September 2019

Bass Player

Dig Deeper

Bass Player1 min read
Editor
Faith No More, Kings Of Leon, any number of bands currently rocking stages near you—all of these will cite the bass playing of Peter Hook as an influence. His haunting, high-register work in Joy Division and New Order in the Eighties and Nineties, bo
Bass Player4 min read
The Lowdown
Bassline Publishing, headed up by bassist and educator Stuart Clayton of this magazine, has announced the release of Marcus Miller—Highlights from Afrodeezia, a book of six songs from Miller’s 2015 album of the same name. The book also contains a bio
Bass Player3 min read
Low Life
Welcome back to Low Life! This time around, I’ll be talking about what to do when the structure of a track becomes compromised in a live setting. Let’s face it, it can be easily done. With multiple band members, there is certainly the capacity for so
Bass Player5 min read
The Forums
One of the greatest things about the internet is the proliferation of educational resources, and as bassists, we now have tons of access to lessons and music that was once hard to find. Those two aspects come together in the beauty of isolated bass v
Bass Player3 min read
Bass Of Tomorrow
The bigger the risk, the bigger the pay off. After leaving his day job to become a luthier, with no experience of any kind, Jim Fleeting has been living the dream for past fifteen years, doing as he damn well pleases. We’ve all had those moments in o
Bass Player2 min read
Theory Of The Month
Hello, and welcome back to your essential theory of the month! In my last lesson, a couple of issues ago, we discovered that triad pairs consist of two mutually exclusive triads, containing a series of chord tones and tensions, that are resolvable ov
Bass Player4 min read
Technique Of The Month
Hello again, beautiful bassists and gorgeous groovers! This month let’s begin where we ended last month, and continue with a piece of mine titled ‘Sexually Active’ from my very first solo release, Radio Free Albemuth. Last month was the first in what
Bass Player4 min read
Star Bass
Some people are whirlwinds, aren’t they? From hardcore to pop, R&B, to jazz and funk, on bass, on keys, on vocals, on drums, Stephen Lee Bruner has packed a hell of a lot into his career—and he’s still only 34. You and I know him better as Thundercat
Bass Player8 min read
Hooks That Kill
I guess I was just lucky with the riffs,” reckons Peter Hook, the founding member of Joy Division and New Order, who now heads up his own group, The Light. Seated across the table from him in an upmarket Italian restaurant on the outskirts of Manches
Bass Player3 min read
Sand Storm
Mastodon are a unique band: Definitely heavy metal in flavor and progressive in nature, but a million miles away from anything that would usually be associated with the familiar ‘prog-metal’ tag. Partly this is due to their expansive sound, epic rath
Bass Player4 min read
The Vega Way
Life is good—but music is like a Shrek movie for me,” quips Bobby Vega. “I have to go far, far away, to the UK and Europe. Music is treated more like art there. Music is an art form, but in the US, musicians aren’t necessarily revered as artists—in o
Bass Player3 min read
Rhodes Ahead
Bass guitar became a passion for me at around the age of 11, but I started on string instruments at three with the violin. Then I moved on to cello and guitar at nine or 10. I also played alto sax a bit. Soon after I started playing guitar, I began p
Bass Player6 min read
Om-Ward Bound
If you were a metalhead in the 1990s, but you were too fond of slow, stoner grooves to enjoy caffeinated headbangers like Metallica, you might well have been a fan of Sleep, the amazing band from California, who released a clutch of all-time classic
Bass Player5 min read
Walking The Beast
Listening to the two latest high-profile releases that feature the bass playing of Ricky Phillips, one thing becomes immediately apparent: Together, they represent a testament to his versatility. Whether he’s blazing trails through the 70s-inspired p
Bass Player5 min read
Hell Ain’t A Bad Place To Be
Nobody, it’s fair to say, was ready for Venom. Erupting like a lanced boil from the confines of Newcastle’s burgeoning UK heavy metal scene just as the 70s segued into the 80s, the Geordie trio stunned even the gnarliest of punters with their uniquel
Bass Player2 min read
Allen Keys
After growing up on a broad range of artists, ranging from Donny Hathaway, to Pink Floyd, I came to really appreciate the role of the bass in providing a groove-filled backdrop to a song. I wanted to be able to emulate the things I liked about how th
Bass Player3 min read
Free Time
At the moment, I play the bass mostly as a solo musician in several free improvisation formations. This means that I don’t have a fixed band that I tour with and play the same songs every night. Instead, I have a few solid bands that I play with, suc
Bass Player4 min read
Metal Magic
Tell us about your bass gear, Felipe. I use the Aguilar AG700 head, which can handle any room, and their DB810 cab, which is a powerhouse. Even though I use in-ear monitors, I like to feel the speaker shaking. It also complements the PA in a very n
Bass Player3 min read
FENDER American Performer Precision and Jazz
We recently reviewed a Fender American Performer variant of the Mustang—and despite our initial reservations about yet another iteration of the well-worn formula, we liked it. We’re now presented with the big brothers of the bass range. These keenly-
Bass Player2 min read
CORT Rithimic V
Jeff Berlin is known for several things—his forthright views on music education, for once being the possessor of the best mustache in bass (apart from Geezer Butler), and for his astounding fluency on the bass guitar in a variety of solo and band con
Bass Player3 min read
DOLAN CUSTOM GUITARS Proteus Legacy
Adam Dolan is a luthier based in the northwest of the UK—and judging from the initial visuals of the Proteus Legacy, eye-pleasing lumbers and high-level electronics specs are definitely his forte. The Proteus’s pricetag is steep, but not out of reach
Bass Player5 min read
DARKGLASS Microtubes v2 and Alpha Omega 900
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Darkglass is a relative newcomer to the world of bass amplification. Launched in 2009 by founder/designer Douglas Castro, the company quickly built a solid reputation among the low-end community, through the success
Bass Player2 min read
TECH 21 NYC Geddy Lee Signature SansAmp YYZ
Witnessing the evolution of Rush from a curious band of prog wizards with a niche audience (the 70s), to mulleted tech geeks (the 80s), and finally to classic-rock avatars (the last 20 years or so) has been a gratifying ride. Along the way their musi
Bass Player2 min read
Bass Lessons
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 exper
Bass Player2 min read
BP Notation Legend
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 o
Bass Player6 min read
The Frontline
Recently, I had a conversation about perfect pitch—the ability to identify a note without any other reference—and about the pros and cons of possessing this ability. I myself don’t have perfect pitch, and as a result I’ve had to work hard at my relat
Bass Player6 min read
Beginners’ Lesson
Welcome back! When we first start playing bass, the usual path is a mixture of pretty open exploration—basically making a terrible but really enjoyable noise!—and learning songs, either from tab, video tutorials, or notation. It’s usually not long be
Bass Player3 min read
Intermediate Lesson
Inspiration and motivation: two things that each have a dramatic effect on our musical progress. Without a goal or deadline to work towards, finding fresh catalysts for inspiration can be tedious. However, two studies that have never let me down in m
Bass Player5 min read
Advanced Lesson
Welcome to the third and final instalment in my mini-series covering sweep picking and tapping on the bass. Over the past two issues we’ve examined the basics of the technique, and used it to play some single octave, and two-octave arpeggios. As many
Bass Player2 min read
Low End Of Love
Small yet mighty, iconic, and punky, classic and fun—it’s the Fender Mustang, famously the last bass designed by Leo Fender before he split from the company in 1965. The Mustang’s 30” scale, bolt-on neck, and electric guitar-sized body, combined with

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