Innehållsförteckning för May 2021 från Bass Player

Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band ‘Express Yourself’ (1973) Bassist Melvin Dunlap probably never thought that two decades after he laid down the unforgettably hooky bass-line for the original ‘Express Yourself’, the line would become the mainstay of a gangsta-rap anthem. On the 1973 version Dunlap’s bass part was also played by a guitar, but when NWA sampled the bass-line and made it the center of a new song, also called ‘Express Yourself’, they dropped the guitar part and amped up the bass-line, a joyous Jackson 5-style mid-ranger. Genius, in either incarnation.…

Tower Of Power recently released 50 Years Of Funk & Soul—Live At The Fox Theater in DVD, double CD and triple vinyl formats. The concert, recorded in Oakland, CA in June 2018, features both the late Rocco Prestia and Marc Van Wageningen on bass. Recordings from two shows have been cherry-picked to make the set, with the core 10-piece band and its horn section supplemented with additional horns and a string ensemble. Bandleader and saxophonist Emilio Castillo included a cast of former ToP musicians, including saxophonist Lenny Pickett, who is now the musical director of the Saturday Night Live band; keyboardist Chester Thompson of Santana; guitarist Bruce Conte; and former vocalist Ray Greene, who also plays trombone. They join the current line-up of the band, featuring co-founder Stephen ‘Doc’ Kupka…

Over the last year or so, I have been optimistically sharing my area of specialism with you all, in the hope that we can return to some form of live performance sooner rather than later, when you can start putting these tips into action. Of course, a year on, we’re still seeing live shows being rescheduled or cancelled, although the much-anticipated relaxation of lockdown rules seems likely to occur as the months pass. With that in mind, let’s explore how ‘live performance’ has evolved during the current global pandemic, and what opportunities there are for us to perform in some capacity. If you haven’t been hiding under a rock, you will know that most artists have mobilized to play online streamed concerts—whether informally at home via social media, or more…

You think that when your favorite band releases an album every three years, that’s normal? Compare that to Paul McCartney, who—in his first decade of music-making after the split of the Beatles in 1970—released two solo albums and seven more with the band Wings, as well as touring at all levels of the music industry, from universities to arenas. The man was incredibly busy, even though—as a millionaire since he was 25—he could easily have spent the rest of his days sipping cocktails on the Mull of Kintyre. It wasn’t all easy going, though. Inevitably, it took the most famous bass player in history a little while to start firing on all cylinders again after the four-way divorce of the Fab Four. Plagued by depression and embroiled in an existential…

“I’ve known Paul a little while. He came on stage with the E Street Band in Hyde Park in 2012, the infamous moment when they pulled the plug on us [when the band played past curfew]. And then he had me and Bruce come up and join him at Madison Square Garden in 2017, but him coming on my stage, and endorsing my music? I mean, forget it, man! It was beyond my wildest dreams, honestly. He’s the reason why we do what we do, you know. Just to know him is an honour, and to have him endorse my music was just the thrill of my life, literally. Can you imagine? We didn’t rehearse, so he had no idea what we were gonna do. This really shows you—he’s the…

What was your way into bass, Issy? I first picked up a bass in 2017 when Archie Sylvester and I were expanding our live setup. We wanted to figure out a way to get the blues-rock sound we were aiming for without adding band members. We had a lot of shows to play and very little budget, but those kinds of limitations can often lead to creativity. Archie upgraded his Hofner President to an electric Greco 335 and added a kick drum and tambourine that he played with his feet. We felt we needed more low end, and Archie’s hands and feet were full, so it was over to me to pick up the bass. How do you define what you do? I’m a songwriter. I had never thought of…

Price| $3099 Made In| Korea Body| Chambered American Red Alder Neck Maple Neck join| Bolt-on, six bolts Nut width| 1.5” Fingerboard| Morado (Pau Ferro), 34” scale Pickups| Passive Sadowsky P-Style (neck), passive Sadowsky hum-canceling J-Style (bridge) Electronics| Active Sadowsky electronics (bass and treble boost) Controls| Volume, balance, Vintage Tone Control (push/pull), treble and bass (stacked) Bridge| Sadowsky bridge with quick string release Case/gig bag included| Sadowsky Portabag WHAT WE THINK Plus| Sounds amazing, plays great, beautifully built, very light Minus| None, although it’s expensive Overall| A truly beautiful instrument befitting a bona fide legend BP RATING…

Price| $2800 Made In| Japan Color| Magenta mist, gloss finish Body| Alder Neck| Maple, 34” scale, gloss finish Neck Joint| Bolt-on, four bolts Nut Width| 42mm Fingerboard| Maple Frets| 22 Pickups| Oxalis split-coil and single coil pickups (P/J setup) Electronics| Passive Controls| Volume/volume (stacked), tone Hardware| Black hardware, standard bridge, open-gear machine heads Weight| 8.6 lbs Case/gig bag included| Moon gigbag Left-hand option available| Yes, as a custom order WHAT WE THINK Plus| Pleasing visuals, standout tones Minus| Headstock bias, ineffective control pots Overall| A solid performer, but you’d expect near-perfection at this price BP RATING…

A 1956 Gibson EB played by Little Richard bassist Olsie Robinson was sold by the Julien’s auction house in California for $16,000 back in January. The bass was described as having “a violin-shaped mahogany body, clear control pots, brown plastic pickguard, dark-stained neck, mother of pearl dot inlays, a head with pearlescent inlay reading Gibson, serial number #64285; together with its original brown leather hardshell case lined in champagne-pink velvet,” and came with a 2005 letter of authenticity signed by Robinson, confirming that he played it on ‘Lucille’, ‘Long Tall Sally’, ‘Good Golly Miss Molly’, and many other classic hits.…

Wolfgang Van Halen, son of the late Eddie Van Halen and former bassist with the eponymous rock band, releases his first album in June. Band and album share a name—Mammoth WVH—and features Wolfgang on every instrument as well as vocals. As well as stepping up in 2006 to replace the original Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony, he’s shared stages with artists such as Clint Lowery and Tremonti, the latter the solo project of Alter Bridge and Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti. Watch out for our interview with Wolfgang in a forthcoming issue.…

Italian bassist, songwriter and producer Lorenzo Feliciati is one of Europe’s most acclaimed bassists, with an extensive solo and collaborative live and recorded discography. He was inspired to take up the bass after seeing Jaco Pastorius in concert with Weather Report during their Night Passage tour in 1982, and later honed his act as a rock and fusion musician in his twenties. He cites bassists such as Mick Karn of Japan, Pino Palladino, and Percy Jones as influences. Over the years he has built partnerships with King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto and sometime Porcupine Tree bassist Colin Edwin, forming a band called Naked Truth with the former and the Twinscapes duo with the latter. He has conducted bass clinics at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Tilburg and at the Academy…

It’s a hackneyed cliché, and we’ve all heard it. Why does it hum? Because it doesn’t know the words. Boom! While that quip may be good for a chortle, for most bass players, pickup hum is no laughing matter. Signal noise can originate from a variety of sources, but today let’s talk about the hum characteristic of single-coil pickups. Jazz bass players know the scenario all too well—quiet when balanced, noisy when soloed. It’s a common issue in instruments with single-coil pickups. However, the single-coil pickups of a Precision bass don’t present the same dilemma. While the individual pickups in a Precision bass are indeed single-coil, in simultaneous operation their two coils effectively hum-cancel, making the pair of single-coil pickups in a P-bass humbucking. Single-coil pickups in a Jazz bass…

‘Magneto And Titanium Man’, from Venus And Mars, 1974 Bouncing, staccato and fleet-fingered, this sweet little line sets up a pleasant, drone-like effect for this quirky song. ‘Listen To What The Man Said’, from Venus And Mars, 1974 Simple and effective, this part sits low in the mix and anchors the rest of the instrumentation. ‘Silly Love Songs’, from Wings At The Speed Of Sound, 1976 With its ever-so-slight crunch, the tone of this line perfectly complements the funk edge of this unlikely dancefloor-filler. ‘Getting Closer’, from Back To The Egg, 1979 Walking bass-lines had been a standard part of McCartney’s armory for years, but they rarely walked as elegantly as this one. ‘Goodnight Tonight’ [single, 1979] A full-on disco line with some chordal fills, this part channels two parts…

Rockabilly bass is alive, well, and thriving in the hands of Lee Rocker, Stray Cats bassist and solo artist for the last four decades and counting. After 11 studio albums with the veteran trio and even more of his own, he’s the most successful player of Fifties-indebted rock bass currently performing, but that doesn’t mean he takes anything for granted: His new album, Gather Round, was recorded in novel circumstances, as he tells us. How has the pandemic been for you, Lee? It’s been a crazy year, but I think we’re gonna be all right at the end. I’m an optimist, so I’m looking forward to the future. I hadn’t done an album of original songs in a few years, so for Gather Round, my wife and I went out…

Lead guitarists are completely unnecessary in rock music. Look at them, twiddling about with their little thin strings, getting in the way of the middle frequencies, posing with their ridiculous small-bodied instruments. Who needs ’em? The heavy rock duo Royal Blood certainly have no such requirement. Vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist Mike Kerr, and drummer Ben Thatcher have smashed all opposition over the last 10 years and three albums. Royal Blood’s latest LP, Typhoons, brings together their potent blend of hard rock, stoner and dance elements with forceful riffs and dark energy. Kerr is not one to reveal all the secrets of his gear, but we can say that his setup involves many effects pedals, multiple amps, and a range of basses, including his humbuckeredup custom Fender Jaguar. His tone is…

I actually started on guitar, but I was always more drawn to rhythm playing and spent most of my free time in high school jamming Green Day songs with my friend Sam, who was learning drums. The two of us ended up going to music college and forming a band with our coursemate Joe. After two years of playing with two guitarists and no bassist, rehearsals started getting stale and we almost considered disbanding. However, one day I decided it might be fun to mess around with one of the college basses—it was a real ‘Why haven’t I been doing this the whole time?’ moment. From that moment, there was new life in the band and before we knew it, we had a full EP worth of new songs. I…

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. BPis the last English-language print magazine devoted solely to bass in the world, and we have readers all over the planet, 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 answerable to advertisers in any way, and our tests are independent of the views of musicians, manufacturers, and distributors. When you read about a product here, you’re getting…

AMM AMPLIFIED www.ammamplified.com KHDK www.khdkelectronics.com Here we have fan-friendly pedals from two respected metal bassists, the first of which is a signature boost unit from Tony Dolan, formerly of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal band Atomkraft, then of Venom, and now of Venom Inc. He’s also an actor—you can see him duking it out with Russell Crowe in Master And Commander. Dolan’s Total Demolition pedal replicates his usual sound perfectly, modeled as it is on the exact signal generated by his Bo-El Big Generator bass, a Tech 21 SansAmp pedal and an Ampeg SVT Pro. If a dirty tone is what you need, look no further. There’s only two controls to play with, Volume and Gain: Keeping it simple and to the point was clearly the maxim when…

Israeli double bassist Avishai Cohen returns with Two Roses, a collaboration with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. “Playing and singing one’s own music with a symphony orchestra is something special, it’s an experience that is as strong as it is specific,” says Cohen. “Recording with an orchestra is an adventure in and of itself. It’s nothing like making a jazz record. Time is short, you have to be able to give what you have to as a trio while blending in with the orchestra.”…

Welcome to this lesson on major scales, where I’m going to show you three levels of practice from beginner, intermediate, to advanced. These concepts may seem a little simple at first glance, but many of us practice scales without making the connection between the exercise that we’re practicing and the music that we want to play. Revisiting these scales in this way will help to close that connection. These concepts may seem simple, but many of us practice scales without making the connection between the exercise and the music we want to play Let’s try to learn the theory and application of major scales in the easiest and most practical way—which is achieved by being cognisant of the three components of music: Rhythm, melody, and harmony. With that in mind,…

You were always seen on stage with a Hofner bass with the Beatles, and yet you virtually always used a Rickenbacker while on stage with Wings. Why was that? I’m not sure. Maybe it was a combination of things. I knew I was known for the violin shape. It’s like Charlie Chaplin, you know? The little walking cane, the moustache, and a bowler hat, and he’s Charlie. If he comes on with a bandanna and he’s shaved and he’s on a bike, it’s like, ‘Who’s that?’ So I think there may have been an element of that was what I looked like, kind of a trademark. Also it was very light and I’d always played it live, so I might have been playing safe a bit, just using the instrument…

The Michigan-raised bass player Sam Kiszka and his brothers Josh, a singer, and Jake, a guitarist, are joined by drummer Danny Wagner in Greta Van Fleet, a band that has successfully redefined rock for Generation Z. Their debut album, Anthem Of The Peaceful Army, came out in 2018 when the band were finishing high school, and was met with immediate success, scooping GVF a Grammy and exposure for them at the very highest levels of the industry. A certain number of older critics have complained that GVF wear their Led Zeppelin influences a little too shamelessly, thanks to the almost comically accurate Robert Plant impression delivered by Josh Kiszka, but there’s no denying a) the group’s expert musicianship or b) the expectation that has built up around album number two,…

Kerr isn’t going to give away any trade secrets about his signature sounds, but his pedalboard is absolutely key to the sonic assault that makes up a Royal Blood gig or song. Take your pick from all or some of: An Electro-Harmonix POG 2 Octaver, a Boss PS-6 Harmonist, a Strymon Flint Tremolo/Reverb, a Boss LS-2 Line Selector, a ZVex Mastotron Fuzz, a custom COG Effects Fuzz, an Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork, various Boss switching pedals and reverbs, a SansAmp Bass Driver DI, a Fuzz Jumbo Fuzz, a Gamechanger Audio Plasma, a Digitech FrequOut Natural Feedback Creator… Good luck recreating that little signal chain!…

Bassist, bandleader, composer, teacher, clinician, and author John Goldsby is a dream interviewee, and not just because he’s an interesting guy with a wealth of experience. A journalist to the core, having contributed to this magazine for many years, Goldsby even supplies a tailor-made bio for features such as this. Details like this make our job both easy and fascinating. Since 1994, Goldsby has held the position of solo bassist with the Grammy Award-winning Westdeutscher Rundfunk Big Band (Cologne Radio Big Band). From 1980 to 1994, Goldsby was a fixture on the New York jazz scene. He has authored The Jazz Bass Book, Jazz Bowing Techniques For The Improvising Bassist, and Bass Notes. He teaches at the Conservatorium in Maastricht in Holland, and his new video lesson series Tell Your…

BASS DIRECT JAPAN bassdirectjapan.com $2800 Known more for their connection with Larry Graham and his white Jazz Bass variant, Moon Guitars have been producing instruments for over 30 years. This example from their Groove Master range combines a package of classic looks and styling at a significant price. This model was custom ordered, so personal modifications are possible should you wish to go down the custom route. Given that it tips a hat to the original ’51 Precision design, do we get more than vintage sounds? Build Quality Resplendent in a Magenta Mist gloss finish, the old-school visuals come thick and fast on this bass. The vintage Telecaster headstock design, original Fifties body curves, three-ply dark tortoiseshell scratchplate, and chrome two-control plate all contribute to the vintage vibe. With contouring…

I SPY... RYAN MADORA Dig into your favorite bass parts... and discover treasure! Ryan Madora is one of Nashville’s most sought-after touring and session bassists. Recent touring and session credits include Robben Ford, Kyshona Armstrong, and her instrumental trio, The Interludes. For the past five years, she has served as musical director for Bobby Bones and has played with Garth Brooks, Darius Rucker, and Carrie Underwood. In addition to instructing at Nashville’s campus of Musician’s Institute, Ryan has taught at Gerald Veasley’s Bass Boot Camp, Rock’n’Roll Fantasy Camp, and at universities across the USA. She has contributed columns to No Treble for over a decade and in 2019, published her first book, Bass Players To Know: Learning From The Greats. Ryan offers online education at TrueFire and through her website.…

Welcome! Let’s take a detour from the theory we’ve been looking at over the last few months, and instead dig into one of the most maligned aspects of bass playing—the humble pick. Never before has something so useful to bassists been so hated for absolutely no reason. So we’re going to ignore the haters and get stuck in! The early history of the bass includes some incredibly important pick bass players, at least partly due to the fact that so many of the pioneers of our beloved instrument started out on guitar. These include Carol Kaye and Paul McCartney, while others—such as the great Jet Harris from the Shadows—started out on bass with a pick. It’s safe to say that a large percentage of the classic sounds we may find…