Bass Player is the world's most comprehensive, trusted and insightful bass publication for passionate bassists and active musicians of all ages. Each issue delivers the latest tips and techniques that are guaranteed to make you a better player.
If you’re old like me, you probably remember heavy metal bass players in the Seventies as a) being fond of spandex b) slinging their basses very low and c) not really playing anything particularly complex. Well, that all changed in the Eighties, the Nineties, and beyond, with a tidal wave of immensely accomplished bass players—many of whom we are fortunate enough to meet in this magazine—whose skills make them among the very finest practitioners of the low frequencies in existence. This comes to a logical conclusion with this month’s cover star, Alessandro ‘VMan’ Venturella of Slipknot, the biggest metal band in existence (with the noble exception of our friends in Metallica, perhaps). Alex, whose grasp of bass tech and playing attitude blows our minds in his frank interview, represents the…
SHOW TIME We are delighted to announce that the great John Patitucci will be performing at the London Bass Guitar Show in the UK in September. John, an acclaimed fusion artist and songwriter since the Seventies, joins Ariane Cap, Nick Beggs, and Cody Wright at the event, to be held at the Business Design Center in Islington. Bass Player’s long tradition of recognizing excellence in our field, we’ll be presenting John with the Bass Player Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award, an honor shared with a short but elite list of bassists including James Jamerson, Stanley Clarke, and Billy Sheehan. We hope to see you there—it’s going to be the bass event of the year! www.ukguitarshow.com, www.facebook.com/ukguitarshow, www.instagram.com/ukguitarshow, @UKGuitarShow BOXING CLEVER Aguilar have announced the latest addition to its line of Super…
NEW ALBUM Radiodust, A.O.R. (2019) Zippy bass parts from the McCartney school soar over the grungy riffs from these rockers; Dennis Feeney is the chap at the low end. OLD ALBUM Dark Angel, Darkness Descends (1986) These Los Angeles thrash metallers churned out some tasty bass parts; Rob Yahn’s tapped chords in the intro of ‘Merciless Death’ are a case in point. REALLY OLD ALBUM Ella Fitzgerald, Ella Fitzgerald Sings The Cole Porter Song Book (1956) When Ella sang, the world listened, and when the renowned swing bassist Joe Mondragon played, the earth shook... but subtly.…
Welcome back to your regular dose of the Low Life! In this issue I will be discussing the benefits of warming up before playing and giving you tips on what to do pre-performance. Warm-ups are often neglected, but without them we risk our potential longevity as performers—it is therefore vital to look after ourselves and keep our bodies, joints, and hands healthy. A proper warm-up regimen will also enable you to accomplish greater dexterity during play, and result in a more relaxed approach. This leads to improved endurance, and prevents your hands from tiring during longer sets. A lot of bassists appreciate the value of warming up, but are not disciplined in actioning it—myself included, once upon a time! To combat this, it is key to establish a good regimen…
NO TREBLE KEVIN JOHNSON Kevin Johnson meets the greatest living Canadian This month on No Treble, we were honored to have the one and only Geddy Lee on the Groove Podcast. Mitch Joel caught up with the Rush bassist in Montreal during a Canadian book tour in support of his Big Beautiful Book Of Bass. Their conversation included talk about the history of Fender basses, Lee’s first encounter with Jaco Pastorius, and what he’s been up to since the end of Rush. When asked about his current bass playing, Lee said he still plucks the low notes every day. “I have a bass in every room, [though] I need to get my fingers back in shape,” he said. “I go down to my studio and jam with myself. I put…
In an age when machines are dauntlessly pumping out guitars, we need to ask ourselves, where’s the humanity? Are we willing to sacrifice quality for convenience? Luckily, raging against the machine is American luthier Rob Elrick, whose craftsmanship has yielded some of the world’s finest basses. With over a quarter of a century’s worth of professional bragging rights at his disposal, Rob tells us that it isn’t so much what materials you use—it’s how a bass feels that really makes it an Elrick. Having been a player himself since his early teens, it’s his fingers that get the last word before these beauties hit the shelves. He explains, “Without hours and hours of field testing, my products would not have developed in the manner that they have. Even before I…
