Tabla de contenidos para Holiday 2021 en Bass Player

Iron Maiden, ‘Phantom Of The Opera’ (1980) One of those rare songs—a long, multi-sectioned composition that doesn’t outstay its welcome—Iron Maiden’s sumptuous ‘Phantom Of The Opera’ is, like all Maiden songs, a bassist’s dream. Bandleader and primary songwriter Steve Harris is a bass player of superb skill and panache, combining his love of Seventies prog and punk to form a sleek but melodic approach that was already fully evolved on Maiden’s first album. The bass solo—a simple I-IV-V that moves down a tone for two successive bars before moving back up and repeating—is a thing of sheer beauty.…

Hello, bass players! Last month, I wrote here about the many rewards that come from taking on a one-off show. This time, I’m going to help you prepare for one. Firstly, let’s assume that you already have some form of solid reputation in order to get the gig. Of course, the plan is to keep that reputation, so you need to ensure you’re putting your energy into the right places. But you may also want to consider how to go above and beyond—the ultimate insurance for getting the call back. At the core of effective show preparation is careful time management. You might have two months, two weeks, two days, or two hours before the gig: In all cases, your use of the available time is going to be crucial.…

Here at Bass Player magazine, we’re keenly aware of our position in the bass community. As the first and oldest of a very small number of print magazines about bass in the world, and certainly the only one in the English language, we feel that our job is not only to chronicle events in the world of bass as they occur, but also to celebrate that world and to help it to move forward. With this in mind, I and my predecessors have made an annual point since 1998 of awarding Lifetime Achievement Awards, in every year where business and/or pandemics haven’t prevented it. You will recall the amazing Bass Player LIVE! events that used to take place for this purpose: a similar live event will return when conditions allow.…

With over 100 million albums sold over their 43-year career, Duran Duran could quite easily have retired to their own luxury island decades ago. Instead, they’re still creative, still touring, and—judging by their new album, Future Past—still as full of energy as ever. Bassist and founder member John Taylor was inspired equally by disco and punk rock, and infused Duran’s many, many hits with a supremely slick, effortlessly funky range of bass parts that have entered the DNA of our community. It’s high time he got this award, not least because he made it clear that bass players can be simultaneously the hottest and coolest members of a band. Of course, we knew that already. It’s our great pleasure, John, to present you with Bass Player’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Wow!…

Tal Wilkenfeld first caught the global bass community’s attention back in 2007, when her famous bass solo with Jeff Beck went viral. Her jazz sensibilities, combined with impeccable groove, time, and phrasing, caught the imaginations of aspiring and professional bassists worldwide. Personally, I’ll never forget the first moment I saw her play—and on meeting her, Tal is all big smiles and even bigger hair as we talk about her recent solo album, Love Remains. “I started off as a singer,” she tells BP. “I first picked up the guitar when I was 14, and when I got a scholarship to a music school in America, I became very focused on instrumental music. I was all about getting to know the neck of my instrument and how to improvise, and being…

“I’m never in any bass magazines!” snickers Krist Novoselic, legend for an entire generation of grunge fans. Why should this be, we ask ourselves? Perhaps it’s because his old band Nirvana have been defunct since 1994, when the singer Kurt Cobain ended his life in tragic circumstances—or maybe it’s because Novoselic is best known these days not for his bass playing, but for his political writings and activism. Gibson have recently unveiled Novoselic’s new RD bass, a tasty, retro-looking instrument, and unlike so many signature models, it seems that it didn’t take too many prototypes to complete. As the man himself tells us, “It didn’t take long to do, because it’s just a reproduction of an RD with a new look. They built them in the Seventies, and now you…

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…

LUTHIERS ACCESS GROUP www.luthiersaccessgroup.com $2000 Duvoisin, who have been producing basses since 2006, fit their instruments with their own pickups and electronics, so they presumably have a tonal character of their own. They also feature some interesting design aspects that, it is claimed, affect the overall tonal performance. This Standard 5 is a finely tailored instrument in a vintage-imbued two-tone sunburst gloss finish: Let’s check it over. Build Quality With contouring to the upper front bout and the rear of the body, this Standard 5 sits very well against the player and balances in an easily-playable position, but be aware that there is some headstock bias, remedied once placed on a strap. The three-ply tortoiseshell scratchplate adds to the vintage visual already offered by the sunburst coloring, while the timber grain…

Price | $1079.99 Made in | China Power | 800W @ 4 ohms Features | VU meter, Active/Passive Inputs, EQ in/out, Shape, Mute, Compressor, Drive (with in/out buttons) Sub filter, EQ: Low, mid and Treble, plus two further tone controls at 240Hz and 1.5kHz, Headphone input with on/off, Line in with mix control, Send/Return, XLR DI Output, 2 x Speakon, two-year warranty Dimensions | 12” x 9” x 3.5” Weight | 5.5 lbs WHAT WE THINK Plus| Powerful, lightweight Minus| Virtually nothing Overall| Another intelligently designed and practical Ashdown amp BP RATING…

I SPY... 62 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 her website.…

Hello again! Last month we looked at some of the rhythmic considerations when thinking about funk and introducing a funk feel to our music. This month we’re going to have a look at one of the most common patterns for coming up with funk bass-lines, and how we might apply it. In the last lesson looking at rhythm, the notes we chose to outline those rhythms were taken from the minor pentatonic scale. This is one of the most commonly used patterns in all of popular music for bass parts. Today, we’re going to add two more notes to it. This will bring us up to seven notes—remember, a pentatonic scale has five—and so will match the number of notes in a diatonic major or minor scale. Diatonic just means…

German luthiers and amp-makers Warwick have announced their new Gnome Compact cab range, intended as partners for their Gnome amplifiers or indeed any amp of the user’s choice. As they tell us, the new cabs have been “designed to offer a transparent, crisp and defined bass sound in combination with an ultra-portable design.” The cabs’ bass reflex opening can be used as a handle, and there’s a level-adjustable piezo tweeter. The range is available in five configurations—10/8 (1x10”, 150 watts), 2/8/4 (2x8”, 200 watts), 10/4 (1x10”, 200 watts), 12/4 (1x12”, 300 watts), and 2/10/4 (2x10”, 300 watts). Prices range from around $256 to $392, and all models will be available from January.…

Hello again! Now that we’ve established the majority of magnetic guitar pickups are inherently passive transducers, let’s talk about what it is that makes an active pickup ‘active’. First, let’s begin with what makes a pickup a pickup. Magnetic guitar pickups are constructed primarily from ferromagnetic pole pieces and coils of wire. Regardless of whether they utilize round or rectangular magnets, hidden or exposed individual poles or ceramic bars, magnetic guitar pickups are passive devices known as ‘variable reluctance sensors’. Such sensors measure changes in magnetic reluctance, detecting changes in the presence or proximity of ferrous objects. For bass pickups, the job is to detect and measure the movement of the strings. An active pickup is made in the same way, but wound with far fewer coils. The result is…

Bassist extraordinaire, saxophonist, producer, composer, session musician, and one-man phenomenon Marcus Miller will require little introduction for most readers of this magazine. He first came to prominence as a member of Miles Davis’s band in 1981, remaining with the jazz icon for the next eight years, and then built a phenomenal catalog of over 500 session performances, playing with Aretha Franklin, Michael Jackson, Herbie Hancock, Eric Clapton, Wayne Shorter, McCoy Tyner, Frank Sinatra, George Benson, Elton John, Donald Fagen, and many, many other top-flight artists. A high point came when Miller, Victor Wooten, and Stanley Clarke joined forces as SMV in 2008. Few bassists are as overdue for our Lifetime Achievement award as Miller: We’re glad we can now rectify that situation. “I met Marcus Miller many, many moons ago.…

A British-born bass player who crossed the Atlantic to take up residence on the east coast of the USA, Charles Berthoud has enjoyed a rapid ascent to YouTube stardom thanks to the wit and skill he displays in his videos, over 200 of them so far. His range of playing techniques is astounding, including a very fast command of tap and slap, but those alone wouldn’t be enough to attract the large fanbase that has gathered to see him play. What makes Berthoud stand out on the crowded playing-field of social media is that his movies are both funny and mesmerizing, whether he’s translating classical music to bass, performing high-speed picking stunts, or engaging in a fake battle with fellow YouTuber Davie504. He’s pushing the role of the bass forward,…

“Oh, that was mega! Yeah! What happened was, there was all this weirdness going on, like bad energy. We started playing this song and my amp just didn’t work. It basically took a crap on me. So I thought, ‘I’m gonna do this bass toss and walk off’. Well, the bass got caught in the TV lights, and then boom! It fell on my head. I was like ‘Oh man, I’m so embarrassed, what am I gonna do?’ It was in front of 200 million people, right? “So I storm off stage, like ‘I’m outta here!’, and I find this bathroom and I see there’s blood on my hands. So I wash my head and I wash my hands, and these paramedics come and take a look at me and…

Price| $2000 Made In| Switzerland Color| Two-tone sunburst, gloss finish Body| Ash, three-piece body Neck| Canadian hard maple, 34” scale, satin finish Neck Joint| Bolt-on, four-bolt attachment Nut Width| 45mm Fingerboard| Rosewood Frets| 21 Pickups| Duvoisin active split-coil humbucking pickups x 2 Electronics| Duvoisin standard active 2-band EQ, 3-volt Controls| Volume, pickup pan, bass, treble Hardware| Chrome and black hardware, Duvoisin DSS bridge, Gotoh tuners Weight| 8.8 lbs Case/gig bag included| Gigbag Left-hand option available| Yes WHAT WE THINK Plus| Flexible tones and impressive playability Minus| Plenty of similar competitors at this price point. Overall| A well-priced five-string that will appeal to many BP RATING…

BAREFACED www.barefacedaudio.com $730 Barefaced have built up an enviable reputation for their bass cabs over the last 13 years, particularly among a new generation of younger, tech-savvy players. This success has largely been driven by the many positive reviews, and comments from the owners and players themselves, via online forums and social media platforms. Build Quality Looks can be deceiving, of course, and at first glance this tiny One10T cab looks as if it could have been made at any time within the last 60 years. The black tolex covering, chrome hardware and black cloth grille with its white piping have a classic aesthetic; silver cloth and black steel grilles are also available. The new logo badge, which looks almost comically outsized on such a small cab, has the Barefaced name…

ello! During recent instalments of this Intermediate techniques lesson, we’ve been attempting to accumulate a significant level of understanding and familiarization with Melodic Minor. One of the more noteworthy lessons has celebrated the scale as a very versatile structure, which lends itself nicely to an array of diverse performance scenarios. We’ve also determined that, like the major scale, Melodic Minor generates seven individual modes, but less like the major scale, it’s very common to synthesize these modes and employ them in a variety of contrasting roles. The Melodic Minor scale lends itself to an array of diverse performance scenarios Last month we familiarized ourselves with Lydian Dominant, the fourth mode of melodic minor—so this month it’s time to become acquainted with the famous seventh mode, the Altered scale—also known as…

New instructional books devoted to the great bassists Anthony Jackson and Jeff Andrews are now available. The former, The Artistry Of Anthony Jackson, comes from Andy Robertson, and covers many elements of Jackson’s first-class career, including 10 detailed transcriptions of his bass parts with Chaka Khan, Steely Dan, the O’Jays, and others. Meanwhile, BPcontributor Joe Hubbard’s book, Jeff Andrews Walking Bass Masterclass, is a similarly comprehensive analysis of the late jazz master’s work. Find them online at: https://andyrobertson.co.uk and www.joehubbardbass.com…

Welcome back! A cool way to add variety and melodicism to your bass-lines is by using what you already know from different degrees of the chord you are playing over. This is a phenomenon known as superimposition. As most bass players already know, a minor pentatonic scale (root- b 3-4-5- b 7), this is a good place to start. This concept highlights a combination of chord tones and chord tensions. As I’m sure you know, chord tones are the lower structure of the chord (root-3-5-7), while chord tensions are the upper extensions of the chord (9-11-13). With that said, you could take the same scale pattern and, simply by moving the pattern to different starting notes, open up new worlds of melodicism. By simply moving the scale pattern to different…

The incredibly talented Gail Ann Dorsey has been an unstoppable force in our world since the Eighties, when she first came to prominence as a solo and session artist. A long and prolific sojourn with David Bowie brought her to international attention, and she has since built a long list of collaborations worldwide. Congratulations on your award, Gail. I’m flabbergasted! I so appreciate this, and to be in the company of some of the others who have had this honor before... my goodness. I’m one of those people that feels like I’m not quite so worthy, but I will say that I’ve dedicated my life to the bass. I have tried to represent everything positive about the instrument. I stumbled upon it by accident, you know, and it became the…

It may have escaped your attention unless you’re an avid user of social media, but Queen’s bassist extraordinaire John Deacon celebrated his 70th birthday on August 19 this year. Congratulations, John, from all of us at BP—but if such a celebration wasn’t significant enough on its own, 2021 is also the 50th anniversary of the classic Queen lineup’s formation, the 40th anniversary of the release of Greatest Hits, and the 35th anniversary of The Magic Tour, Freddie Mercury’s final live run with the band. Queen as a unit was formed in 1970, and the first show advertised as Queen also took place that year, but it wasn’t until the bass chair was filled by Deacon in February 1971 that the band began to progress into the juggernaut it became. What…

“Wow, which would I pick? I like ‘Lithium’, I like ‘Heart Shaped Box’, I like some of the work I did on that. ‘Lounge Act’ is good. ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’. ‘In Bloom’... that was my Mike Mills bass part. Those little fills I do there were swiped off R.E.M. records. I like the bass I do on ‘Something In The Way’, the way I march up and down that scale. It’s only four or five notes, but the whole point of ‘Something In The Way’ is not to get in the way.”…

Price| $2499 MadeIn| USA Body| Select Hardwood Neck| Roasted maple, 34” scale Neck Join| Bolt-on, five bolts Fingerboard| Ebony, 22 frets Pickup| Humbucker with Neodymium magnets Controls| Custom Darkglass two-band active preamp with two distinct distortion circuits (Alpha and Omega); volume, gain, blend, treble, bass, three-way distortion selector (Preamp Only, Preamp + Alpha Distortion, Preamp + Omega Distortion) Hardware| Custom Music Man tuners, lightweight with tapered string posts and ergonomic clover design, Vintage Music Man top loaded steel bridge plate with vintage black plated steel saddles Weight8.8 lbs Left-hand available?No Case/gigbag supplied?Case WHAT WE THINK Plus| Limitless tone sculpting options, ultra-sturdy Minus| Top end could use a boost, LED indicator may discourage some Overall| An innovative and highly versatile weapon for virtually any style BP RATING…

Price| $730 (fitted cover and silver grille cloth available at extra cost) Speaker| 1x10” 250w custom Eminence Crossover| Custom Barefaced Connections| 2 x 1/4” + SpeakON combi jacks (parallel) Power| 250w RMS (500w clean) Frequency range| 30hz to 20khz Max output| -119db Impedance| Nominal 8 ohms Dimensions| HxWxD: 15” x 11.4” X 11” Weight| 17lbs WHAT WE THINK Plus| Quality, light weight, super-compact dimensions Minus| It’s a little pricey Overall| Bass cabinets don’t get much smaller or lighter than this, but there is no compromise in construction, sound or volume BP RATING…

Welcome to the end of this issue! Now, this month, we’re talking about wood. Good wood? Bad wood? Tonewood! Okay then, Veall. What’s a tonewood, exactly? A wood chosen for its tonal characteristics in instrument manufacture. It’s one of those phrases that gets thrown around, but beware—a wood type may present itself as an ideal selection for one instrument function and not another. For example, a resonant top softwood like sitka or cedar is excellent for an acoustic guitar, versus a wood choice like maple, which is required to withstand the pull of five strings on a bass neck, 24/7. Do they really sound different? Be honest with us now. I’m always honest! It’s quite obvious that different wood types can and do make acoustic instruments sound different. When it…