CATEGORIES

Weather Man

With a musical career spanning almost 50 years, including performances and sessions with Weather Report, Phil Collins and Santana, Alphonso Johnson is a bass icon. Mike Brooks asks the questions

Those Who Can... Teach

When he’s not playing bass alongside Victor Wooten, Anthony Wellington runs the Bassology Around The World events and teaches students... a lot of students. We meet the low-frequency learning guru

Forward Thinking

Geddy Lee led the prog-rock giants Rush from 1968 to 2018. That’s 40 long years. Now that the ultimate power trio have called time, he’s made his mark as an author—but enough about the past… we want to know what his next move might be. Ellen O’Reilly puts the questions to the master

Cat Power

Forty years down the line, the Stray Cats are playing with as much attitude as ever. Silvia Bluejay slips into her polka dot dress for a chat with the great Lee Rocker

Bass Phils

Thrash metal means never having to slow down and grow up. We meet the mighty Phil Rind of Sacred Reich, whose new album Awakening is a bona fide monster

World War Zee

Zoe Zeeman of the Marotta Brothers Band keeps it in the family.

Sharpe Talk

Jazz bassist Avery Sharpe returns with an album that digs deep into a side of history that many of us would rather not remember—which makes it all the more valuable.

Maverick Muse

Ed Friedland is a bassist and author who has seen it all, done it all and survived to tell the tale. We meet the master.

Planet Bass

Michael J Bolton returns with a new album of bass wizardry, Earthrise.

Fearless

Tool, the thinking bassist’s prog band, haven’t released an album in 13 years. Fortunately their new one, Fear Inoculum, is set to be the rock album of the year—and it’s loaded with brain-melting virtuoso bass, courtesy of the great Justin Chancellor. “I’m ashamed to say it, but I watch YouTube videos of our live shows” he confesses to Joel McIver

Bass Of Tomorrow

For close to 50 years, the great Roger Sadowsky has crafted instrument after wonderful instrument—and his hunger to create is still far from satiated. Hywel Davies catches up with the master.

Federico Malaman Molto Funky

I’M RIDING IN THE BACK OF A VAN AFTER being picked up from the Dublin airport. Federico Malaman sits in the seat in front of me—driver on the right, bassist on the left. We’re on our way to teach at a workshop in Sligo, Ireland. Cars whiz past on what seems to me to be the wrong side of the road.

Sound Room Cort B5 Plus AS

CORT IS ONE OF THE LARGEST MUSICAL INSTRUment manufacturers in the world, yet its instruments don’t enjoy the same wide distribution and popularity as many better-known brands.

Rock Revoluntion

Faster riffs, huge hooks, and even bigger tones! make dirnt and green day return to their punk roots to start a revolution one airwave at a time

Dudacus Tiberius Attack Bass

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERent. In most things, popularity breeds imitation, and the results become indelibly part of our collective consciousness, sometimes stifling innovation in the process.

Fractal Audio Systems FX8 Mark II Multi-FX Pedalboard

FRACTAL AUDIO FIRST MADE A SPLASH in 2006 with its Axe-Fx preamp/signal processors, which made good on the company’s mission to reclaim the promise and potential of digital effects in a landscape dominated by analog pedals. The company released its first pedalboard effects-only processor, the FX8, in April 2015; our review unit, a Mark II released in September 2016, boasts an all-black aircraft-aluminum bezel and end panels, improved top-panel silkscreen design, an 18dB instrument-input pad option, and an even lower noise floor. 

Danelectro D64

DANELECTRO IS ONE OF THE RARE BASS BRANDS that’s associated with a definitive instrument and sound, one that has proved its worth on countless hit records.

roger sadowsky

jim roberts was the founding editor  of bass player and also served as the magazine’s publisher and group publisher. he is the author of how the fender bass changed the world and american basses: an illustrated history & player’s guide (both published by backbeat books/hal leonard).

Nathan East Second Thoughts

Nathan East Second Thoughts

Neal Caine Daytime Gets Deeper

“WE MOSTLY COMMUNICATE THROUGH A nod or a glance,” says Neal Caine of his special musical camaraderie with multi-hyphenate bandleader Harry Connick Jr. “Harry and I have been playing together so long that we are like an old married couple,” he jokes.

mitchell fb700 & tb500

“a rising tide lifts all boats.” the modern era has facilitated massive changes in the consumption of manufactured goods. automation lowers production costs, hastening and increasing output. for niche markets, optimization gives consumers more access to formerly high-end products. in the case of electric basses, both the professional and budding student benefit: for the working pro, custom and boutique instruments are often cost-prohibitive, and for the student, access to better-sounding and playing basses can help inspire dedication to the craft. in the spirit of this democratization of quality, mitchell guitars has introduced two basses—the fb700 fusion and tb500 traditional —that sport premium features usually attached to much higher price tags. both come in 4- and 5-string versions, with the fb700 adding a 6-string variant. our fb700 tester was a 4-string with 24 jumbo frets, while our test tb500 was a 20-fret 5’er.

led zeppelin's "communication breakdown"

john paul jones’ complete bass line

MXR M287 Sub Octave Bass Fuzz

BASS EFFECTS ARE MORE IN VOGUE now than they’ve ever been.

Rock N Roll Relics Thunders

WHEN YOU’VE OPENED ABOUT 50 BAJILLION BASS cases in your time, you develop a certain instinct for vibe.

Ida Nielsen Funk Goddess

IN THE MERE BLINK OF AN EYE, IDA NIELSEN went from being an aspiring bass player in her small town in Denmark to touring the globe as Prince’s sidewoman, gaining command of over 300 songs from his exhaustive catalogue and communicating them to massive crowds. Along the way, Nielsen absorbed countless music and life lessons while fine-tuning her aggressively precise slap and fingerstyle techniques, ultimately finding her musical voice under the guidance of one of the greatest innovators in the history of music.

Marco Mendoza Fast Focus

IN 2014, THE DEAD DAISIES SNATCHED MARCO Mendoza away from his Thin Lizzy-turned-Black Star Riders gig.

Miles Mosley Rising Up

MILES MOSLEY KNOWS THE IMPORTANCE OF surrounding yourself with good people.

The Yardbirds' “Lost Woman”

Paul Samwell-Smith’s Complete Bass Line

Darkglass Microtubes 900

SINCE ITS INCEPTION IN 2009, FINNISH manufacturer Darkglass has earned a level of near universal respect and admiration among players that belies its short time in the marketplace.