Innehållsförteckning för May 2019 från Bass Player

Q THE MUSIC Our friend Suzi Quatro, now in the music-business for more than 50 years, has released a new studio album, No Control, on SPV. “I’ve never stopped releasing music,” she says. “Back To The Drive in 2006, In The Spotlight in 2011—these albums were planned out in great detail. I’m proud of all three releases, but No Control is its own animal.” She’ll be touring through 2019; watch out for our forthcoming interview. www.suziquatro.com MR JONES Phil Jones Bass have announced the MICRO 7 amp, a single-channel 50-watt bass combo with a 7” driver and 3” tweeter. It measures less than a foot each side, and weighs 15.5 lbs (7 kg). The US street price is $279 but, as PJB tell us, it “uses the same quality parts…

Crusher. Constrictor. No, we’re not talking B-movie beasties here—these are the names of the fretted beauties that, along with the Tribute, and Ultra J models, make up the stunning Anaconda bass family. Founder, luthier, and bassist Andrew Taylor-Cummings ditched the nine-to-five back in 2013 to follow his dream of constructing the world’s most versatile basses. With over 30 years of bass-playing under his belt, it takes a player to know the game—and Andrew certainly knows what his customers want. “In order to be able to build the basses that bassists need, you have to have some kind of experience of actually playing the instrument,” he says. “I wouldn’t consider myself to be an amazing bass player by any means, but I have played bass long enough to know what a…

You may remember that, towards the end of 2018, some of us on Basschat, led by Sibob, pledged abstinence from acquiring bass-related gear in 2019, making exceptions only for consumables, and emergency replacements. With 2019 well underway, it’s time for an update. Are we learning to appreciate what we have, or still coveting other bassists’ gear? Have our finances improved? Above all, how many of those who accepted the challenge are still in? Judging by the posts appearing on the challenge thread since January 1, there seem to be three groups of Abstainers (or would-be Abstainers): First, those who are still in, because they’re either firm believers in this good fight (hats off to them), or simply too poor to afford any more gear—or both. Then there are those who…

Californian phenomenon Justin Meldal-Johnsen’s career has blossomed into producing, musical directing, and songwriting over the years. His work with singer-songwriter Beck covers all bases; he’s been with the mercurial alternative-rock icon for three decades, both live, and in the studio. Meldal-Johnsen has also held down the low end for such top-notch artists as Air, Macy Gray, Jason Mraz, Goldfrapp, Robbie Williams, Pink, Tori Amos, and Kid Rock. He joined Nine Inch Nails’ touring band in 2008, flipping between bass, guitar, and keyboard on the Lights In The Sky, NIN/JA, and Wave Goodbye tours. In 2017 Fender released the JMJ Mustang bass, Meldal-Johnsen’s signature instrument, which is based on his 1996 Daphne Blue Mustang. He’s also been known to strap on a P-Bass, a Fender Starcaster, a Geddy Lee Jazz, a…

You may have come across ‘Just Did A Bad Thing’, an insanely catchy song on Youtube, accompanied by a day-glo video of brain-frying proportions, written by Bill Wurtz, who performs the song on various instruments. I first heard it because my kids played it on constant rotation on the school run, and soon became fascinated by the super-funky bass part (as well as the line “All the things I’m supposed to do and the places I’m supposed to go are cancelled”, which made me laugh like a drain for some reason). Tracking the elusive Wurtz down, I requested an interview—and he kindly said yes, revealing an unexpected fact about his bass parts in doing so. Bass is a huge presence in your music, isn’t it? “YOU COME TO REALISE THE…

“Last year,” Horace Panter recalls, “we supported the Rolling Stones at the Ricoh Arena, in Coventry in the UK. Two weeks later, I was playing to 15 people at the Spires in Chapelfields, also in the UK, doing Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and Stevie Ray Vaughan songs—but it was just as good. My favorite venue in the world is the Broomfield Tavern in Spon End, near Coventry—not the Budokan in Tokyo or whatever.” You sense he means it. Having experienced both ends of the music industry, Panter is that surprisingly rare creature: A musician who genuinely loves playing, irrespective of the size and status of the gig. Born in Croydon, UK, in 1953, Panter was studying Fine Art at Lanchester Polytechnic in Coventry when he met Jerry Dammers. He was…

NEW ALBUM The Mute Gods, Atheists And Believers (2019) Nick Beggs is a (thankfully not mute) god in our world. Check out the effortlessly catchy, intelligent songwriting on his new album. OLD ALBUM Talk Talk, The Party’s Over (1982) TT singer Mark Hollis departed in February. Salute him by listening to this album, loaded with cerebral bass playing from Paul Webb. REALLY OLD ALBUM Elvis Presley, Loving You (1957) Bill Black’s propulsive upright bass playing never sounded more exciting than on Elvis’s first soundtrack album.…

This month marked the 50th episode of Groove—The No Treble Podcast, which is hosted by the inimitable Mitch Joel. It was a particularly special interview, firstly because it was recorded live in front of an audience at the 2019 Winter NAMM Show, and secondly because the interviewee was none other than Michael Anthony. The former Van Halen and current Circle bassist was on hand to talk about his career, including his early years. ‘When I first started playing, my sister would be bringing home albums: Everything from Frank Zappa to David Peel,’ the bassist explained. ‘One of the first albums I really got into was by The Electric Flag, whose bassist was Harvey Brooks. He was a session player. They had a song called ‘Texas’ that just had this big…

One of the ways of expanding your jazz vocabulary when playing accompanying bass-lines is by using polyrhythms to break up the time. These work as a nice way of varying the overall time feel of a tune, and breathing new life into your lines. This is a technique that’s employed by jazz bass players such as Gary Peacock, Scott LaFaro, Steve Swallow, and Charlie Haden, among dozens of others. In the following eight-bar example, I’ve written out a walking bass-line in the first four bars over a D7 chord. In the second four bars, I’ve written a polyrhythmical line using the root, 5th, and octave of the chord. Note that the line is written so that the root, 5th, and octave are accented every three 8th notes, and also that…

“My father is a pastor at a church in the little town where I grew up,” reflects Jeremy Lenzo, asked about how he first started playing bass. “He bought me a bass with the intentions of having me play with him at church. I can’t remember what the very first song I learned on bass was, but I’m sure it was one of the church songs. I remember thinking that it wasn’t what I wanted to be playing, ha ha! I wanted to play loud and fast, and you can’t do that in a church, at least not the small-town, country ones.” Lenzo is a founding member of Mayday Parade, the Tallahassee, Florida-born rock band that was formed in 2005 when two local high school bands, Kid Named Chicago, and…

Among the veritable treasures of America’s Pacific Northwest is Portland-based David Friesen. The Tacoma, Washington-born Friesen spent his formative years playing jazz on acoustic bass with such giants as Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Philly Joe Jones, Elvin Jones, Chick Corea, and Michael Brecker, then channelled that experience into a landmark solo bass career. Composing in a wide range of musical styles, he developed many new techniques that are now valued parts of the bass lexicon. The 76-year-old Friesen, who has over 65 recordings as a leader or co-leader, recently released My Faith, My Life, a 29-track double CD split between new versions of his best-known solo acoustic bass compositions and his stunning debut as a solo pianist. As usual, he delivers them on a high emotional…

“IF I WANTED TO PLAY A SONG, I HAD TO WORK IT OUT MYSELF” Tell us what you’re up to at the moment, Stu. Well, I published my second Jamiroquai bass book in 2018, and book three is on the way. I’m also in the process of licensing a book called Bass Monsters, which is 12 classic pieces by bass legends. Other than that, the majority of my time at the moment is taken up with filming and editing courses for my new site Like our magazine, you’re competing with the internet when it comes to bass education. Why should bass players read your books? The best answer to that is my experience in doing it. A lot of the bass transcriptions that you see on YouTube are not wholly…

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 cabs, and bass effects. Occasionally we’ll review a guitar effect if it’s useful for bassists, but generally speaking, this zone is reserved for bass-specific gear. We take our reviews seriously. BP has readers all over the world, so we’re responsible about our conclusions. If a product is worth your time, we’ll say so; if it’s flawed, we’ll make that clear. We’re not beholden to advertisers in any way, and our tests are independent of the views of manufacturers and distributors. When you read about a product here, you’re getting a balanced review from an experienced bass tester. Value for money is at the top…

Simplicity is very much what a Fender Precision is all about—but when it’s presented in a whiskey gloss finish with a tortoiseshell scratchplate, the classy, understated, traditional vibe becomes rather more complex. Although we’re looking at a straightforward design, the setup, finishing, and choice of components result in a bass that is modern but retro, classic yet contemporary, at the same time. The pricetag is on the hefty side, but then again G&L instruments have a reputation for consistency and quality—so what’s the verdict? Build Quality The SB-1 doesn’t hide its design blueprint, but then why should it? After all, G&L’s late founder Leo Fender designed the original bass. The bodyshape, contouring, and cutaways are familiar, although the weight and balance give the instrument a substantial feel. The whiskey coloring…

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…

THE JAZZ BASSIST RUTH GOLLER Jazz ninja Ruth hails a modern bass hero This month I received a copy of Larry Grenadier’s first solo album, The Gleaners. Larry is a double bass player and originally from San Francisco, but now living in New York. He mostly plays jazz, and has played with nearly every great modern jazz musician, including Gary Burton, Brad Mehldau, Joshua Redman, Paul Motian, Mark Turner, Michael Brecker, Pat Metheny, Charles Lloyd, and Enrico Rava. He is one of the most in-demand musicians around. With his first solo album, a collection of solo works and improvisations for double bass, Larry has made his first statement about the kind of music he wants to make under his own name. Its title is a reference to the way he…

Time signatures come in many different shapes and sizes. This month’s study is of 5/4. This is just one example of a range of frequently employed meters, but with a list of impressive artists all drawing inspiration from it—including Gorillaz, Jethro Tull, Radiohead and Soundgarden—this time signature is particularly worthy of our investigation. Dividing the rhythms of individual bars up into bite-sized portions is an incredibly effective tool to employ whenever you’re confronted by a bass-line written in an odd time signature. Each measure of 5/4 is composed of five quarter notes, of course, but it’s where the stresses fall within this time frame that should be your main focus when trying to give a 5/4 line a natural feel. Example 1 Our first example demonstrates the point above, as…

Check one, two... Check one, two! Welcome back, bassists—this month, I’ll be discussing some of the preparational aspects of live performance, and how to cultivate the best sonic environment for you to perform in. Soundcheck can be a varied experience for everyone, and it’s often easy to underestimate the time you have to spend on it. As a headlining act, you have the luxury of spending longer on tweaking your sounds, sorting your monitor mix and working through any issues with the front-of-house (FOH) engineer. As a support act, you get what you’re given time-wise, which can be anything from 30 minutes, to a basic line-check. With that in mind, it’s important that you make the most of your soundcheck, as bad sound on stage can really affect the way…

Bassists have benefited greatly from the technological innovations of the past few years. Neodymium speakers, and lightweight amps with massive wattage, have made hauling our rigs around remarkably easier. Many gigbags now offer enough protection to allow us to leave our heavy hard case at home. A one-trip load in is now a viable option for most of us, but we still need to decide what we will bring ‘just in case’. An oft-discussed topic at TalkBass is the need to carry a backup bass. For some gigs, it’s a requirement; you may need both a fretless and a fretted, for example. Unfortunately, a second instrument usually doubles the schlep to and from your car, and increases the chances of something getting damaged or lost. I’ve found that backups are…

Hello again, fellow defenders of the low end, root note enthusiasts, and grateful groovers! This month, I unlock the mysteries of one my most well-known pieces, ‘Country Music. A Night In Hell’. I recently saw a YouTube clip of a high school student in Iran playing this arrangement for his senior recital. What a world… and what a genuine honor. I have to admit that when I asked my engineer Joe Battaglia to scream “Play something we can dance to… play some country,” I had no idea that I was, in fact, encouraging fans to heckle me by yelling the same words—or ‘Play a polka!’ at me for the rest of my life. It’s lonely at the top! “MY MASTER PLAN IS TO ADD SOME SPICE TO YOUR BASS PLAYING!”…

Duff McKagan’s new Deluxe Precision bass is based on the 1980s Jazz Bass Special he used while recording Appetite For Destruction. It features a black painted ‘Modern C’- shaped quartersawn maple neck, and a rosewood fingerboard, with pearloid block inlays, along with the number 12 at the twelfth fret. A Hipshot Bass Xtender allows instant drop-tuning, and there are two pickups, a Fender vintage-style Precision split-coil, and a Seymour Duncan STKJ2B Jazz Bass single-coil unit. It’s rounded off with a Fender TBXTM (Treble/Bass Expander) tone circuit, a Pure Vintage 70s bridge, a Duff skull and crossbones neckplate, and a deluxe gigbag. It’s yours for $1,199.99. Rock!…

I am the author of Music Theory For The Bass Player, and a TrueFire educator. I also do my own seminars, as well as regular seminars on Scott Devine’s platform. My current projects are OoN, my duo with bassoonist Paul Hanson, and the Nick Phillips Ariane Cap Group. I also play in several groove-based bands, and love laying down a fat groove just the same as the more eclectic fare that Michael Manring, Steve Lawson, and Jeff Schmidt got me into. My duo with Paul Hanson is a place for both me and Paul to stretch the boundaries of our respective instruments. He is a world-renowned pioneer on the electric bassoon—he’s currently on the road with Billy Cobham—and playing in a duo with him is an amazing experience. It allows…

“A SAXOPHONIST FRIEND SAID TO ME ‘YOU PLAY BASS SOLOS LIKE A BASS PLAYER’” The multicultural rhythms of New Orleans make it a groove paradise; a place where African and Caribbean influences mingle with jazz, blues and funk to create genres and feels found nowhere else. That’s the spirit behind Neospectric, the solo debut by the 28-year-old New Orleans-based bassist Max Moran. Choosing a five-string electric bass as the album’s anchor and primary writing tool, Moran presents 10 pocket-potent tracks with an emphasis on group interpretation and conversation. Featured among his Crescent City bandmates are saxophonist Donald Harrison, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, and drummer Jamison Ross. A guest spot by rapper Fiend and Moran’s three vocal tracks add to the accessibility factor. Born in 1988 in Cane River, outside of Natchez,…

Six Feet Under bassist Jeff Hughell is a supremely talented bass player, delivering fiendishly technical bass parts in his main band, Six Feet Under, as well as in his own work. His new album, Sleep Deprivation, reveals once more why he is among the most revered musicians in death metal—a genre of music which, thanks to its spooky name, often fails to get the recognition that it deserves as the place where maximum energy and musical creativity often overlap. We met the great man for a chat at NAMM… Tell us about Sleep Deprivation, Jeff. This is my fourth solo album, and I took a different approach on this one. I wanted to really take my time and experiment with different things, so I play a lot more guitar and…

The NG2 has been quite a success for Sheldon Dingwall and his team, and as good as that model is, Dingwall had the foresight to equip it with an extra pickup cavity (yes, check under your scratchplate) so that bassists in search of more tones could add another pickup or reposition the existing units. The NG2 is still available, but with an extra pickup comes the NG3, with a whole array of extra tones for your delectation. Build Quality The NG3’s smooth body lines, extended upper horn, and deep lower cutaway make for a very comfortable, accessible instrument; access to the upper frets is unhindered. The Moca Purple gloss finish is particularly eyecatching against the light blonde maple neck and fingerboard; on closer inspection, the color has a subtle sparkle…

Michiel Mozer exemplifies the new generation of European bass luthiers. The young Dutchman started his company in 2012 and, like many of his contemporaries, feels less constrained by tradition than some of his predecessors. Rather than doing things in a certain way because ‘that’s how they were always done’ he started with a clean sheet, basing every decision and design on his own ideas—not disregarding tradition, but rather using it as a starting point from which to develop. Build Quality The Radiant IV bass is constructed with quality tonewoods. Its swamp ash body, finished in Mozer’s striking BKB-05 black-burst, has a satin sheen which shows off the texture and grain of the lumber beautifully. The back of the body and the maple neck are finished in satin black, while the…

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…

Welcome back! Hopefully you’ve had a fun month looking at various muting ideas. This month we’re going to take that same hand position and use it to help us explore some of the underused parts of the neck. When we’re starting out on our instrument, we tend to focus most of our attention on the first five frets. That makes a lot of sense, as it’s where a lot of bass-lines live, given our fundamental role in playing the lowest notes in the band. At the fifth fret, we find the same note as the next open string, so we can get all the way from the open E string up to the C at the fifth fret on the G string (assuming we’re on a four-string bass) without having…

Hello, and welcome back to my long-running column on the many different applications of the tapping technique. After devoting a number of issues to the basics of two-handed tapping (in which notes are tapped with each hand, as if playing a piano), we’ve been focusing more recently on ‘linear tapping’. This variation on the technique involves playing long sequences of notes on a single string using hammer-ons and pull-offs, and is something that is commonly regarded as more of a guitar technique. As you’ll have discovered over the previous few issues however, it works very nicely on the bass as well. In this issue we are going to continue looking at the latter style of playing, now with a focus on playing in a more chordal manner. The ideas that…