Innehållsförteckning för Holiday 2018 från Bass Player

Ah, we love it when a star of the caliber of Lenny Kravitz (singer, multi-instrumentalist, actor, love god, 10 million album sales and counting, multiple Grammy awards) comes over to the righteous side and enters the bass world. This issue rock star extraordinaire Kravitz gives us the very first bass-centric cover interview of his stellar career, and we consider ourselves fortunate to have him on our side. Mr K is joined by a galaxy of bass stars this month, starting with Jessica Pimentel, best known for her seven-season-to-date role in the Netflix series Orange Is The New Black. Between takes on the set, she strums the bass in a variety of unsociably loud situations—and once again, it’s her first bass-themed appearance. We also bring you the ultimate guide to the…

When it comes to soft tissue problems in bassists’ shoulders, the rotator cuff is often at the centre of the issue. This is a collection of four small muscles that run from either side of the shoulder blade to the outer side of the humerus (your upper arm bone). These muscles are primarily used for rotating the shoulder, but they contribute to arm movements in all directions. The rotator cuff muscles can be torn either by trauma or due to normal age-related changes. Large tears are often repaired surgically, but smaller ones can usually be managed with rehabilitation. This is achievable because the cuff muscles blend together around the shoulder like a blanket and can still function well even when there are small tears. The rotator cuff muscles, and the…

While some Basschatters are anticipating a Christmas-time bass-binge, others are setting themselves a challenge for the year to come: 12 full months without buying any gear apart from consumables and emergency replacements. Basschat member Sibob has planned a couple of purchases for the end of 2018, and will then try going Gear Acquisition Syndrome-free throughout 2019. Why? Because he’s realized that he’s so obsessed with new gear that he can’t enjoy the great gear already in his possession—not a good place to be. Who else on Basschat is willing to join him? And having done so, how many will quietly drop out within weeks? It’s like joining a gym at the beginning of January… How many would like to join in, but won’t even start, because they know they can’t…

Let’s face it—Lenny Kravitz is a certified rock god. His guitar hero and superstar status would be impressive enough if it wasn’t always competing for the spotlight with his model good looks, his undeniable swagger, his cutting-edge fashion, his larger-than-life persona, and his downright cold-blooded ability to rock arenas across the globe. “I PUT THE BASS IN MY HANDS, AND THE LINE JUST COMES OUT. I DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT” We get it; the man is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist who plays everything that he picks up—from a drum kit to a piano, to a damn triangle, even—at a master level. He’s even a recording studio ace who has produced every one of his albums himself, which, by the way, have won copious amounts of awards and have gone platinum…

With a stellar list of artists on his resumé including Nik Kershaw, George Michael, Donnie Osmond, and the Lighthouse Family, it’s no wonder that Paul Geary is a bassist in demand. He certainly racks up the touring miles, and 2018 has been a standout year for the bassman so far, with tours and festivals across the UK and Europe. Somehow, all of this falls into place alongside his teaching commitments at ACM in Guildford, UK and his private tuition courses, so when the opportunity arose to follow Mr Geary for a day at a London show with the Dire Straits Experience, we were quick to take up the offer. Quite how he manages to fit everything into his diary borders on the miraculous, yet it all seems to dovetail relatively…

The Stingray crosses all musical boundaries, as can be seen from its use across all genres: Early adopters such as Bernard Edwards (Chic), Louis Johnson (Michael Jackson, Brothers Johnson), and John Deacon (Queen) reaped the sonic benefits that the Stingray was able to offer. Rock players such as Tom Hamilton (Aerosmith) and Cliff Williams (AC/ DC) benefited from its extra punch and power. Technicians such as Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel), Mark King (Level 42), John Myung (Dream Theater), and session ace Pino Palladino have all chosen ’Rays at some time in their careers, creating some of their most famous bass-lines. The bass received a massive shot in the arm in the early Nineties when Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers became synonymous with the instrument, inspiring a…

My time with the Jeff Sipe Trio was so important to my development as a musician,” explains Taylor Lee. “Jeff really turned me onto a lot of music I wasn’t hip to, like mandolinist U. Srinivas, and that changed my life.” That’s a bold assertion from a player who cut his teeth at the esteemed Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied with—and caught the attention of—established veterans like Steve Bailey, Oteil Burbridge, and Matt Garrison. The 29-year-old bassist grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina, and got his start in music playing acoustic guitar. At 13, he was given Jaco Pastorius’ debut solo album for Christmas, and his path in life was indelibly forged. He knocked socks off at Berklee, then enrolled at the University of North Carolina,…

Overwater www.overwaterbasses.com $4,350 Go into any London theater or television recording studio in the UK and there’s a good chance that the bass player will be using an Overwater. These players demand an instrument that sounds great while being versatile, reliable, and ultra-quiet—all defining characteristics of a modern Overwater bass. Build Quality Chris May’s career as a luthier started way back in the late Seventies. I had one of his early basses, and it’s fascinating to see how his work has developed. A little of the DNA of those early instruments is still evident in the basses he builds today, both in their design and their playability. The Hybrid Custom 5 uses figured British walnut for its body and headstock facings and is finished to a flawless satin sheen.…

RRP | $1,600 Made In | Assembled in Indonesia, finished in USA Body | Ash Neck | Maple, 34” scale Neck join | Bolt-on, four bolts Fingerboard | Maple, 22 frets Pickups | Raw Vintage JB-5N and JB-5B Electronics | Active/passive Xotic preamp Controls | Volume, balance, tone, three-band EQ Hardware | Hipshot Ultra Light tuners, Hipshot B-Style bridge Weight | 9 lb Left-hand available? | No Case/gigbag | Gigbag WHAT WE THINK Plus | Highly friendly neck; active EQ Minus | None Overall | A totally plausible competitor at this price point BP RATING…

Price | $799.99 Made in | China Power | 500 watts RMS @ 4 ohms, 250 watts RMS @ 8 ohms Features | Off/Standby/On switch, Volume, Treble, Mid, Bass, Gain, Clean switch, Pad switch (-6dB), 1/4-inch jack Input socket, Balanced DI XLR output socket, Ground/Lift switch, 1/4-inch jack Send/Return sockets, 2 x Speakon output sockets, Speaker Impedance switch (4/8 ohms) Dimensions | 302mm (H) x 200mm (W) x 155mm (D) Weight | 10 lbs WHAT WE THINK Plus | Dimensions; power; tone Minus | If you don’t need distortion, you might want to look elsewhere Overall | An impressive all-round amp with much in its favor BP RATING…

THE JAZZ BASSIST RUTH GOLLER Jazz warrior Ruth on the persistence of time I recently completed a long tour with only my electric bass, and I’ve now started to practice the double bass again. It’s taken me a while to get back into it and get my hands stronger again, but playing some swing tunes alongside a piano-player has made me start analyzing my time and feel in depth. I’m sure many of you have been in a situation where you have a certain perception of your own time-feel, but when you listen back to it, you realize that it’s not accurate. This happened to me—I thought that I was sticking to a steady pulse, but listening back to a recording I realized that I was slowing down, especially when…

Welcome back to my long-running series on mastering plectrum techniques. Over the last year or so, we’ve covered the technique from its basic applications all the way through to some really quite challenging semiquaver-based funk lines. This month we’re going to continue with the ideas we began looking at in last month’s instalment, and refine our rhythmic funk lines even further. Before we get too excited, let’s recap on some key concepts: Muting Last month we covered the palm muting technique, which can be easily applied when using a pick to offer a more muted tone. This can work particularly well for the kind of percussive funk grooves that have been popularized by picking supremos Bobby Vega and Cody Wright. To palm mute, you’ll need to rest the edge of…

HEART TO HEART Guitarist Jason Becker is a tough cookie, refusing to allow the small matter of ALS, also known as motor neurone disease, to stop him making albums. His new record, Triumphant Hearts, is out on Mascot this month and features the expert bass playing of Matt Bissonette, who says he’s always glad to play with Jason: “He has been a good friend for years, and is one of the most talented musicians I have ever met. He trusted my brother [legendary drummer] Gregg and I to play whatever we wanted on his tracks, and that is a trait of a mature, experienced writer/producer, to let the players do their thing. God bless you Jason and your amazing family!” www.jasonbecker.com REISSUES RUSH! Looking for a last-minute Christmas present? You…

Bass Jedi Steve Lawson has always created his art in the moment. “My whole solo thing has always been about what I can do with a bass, a looper, and some processing, improvising live. Everything I record is live and every single thing I release is live,” he tells us. His catalog of improvised albums is a remarkable suite of works that together create a developing, organic whole; going to a Steve Lawson gig is opening your mind to the moment itself. You won’t get the hits—he simply does not play the same song twice. Indeed, songs unfurl in real time before his audience, with the atmosphere and vibe of the night having a huge effect on the sonic itself. Lawson—and occasional collaborators—make great use of looping technology, MIDI synths,…

I’m sure this is something we’ve all experienced at some point. You’re about to play a gig or do a recording session, and you need to switch out your dead-as-a-doornail strings. You stop by your local music store only to find they don’t have what you want. They may not carry the gauges you like, or have five- or six-string sets. Now imagine this to be the case with the basses, amps, or effects you like. You’re not alone. In fact, there are countless bassists out there who have preferences a bit out of the norm. Fretless players, extended range bassists, players who love a huge palette of pedals to play with; they’re all out there, and they’ve all had the same feeling of “Is it just me?” when dealing…

I started playing bass when someone suddenly quit a friend’s band. They were in a pinch and needed someone to fill in for a show later that week, so I learned their songs in a few days—and played CBGB that weekend. Up until that point, I’d been playing guitar in several bands in New York. I continued playing bass in that band and several others, before the guitar player in my original band quit, taking some of his music along with him. I had to write a new bass intro and bass interludes, which was a whole new world to me, because I was always used to having the melody line. It was an awesome challenge to write on bass, harmonize, be in the pocket, and deliver the groove element.…

Politics and music have always made for a controversial combination, but done right, you have an unparalleled force for change. Chicago-based punk four-piece Rise Against have done just that for the past 18 years—and show no sign of giving up the fight. Directly addressing social, environmental, and personal injustices on last year’s studio album Wolves, when the 2017 US Presidential Election was all over the headlines, Principe explains how these issues affected the album and his own playing. “We were toying with the idea of calling the record Mourning In Amerika, but we didn’t want it to have a sense of despair,” the bassist explains. “Tim [McIlrath, vocals/guitar] and I were having dinner one night and he was like, ‘I’m considering naming it Wolves’. It gives it a sense of…

I want to be known more as a composer than as a chop monster,” ponders the Roman bassist Lorenzo Feliciati during our chat at the last London Bass Guitar Show. This statement won’t surprise anyone who’s familiar with his approach to writing music. Of his current release, Elevator Man, he says: “There’s a different line-up for each song; I wrote each piece with a specific line-up in mind.” That’s some list of musicians, by the way; the album includes former Allan Holdsworth and Frank Zappa drummer Chad Wackerman, King Crimson’s Pat Mastelotto, trumpeter Cuong Vu, and long-time Feliciati collaborator Roy Powell, who plays a distortion-laced clavinet. The Italian multi-instrumentalist started out in Rome’s rock and blues scene in the early Eighties. Initially a fan of Led Zeppelin, Feliciati’s mindset changed…

Price | $4,350, including five-year warranty Made In | UK Body | Medium lightweight swamp ash Neck | Maple, 35” scale Neck Joint | ‘Hybrid’ bolt-on Nut Width | 1.81” / 46 mm Fingerboard | Indian laurel Frets | 24 medium Pickups | Overwater ‘Noiseless’ J5 Electronics | Active Controls | Three-band EQ Hardware | Overwater bridge, black/ gold Weight | 9 lbs, 26 oz Case/gig bag included | Yes WHAT WE THINK Plus | Build quality; versatile controls; top-spec materials Minus | Literally nothing, although that’s one hefty pricetag Overall | With its restrained, tasteful quality and practicality, if you want an instrument to play night after night you won’t do better BP RATING…

“WHATEVER STYLE YOU PLAY, IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE THIS AMP NOT BEING ABLE TO FURNISH YOU WITH WHAT YOU NEED” Price | $700 Made in | China Power | 300 watts Impedance | 4 ohms Features | VU input meter, 5-band EQ, FX loop send and return, 15dB active input pad, pre-shape scoop button, balanced XLR DI output, safe operation LED warning indicator, 3.5mm headphones output jack, 2 x jack speaker outputs Speakers | 1 x 12” Ashdown Whiteline woofer, 1 x tweeter horn Dimensions | 460mm (H) x 390mm (W) x 380mm (D) Weight | 27 lbs, 5 oz WHAT WE THINK Plus | Sounds great, looks great, and is incredibly user-friendly Minus | What were they thinking when they left off a second carry handle? Overall | If…

Making you a better bass player Welcome to our world-beating 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…

Let’s jump straight in this month with a two-chord progression. So far, we’ve looked at the notes in an E minor pentatonic, and have experimented with moving between them, shifting position, and changing the rhythm around a bit. But what do we do when it’s not just a matter of messing around with a fixed group of notes until we find something we like, but instead we’ve got a song that someone wants us to play? Okay, let’s build that imaginary song, shall we? The first section of our song is going to alternate between two chords—G major and E minor. This is a really common progression: The same shift can be heard between the first two chords in ‘That’s Entertainment’ by The Jam, the first two chords in ‘Stand…

For perspective on all that has happened in the world of bass over the past 35 years, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone as knowledgeable as Barry Moorhouse. He’s well known as the owner and operator of the Bass Center in London, UK, as well as the co-author, with Tony Bacon, of The Bass Book (Backbeat/Hal Leonard)—but his passion for bass extends far beyond those ventures. I met Barry when I was the editor of Bass Player in the ’90s and I was glad to be connecting with him again. His insights continue to impress, as does his steadfast sense of humor. Our conversation ranges over his entire career, from his early days as a working musician, to the origin of the Bass Center, to his current position as…

BASS Following the immense success of the Hartke amp and cabinet ranges from the mid-Eighties and through the Nineties, Larry Hartke revisited the ‘metalnecked’ bass design in 1998 to ’99; this led to the production of the XK-4 and XL-4. All XK models, and all five-string basses, were made in Korea, while the XL instruments were constructed in the US. Most commonly seen in black, but also available in red, yellow, and purple finishes among others, the XK-4 features a nine-volt active two-band EQ with stacked bass/treble controls alongside a pair of volume controls. A Hartke-badged Schaller bridge, Gotoh machine heads, and passive Hartke pickups provide a powerful tonal display across the 20-fret rosewood fingerboard. A brushed aluminium scratchplate adorns the poplar body—and really looks the part alongside the chrome-plated…

We all know Ronnie James Dio for his amazing vocals with Black Sabbath, Rainbow, and Dio, but we should also appreciate his skills as a bassist. He laid down the low end in his first band, the Vegas Kings, before switching to singing. He was also on bass and vocals in Elf. Eight years after Dio’s untimely death, his bass gear has been auctioned off as part of an estate sale. The metal icon’s stable of basses was centered around two vintage Gibsons: A 1953 EB1 he used to write and record, and a 1961 EB-0 used on stage with Elf, the latter having been fitted by Dio with two extra single-coil pickups near the bridge. Other bass gear included a Fender Precision, a custom Aria Pro II, a pair…

Welcome! Let’s look at intervals. A musical interval is the distance between two notes. Every melody—accompanied or solo—is created from a succession of notes, and our ear naturally analyzes the intervals between them when we are thinking about whether a melodic phrase sounds pleasing. Combining intervals in different ways creates a variety of effects. It’s important to grasp that the interval class (whether it is a second, third, fourth, and so on) tends to supersede the interval quality (major, minor, diminished, and more) in how it affects the sound. Seconds and thirds tend to have more of a smooth-sounding outcome, while fourths and fifths sound more angular. Intervallic playing could keep you busy practicing for years, but you can start creating structure in your melodic lines by applying diatonic thirds…

The 1990s was a chaotic decade, musically speaking, and specifically in the world of bass guitar. When grunge and then Britpop arrived, suddenly it was deemed uncool to be playing a hot-rodded Japanese bass with no headstock and a turbocharged active circuit; all you heard in the charts for at least five years was old Fenders and Gibsons. Space, a sort-of Britpop band, took this a step further, with frontman Tommy Scott bringing out a positively ancient Framus. What was a Steinberger owner to do? Fortunately, Space’s amazing music made us forget all that. Unleashing a killer run of singles—‘Neighborhood’, ‘Female Of The Species’, ‘Me And You Versus The World’—the Liverpool band were all over the radio and TV from 1996 onwards. They made it all the way to 2005…

Leo Fender (1909-1991) was a man of vision. Having created the first mass-market electric guitars and basses with his Fender company, he moved on to pastures new in 1971, knowing full well that his next project would be scrutinized closely. Launched in 1976, his new company, CLF Research, produced the instruments for the new Music Man company. The trio of Leo, Tom Walker (a former Fender employee), and Sterling Ball (who field-tested the instrument through its design process), developed an instrument that broke new ground for production basses. This was the Music Man Stingray. The instrument’s single humbucking pickup and active two-band EQ created a tonal palette that hadn’t been heard before. Active electronics already existed in basses made by Alembic and other luthiers, but the Music Man sound created…

with their career now spanning 35 years, Corrosion Of Conformity started out as a ferocious hardcore and metal crossover band in the Eighties, before expanding their sound and appeal, signing to Columbia, and touring with Metallica in the Nineties. How did it all start, we ask bassist Mike Dean? “Everyone played guitar, so I was just trying to fill a void and start a band when I picked up the bass,” he begins, before adding of his first instrument, “It wasn’t bad, but I was! It was a Japanese copy of a hollowbody Epiphone or Gibson bass, like Jack Casady would play. It would make some howling feedback if you weren’t careful. I replaced it with a short scale Rickenbacker 3001, which I should have kept, and from then on…

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. BPhas 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 advertizers in any way, and our conclusions are entirely independent of the views…

Price | $1,199 Made In | USA Color | Signal orange Body | Swamp ash Neck | Maple, 34.5” scale Neck Joint | Bolt-on, four-bolt attachment Nut Width | 38mm Fingerboard | Maple Frets | 20 Pickups | Marco handwound single-coil pickups x 2 Electronics | Passive Controls | Volume, volume, tone Hardware | Chrome hardware, non-branded standard bridge, elephant ear machine heads Weight | 8 lbs, 4 oz Case/gig bag included | Hard case Left-hand option available | Yes, as a custom order WHAT WE THINK Plus | Tone range, user-friendly control pots, familiar neck dimensions Minus | A minor finishing issue Overall | A fine example of the Jazz Bass breed, made to be played BP RATING…

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…

You must be having a bubble bath if you Adam and Eve that you can duck and dive from putting on your whistle and flute and jumping in a sherbert to the rub-a-dub for a swift half. It’s clearly your trouble and strife having a Darby and Joan after you played Moby Dick from work last week. I’ll see you at the jam down the battlecruiser at 8pm for a few tunes on the old Joanna and perhaps a cheeky Ruby Murray after.” To a native of London, the preceding paragraph should be perfectly easy to understand. However, without prior experience of rhyming slang, it could give you a spot of ‘Barney Rubble’ (trouble). What’s the point of this, I hear you ask? Simply that communication is key in whatever…