eight before seeing Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn in the Blues Brothers movie and becoming…

BASSES (all Lakland) Geezer Butler Signature (P pickups), Geezer Butler Signature (w/EMG PJ pickups), USA Series 44-51M (“Birthday”), USA Series 44-64 (“Goldie”), USA Series 44-64 (“Old #1”), USA Series 44-51M (“Aston Villa”), Custom/Prototype USA “EBOstyle” RIG Ashdown ABMRPM-GZR Custom Bass preamp, Ashdown ABM APM EVO II power amplifier, custom-built Ampeg 4x12 and 2x15 with Electro-Voice speakers STRINGS DR Strings K3 Black Beauties (.050—.110) STRAP Heavy Leather NYC Geezer Butler Signature Strap EFFECTS Dunlop GZR95 Geezer Butler Cry Baby Wah, Wireless Shure ULX-D…

I started playing bass around the age of 15. A bassist was unable to attend a concert for the school pep rally, so I filled in that day and realized just how much I enjoyed playing bass—mostly due to the low impact and feeling the bass vibration of the speakers. I was hooked on the low end! My professional career began around 1998 when I moved to Tampa, Florida, and joined a band called Execration. In 1999 I joined the legendary Monstrosity, whose bass player was unable to continue with the band. They continue to be my main activity, but I’ve been very fortunate to work with many other groups and other session musicians. I played with Trivium around 2004, and supported them for their first tour; I played bass…

Price | 50s Precision, $1,800; 60s Jazz, $1,950 70s Jazz, $2,000 Made In | USA Body | 50s Precision and 60s Jazz, alder; 70s Jazz, ash Finish | 50s Precision and 60s Jazz, nitrocellulose lacquer; 70s Jazz, polyurethane blend Neck Maple, 20 frets Neck Joint | Bolt-on, four bolts Nut Width | 50s Precision/60s Jazz, 1.73” / 44mm, 70s Jazz, 1.5” / 37mm Fingerboard | 50s Precision and 70s Jazz, maple; 60s Jazz, rosewood Pickups | All Fender: Precision, Pure Vintage 58 P; 60s Jazz, Pure Vintage 64 J; 70s Jazz, Pure Vintage 75 J Electronics | Passive Controls | Precisions: volume, tone; Jazz: volume, volume, tone Hardware | Fender ‘Vintage-correct’ Weight | 50s Precision, 9.3 lb; 60s; Jazz, 9.7 lb; 70s Jazz, 9.7 lb Left-hand available? | No Case/gig…

KMC Music www.kmcmusic.com Swedish luthiers Hagstrom made guitars and basses domestically from the 1950s to 1983, before going on hiatus for a couple of decades and then re-emerging as a Chinese-built brand. One of the last bass models produced in Sweden was the Super Swede, a collaborative design rustled up in 1980 between designer Per-Åke Olsson and the great (and now sadly late) ABBA bassist Rutger Gunnarsson. If, like so many of us, you’ve dismissed ABBA’s music as throwaway fluff for people of little taste and discernment, you need to think again—if only for the sake of Gunnarsson’s phenomenal bass playing. Seek out ‘Mamma Mia’ if you don’t believe me; yes, the title reeks of tedious rom-coms, but the slinky feel, expert control, and creamy tone of that busy…

Price | $2,500 Made In | UK Color | Green to purple burst, satin finish Body | Alder core with figured maple top Neck | One-piece maple, 34” scale Neck Joint | Bolt-on, five-bolt attachment Nut Width | 40mm Fingerboard | Birdseye maple Frets | 22 Pickups | ACG OWSB (neck) and SB (bridge) soapbar pickups Electronics | ACG/John East Uni-Pre 4K active 9-volt 3-band EQ (bass, sweepable mid, treble) Controls | Volume/pickup pan (stacked), bass/treble (stacked with push/pull for additional treble boost), mid/mid-sweep (stacked), passive tone control (PTC) (push/pull for active/passive operation) Hardware | Black hardware, Hipshot B-type bridge, Gotoh GB7 machine heads Weight | 7.7 lbs Case/gig bag included | Hiscox case Left-hand option available | Yes, as a custom order WHAT WE THINK Plus | Multiple tone…

Price | $250 Made In | UK Features | SQ1 Squeezer Compressor: Drive, Compress, Gain. TR1 Tone Ranger EQ: Low/Mid/High Frequency selectors, -15/+15 dB Level selectors, Input Gain. CR1 Cruncher Distortion: Gain, Blend, Output, Low EQ, High EQ, Soft/Hard Crunch. OP1 Omni Pre Preamp: Input 1 Level, Input 2 Level, Output Level, Independent/Mix switch, Mute switch, Balanced XLR DI output Power | 9-18v AC/DC power supply Dimensions | 78mm x 106mm x 130mm WHAT WE THINK Plus | Great sounds, useful features, reasonably priced Minus | The loose, wobbly controls could be improved Overall | Impressive collection of pedals BP RATING…

THE JAZZ BASSIST RUTH GOLLER Build your skill set, advises jazz ninja Ruth You need a lot of skills to be a professional bass player, apart from playing the actual instrument well. For example, I play in several regular bands, but I also get asked to do a lot of last-minute gigs, which I find quite stressful. Still, it must mean that people trust me to do a good job, even without much preparation time. On the other hand, it’s frustrating because I feel like I can never really get deeply into the music and enjoy the gig. In those situations, I’m usually reading and very alert to what is going on in the band. It’s a good idea to acquire a certain number of skills that will allow you…

Welcome back! When practising three-fingered plucking, we tend to focus exclusively on a ring finger (a), middle finger (m), and index finger (i) method, and it’s this rigidity in our technique which is key to developing our overall performance efficiency. With three-finger technique, locating an array of notes on different strings can become challenging. This is commonly due to our plucking hand not being able to use the preceding note’s position as a reference, something that is also encountered in the early stages of learning classical guitar. The effect this can have on your overall performance can be fairly substantial, so let’s get to work! Example 1 Exercise 1 is a mid-tempo melodic piece with a great deal of compositional space. Every note up until the final bar appears on…

LOW-FREQUENCY LEARNING A new column in which a bass player shares their playing philosophy First and foremost the bass content has to be ‘musical’. Bass players are not there just to provide a certain frequency. A lot of the melodic content of our songs is provided by the bass. I try and create bass-lines that are hummable. Technique alone is not enough. There are bassists who have jaw-dropping technique that’s not always matched by musicality and feel. Slap bass is anathema to me and I don’t listen to music that embodies that style of playing. No doubt there are some very skilful exponents of it but I’m happy to leave them to it. Knowledge can be a wonderful thing but ‘paralysis by analysis’ isn’t. The most talented creative people are…

In the electric bass world, it seems like brand new designs are becoming few and far between. Sure, the modern multi-scale, single-cut, adorned with exotic top woods, is a far cry from Leo’s old Precision, but even that boutique style is becoming more common. That’s why No Treble readers were curious to check out our recent Bass Of The Week column on the Nordic Guitars Rotator. A preliminary check would have you think it’s just a two-necked instrument—one fretted, one fretless—but the name gives away its biggest secret: They rotate. “The necks are fastened to each other exactly in the middle, with a pivot system connected to the back part,” the company explains. This allows the necks to spin in front of you, switching between fretted and fretless in an…

Welcome back! Superimposition is a concept in which we take the original chord in a tune and then ‘superimpose’ melodic ideas from another chord on top of that. This works as long as the chord you are superimposing maintains the harmonic integrity of the original chord over which you’re playing. Let’s take a closer look… Superimposition is a widely used principle used by all the great jazz players from Dizzy to Jaco, and is a great way to come up with transposable melodic sequences. If we take a Cmaj7 chord, for example, the chord scale would be the Lydian mode. If we then harmonize the chords from the root, 3rd, 5th and 7th of the scale, we’ll end up with Cmaj7, E-7, Gmaj7 and B-7. If, as we said, the…

Rudy Sarzo is a hero of no fewer than six decades of bass. In the 60s, as a Cuban refugee living variously in New Jersey and Florida, he plucked the bass in garage-rock bands. In the 70s, he made his bones with Quiet Riot, pioneers of Hollywood’s hair-metal scene. Catapulted to fame in Ozzy Osbourne’s band in the 80s, courtesy of a recommendation from his erstwhile Quiet Riot colleague Randy Rhoads, Sarzo toured the planet with bands such as Whitesnake. By the mid-90s he was a classic rock bassist who commanded enormous respect, laying down lines with Yngwie Malmsteen, Dio, and Blue Oyster Cult in the decade that followed. In recent years Sarzo has trodden the boards with Geoff Tate’s version of Queensryche, Animetal, and now the Guess Who, where…

It’s ages old and often repeated: “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” asks a New York tourist of a passing gent. “Practise,” the fellow responds. “Practise.” Groan-worthy, perhaps, but bassist, songwriter and producer Erik Kertes will tell you it’s the truth. Kertes, who plays upright and electric bass with Shakira, Michael Bublé, and a host of others, knows the importance of practice. It began with the piano lessons he hated as a child, continued as he learned to play guitar and bass at Los Angeles County High School For The Arts, and intensified while he was majoring in jazz studies at the University of Southern California. Practise has enabled Kertes to compose string quartets, record film scores, and transcribe without a bass in his hands. Prior to rehearsals with…

What are you up to these days, Randy? The last high-profile gig that I did was with Jeff Beck in 2004. That was a great band to be with—Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, Jason Rebello on keyboards, Jeff, and myself. The first time I worked with Jeff, he had another guitarist, Jennifer Batten, who did all the MIDI work and emulated the keyboards. The drummer then was Steve Alexander, who got me involved. Pino Palladino was doing the bass at the time, but he was in and out of Jeff’s band. He went off to play with D’Angelo, and at that point the doors opened for me. I stayed with Jeff until ’04, when I became a dad again and decided to stay home. My wife is a schoolteacher and wasn’t…

Behold our world-beating bass gear review section, where we bring you the crop of each month’s new, interesting, or otherwise relevant bass guitars, bass amplifiers, bass speakers, and bass effects. Occasionally we’ll review a guitar effect if it’s particularly useful for bassists, and we’ll test recording equipment and general accessories every now and then as well, but generally speaking, this zone is for bass-specific gear. We take the ratings that we give each item very seriously. BP has readers from all over the world, so we’re responsible about our conclusions. If a product is worth your investigation, we’ll say so; if it’s flawed in some way, we won’t hold back from making that clear. We’re not beholden to advertisers in any way and our conclusions are entirely independent of the…

Fodera www.fodera.com You have to hand it to the team at Fodera; even with their famously high pricetags, their instruments have never been more visible and prevalent. On the rare occasion that Fodera owners sell their prized possession, it’s often simply because they’re upgrading to a pricier version of the same brand. Of course, notable endorsees such as Victor Wooten have done much to bring the brand to widespread recognition, but it’s something of a surprise to see an instrument such as this, essentially a passive Jazz bass, under the Fodera moniker and at “only” $4,500 or so. Build Quality Cast your eye from top to bottom. The trademark headstock shape remains, as does the butterfly graphic (although the mother-of-pearl inlay is absent). Chrome hardware has been used throughout,…

Price | $1,300 Made In | China Body | Mahogany Neck | Mahogany, 34” scale Neck Join | Neck-through Fingerboard | Resinator, 20 medium jumbo frets Pickups | 2 x Hagstrom Design J-Quad quad-stacked humbuckers Controls | Volume, volume, tone Hardware | Hagstrom Weight | 7 lbs Left-hand available | No Case/gigbag included | No WHAT WE THINK Plus | Solid feel, highly playable, classic status Minus | It’s pretty trad; modernists may not like it Overall | A thousand dollars worth of bass that feels like it. Recommended BP RATING…

Pigtronix https://pigtronix.com Have a tweak of the controls of Pigtronix’s new fun-sized bass compressor and all is as it should be, until you start messing with the Grit control—and a mighty overdrive tone springs from your speakers. It’s very satisfying to hear such a giant effect emanating from a pedal the size of the lump of cheese that you probably shouldn’t have had for lunch. What’s more, you can modulate the drive tone effortlessly, moving from a smooth, synth-like fuzz to a doomy wail straight from the drawer marked ‘Lemmy’. In fact, although this unit is primarily marketed as a compressor—and indeed, it does compress your sound usefully—its most prominent use will, I predict, be as an affordable overdrive. Not that Pigtronix have stinted when it comes to the…

Making you a better bass player Welcome to our lesson section, in which Bass Player collates the wit and wisdom of the crème de la crème of the electric and upright bass world. We’re fortunate enough to have some serious talent on the team, from world-class music educators to experienced touring musicians, who between them have laid down the low notes in every studio, club, and arena in the civilized world. Note that we’ve divided the columns according to Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced level for easy reference. Whether you’re looking to improve your playing technique, expand your awareness of theory, set up your rig to sound like your particular bass hero, or simply get on a bus and tour, we provide the answers you need here. What are you waiting…

Welcome back to another fun-packed month of bass wisdom! This month, we’re going to look at some applied learning, and think a little about how we can maximize the impact of our practice time by combining areas of study to form exercises that are rich with discovery potential. We’re going to combine two things that we’ve looked at before, in an effort to get twice as much out of one practice session. Firstly, we will be taking a deeper look at the articulation techniques that we explored last month. Secondly, we're going to be revisiting the Major pentatonic scale, familiarizing ourselves with playing it all over the neck. The great thing about this approach is that while we're actively learning about one aspect of our study, we're still passively practicing…

“SPECIFIC FINGERS HAVE BEEN INDICATED NEXT TO THE TAPPING SYMBOLS—I STRONGLY RECOMMEND FOLLOWING THESE” Welcome back! Let’s take a look at some advanced linear tapping, a variation on the technique often favoured by guitarists and bassists such as Billy Sheehan, and Stu Hamm. Linear tapping typically consists of running sequences of notes on the same string, performed by tapping with the picking hand, then hammering-on, and pulling-off with the fretting hand. We’re going to start out relatively gently by playing through some minor scales. Note that in the following examples, specific fingers have been indicated next to the tapping symbols—I strongly recommend following these. Although we're just building up our skills at this stage, our lessons this month will include a couple of more interesting and challenging lines, and I'm…

Metallica’s Cliff Burton, Jack Bruce, and John Taylor of Duran Duran aren’t the likeliest of bedfellows—but they all shared a love for the Aria Pro II. The Japan-based company began in 1956 under the name of Arai—named after founder Shiro Ari—initially manufacturing acoustic guitars with Guyatone. Issues with bindings, glues, and wood splits led to a replacement manufacturing contract with the Matsumoku factory, a subsidiary of Singer Sewing Machines, in 1964. The company rebranded as Aria in 1966 and really started killing it when a certain design engineer came onboard. Nobuaki Hayashi is his name, and his pseudonym H. Noble is seen on much of his work. In 1975 the Aria Pro II brand came out. Aria’s move into creating its own lines was partly a response to a crackdown…

How important is our gear, as opposed to technique and practice? Is the seemingly never-ending quest for ‘that’ bass sound just a waste of time? Or does it perhaps help to keep our interest and curiosity alive? Does it make a difference if the new toy is expensive or cheap, brand new or secondhand? For some, the answer is obvious—learn to play properly, and any equipment will sound great. (The classic ‘it’s all in the fingers’ statement!) Learn to set up and use your gear to its best for your needs, and you won’t have to buy new items every month out of frustration. Save the money, spend the time on practicing instead, and you win twice. That’s all well and good, but this is Basschat! Most of us believe…

Welcome to the first instalment in a series of articles that I’ll be writing for my favorite bass magazines on both sides of the pond. This is truly a pleasure and an honor for me, so I’ll do my best to share with you a range of techniques that have been instrumental in my bass playing and songwriting. They will open up your ears and minds, and inspire you to practise, practise, practise. Together, let’s find ways to incorporate these techniques into your bass playing, and then inspire you to come up with your own applications and innovations. You can reach me at hammstu@aol.com if you have questions or need clarification. I only charge $17.50 per reply… (Hey, Joel did ask me to include my singular brand of humor in…

“I LOVE BEING AN ARTIST, BECAUSE I GET TO SAY AND DO WHAT I BELIEVE IN” For many bassists, touring and recording with the legendary Victor Wooten would be a career highpoint, but for Divinity Roxx, it was just the start. From that auspicious beginning, she went on to spend five years working with arguably the biggest name in pop—Beyoncé Knowles, for whom Divinity provided not only some of the most locked-in bass ever, but also visionary musical direction, playing a pivotal role in the sound of some of Queen B’s most iconic album tours. Since then she’s been busy with a successful solo career, adding two new albums, 2012’s The Roxx Boxx Experience, and 2016’s ImPossible (as in ‘I’m possible’), to her 2003 offering, Ain’t No Other Way. As…

I started off playing guitar in my bedroom, like a lot of soon-to-be bassists, but as I started playing with bands, I found myself in love with playing bass and singing. I wound up working with some incredible audio engineers and producers, who showed me that bass was my calling. I got to spend lots of time recording and finding my voice. My first bass was a vintage short scale sunburst Teisco knock-off, no-brand. I still have it—it actually sounds pretty great. I got to have fun with it recording at Scott Reeder’s studio, the Sanctuary, out in the California desert. Among all his monstrous bass amps and arsenal of bass guitars, we mic’d up my first bass amp, and plugged in my first bass. I brought that gear to…

Fender www.fender.com Among big-ticket builders of bass guitars, no manufacturer has better capitalized on its heritage than Fender. After surviving an array of mis-steps (the much-maligned sale to CBS comes to mind), weathering a few miscalculated brand acquisitions, and doling out some unfortunately second-rate designs, Fender is now thriving once again. It’s clearly realized that its best shot at success lies in leveraging its natural strengths. For Fender’s bass division, those strengths are the perfection of Leo Fender’s foundational designs, the Precision, and Jazz Bass. The American Original basses are Fender’s latest elaboration of these iconic models, each designed to manifest the most critical features of its decade namesake. Sorting out how these models fit into Fender’s convoluted line-up, not to mention its similar legacy offerings, warrants a feature…

RRP | $4,500 Made In | USA Color | Three-tone sunburst, gloss finish Body | Alder Neck | Three-piece maple, 34” scale Neck join | Bolt-on, four-bolt attachment Nut Width | 40mm Fingerboard | Pau ferro Frets | 22 Pickups | Seymour Duncan single-coil pickups x 2 Electronics | Passive Controls | Volume, volume, tone Hardware | Chrome hardware, Fodera bridge, Fodera machine heads Weight | 8.6 lbs Left-hand available? | Yes, as a custom order Case/gigbag | Fodera hardcase WHAT WE THINK Plus | Great playability, high-quality passive tones Minus | Doesn’t exactly bowl you over Overall | A fine single-coil-equipped passive bass—but is that enough? BP RATING…

AC Guitars www.acguitars.co.uk Much as they might try to avoid the most popular bass design on the planet, most luthiers eventually succumb to the charms of the Fender Jazz style. However, not every instrument influenced by the Jazz has to copy its every feature; smart designers can still come up with new variations on the classic template, while appealing to the legions of players who admire it. With the Retro B J4 luthier Alan Cringean has attempted to come up with a bass that should appeal to both Jazz fans, and those looking for a bass that’s great on its own merits. Build Quality With an alder body core and a figured maple top that transitions from green to purple, the new ACG is a guaranteed eye-catcher. The exposed…

The Stave: most music written for the bass guitar uses the bass clef. The example to the right shows the placement of the notes on the stave. Tablature: this is a graphical representation of the music. Each horizontal line corresponds with a string on the bass guitar, with the lowest line representing the lowest pitched string (E). The numbers represent the frets to be played. Numbers stacked vertically indicate notes that are played together. Where basses with five or six strings are required, the tablature stave will have five or six lines as necessary. Notes shown in brackets indicate that a note has been tied over from a previous bar. PLAYING TECHNIQUES SLAP AND POP TECHNIQUE Notes slapped with the thumb are marked with a ‘t’, notes popped with the…