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.
We knew this day was coming. Magazines have been ceasing publication at an increasing pace over the last few years, not because their content is substandard or because their readers are moving on, but because the print industry itself is on its knees. Now it’s Bass Player’s turn. Our sales are good. Advertising revenue is decent. Subscription numbers are great. Our content is better than it’s ever been. Our readers are loyal—but paper stocks have increased punitively in cost, while energy prices make distribution a nightmare. We’re still Bass Player, though, the coolest bass magazine ever published, and we still have a community to support, and a lot of great bassists and basses to write about—so we’re not going anywhere. You can still find us at www.bassplayer.com, where we’ll be…
News and views from the bass world, collated by BP's team of newshounds It is with regret, a lot of sadness and a whole load of bring-it-on that the Bass Player team announces the end of our print magazine. You’re reading the last US and UK issue: the next one will be a final, UK-only issue. Subscribers will be contacted and offered alternative options. We’ve faced massive challenges over the last few years, through a difficult retail landscape and an actual pandemic, to maintain Bass Player as a profitable magazine, but 2022’s dramatic increase in costs for us and our suppliers – paper, printing, fuel, and distribution to name a few – mean that our print edition is no longer viable. Every cloud has a silver lining, though – the…
THE Lowdown Mesa/Boogie’s new Subway D-350 is a compact but powerful unit that the Gibson-owned company says is the lightest, smallest, and most affordable bass amp it’s ever produced. Given that it weighs just over three pounds and measures at just 3” high and 9” wide, we have no reason to quarrel with those claims. Small as it is, the amp packs a punch, with 350 watts of power. It’s built with a solid-state preamp coupled with a lightweight Class D power amp and switch-mode power supply, a four-band EQ, separate Gain and Master Volume controls, Active/Passive and Input Mute switches, and a Bright switch. Expect to pay $699.…
THE Lowdown After releasing his memoir Fathers, Brothers, And Sons last year, co-written with this magazine’s editor, Anthrax bassist Frank Bello has released a solo EP, Then I’m Gone. “I revisited some really dark times in my life when I was writing my book, and writing these songs was the result of reliving them,” Bello explains. “Music has always been a great outlet for me as a coping mechanism. I felt it was a good time to put out these songs for people who connected with the book, and maybe some who haven’t yet. Thanks for listening!”…
THE Lowdown Paul Ryder, the co-founder and longtime bassist of the British alt-rock band Happy Mondays, died at the age of 58 on July 15. “The Ryder family and Happy Mondays band members are deeply saddened and shocked to say that Paul Ryder passed away this morning,” the band wrote in a statement, adding “A true pioneer and legend, he will be forever missed. Long live his funk.” Born in Salford, England in 1964, Paul Ryder took up the bass at 13, and formed the Happy Mondays with his brother Shaun, the band’s dynamic frontman, guitarist Mark Day, drummer Gary Whelan, keyboardist Paul Davis, and dancer/percussionist Mark ‘Bez’ Berry in the early Eighties. Usually playing a Fender Jazz bass, Ryder supplied much of the band’s club-friendly low end, which helped…
THE Lowdown Pantera and Down legend Rex Brown has joined forces with Gibson to create a new signature Thunderbird bass guitar. The metal bass titan’s first collaboration with Gibson, the Rex Brown Thunderbird was reportedly two and a half years in the making, and features a mahogany body and mahogany neck with a slimmer-than-usual profile and a 34”, 12” radius rosewood fretboard with 20 medium jumbo frets. It’ll cost you $2,799. Baum’s first artist signature bass, the Thunder, is on the way. Designed for Seye Adelekan, live bassist with Gorillaz, the pink instrument has a lightweight mahogany body, a one-piece maple neck and a dark rosewood fretboard with a signature lightning strike inlay across the 11th to 13th frets. Sporting 22 frets, a 34” scale length, a 12” fretboard radius…
