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.
When Yes bassist Chris Squire died aged 67 in 2015, it took the bass community aback. Sure, Squire had made his name with recordings from close to half a century before his passing, but there was a sense with everything that he did that he was nowhere near finished—and that he had ideas for bass lined up for years to come. That’s the essence of the word ‘progressive’, right there, if you ask me. Progressive rock in the sense of the genre of music that Yes made doesn’t get that name just because the music is fiendishly complex: We call it by that tag because it doesn’t stop evolving. It’s restless, hungry for evolution, and unsatisfied with mediocrity. You can hear this in every bass part that Squire recorded. This…
The mighty Stuart Hamm, one of the most creative bassists ever to stalk a stage, has announced a new online study program. “With great innovation, we’re calling it the Stu Hamm Electric Bass Online Course,” laughs Hamm when we call him for the inside scoop. “You know, I’ve worked with a lot of bass camps, having done a lot of pedagogy, having run departments and been in education my whole life. When I teach, there are certain things that I’d like to see happen, but which I’ve rarely seen happen—until we put this course together.” The course is hosted by Artistworks, of whom Hamm explains: “The big difference and selling point in the Artistworks pedagogy is that you take one of my lessons—say, on how to create a walking bass-line—and…
Paul McCartney’s Liverpool home at 20 Forthlin Road is set to become a songwriting location for unsigned artists. The plan is to open up the house, where he lived between 1955 and stardom in the early Sixties, as an inspiration for musicians. The Forthlin Sessions is being run by McCartney’s brother Mike, in conjunction with music journalist Pete Paphides and the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (LIPA), and will be up and running by the time Macca turns 80 on June 18. Mike says: “We’re inviting young people to this house and giving them the opportunity of doing the same as us, coming from nothing and seeing where it takes them.”…
A new Kiesel bass, the MJ—or Modern Jazz—has been added to the brand’s JB series. The pickguard is absent, giving the top woods an airing, and the luthiers add: “Other changes to modernize the bass include a tasteful top bevel for aesthetics and comfort, our greatest variety of pickups options on a bass, and rear-routed controls to accommodate for more flexibility in control configuration.” The MJ is available in four- and five-string configurations and comes with an alder body, a carbon-fibre reinforced maple neck and an ebony fingerboard. The bass comes equipped with two JVA single-coil pickups, but optional upgrades include H50A alnico humbuckers, Kiesel’s own Radium single-coil or humbucking pickups, or HB alnico humbuckers. There’s an 18-volt active preamp with stacked bass and treble cut and boost controls. It’ll…
Kim Thayil, his Soundgarden bandmate and Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron and Nirvana’s Krist Novoselic have formed a new supergroup, 3rd Secret. The band also features Bubba Dupree, guitarist for D.C. hardcore vets Void and Cameron side-project Hater, plus vocalists Jennifer Johnson and Jillian Raye, who also feature in Novoselic’s Giants In The Trees. 3rd Secret announced the band and surprise-released their self-titled debut album on April 11. It was recorded and mixed by legendary grunge producer Jack Endino, and it’s available to hear on streaming services now. The record certainly delivers on the promise of its lineup, with sinewy, off-kilter riffs and the odd frenzied solo from Thayil. But there’s an altogether folkier acoustic thread running through the album, too, which nods to landmark grunge recordings such as Alice…
THE BANGLES , DIFFERENT LIGHT (COLUMBIA, 1986) The sycopated goofiness of ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ is as effervescent a performance as you could hope for By the mid-Eighties, the Bangles stood atop the pop-rock pantheon, and it was Different Light that pushed them right up there. No fewer than five singles were taken from the LP, including the Prince-penned ‘Manic Monday’ and the record that launched a thousand silly dances—‘Walk Like An Egyptian’, written by Liam Sternberg, which hit number one. The four Bangles were all excellent vocalists, with lead singer Susanna Hoffs often the focal point and sisters Vicki and Debbi Peterson completing the line-up. Bassist Michael ‘Micki’ Steele had replaced Annette Zilinskas in the band in mid-1983 in time to play on their debut album, All Over The…
