Inhoudsopgave van June 2020 - Bass Player

We cover as much ground as possible in this magazine when it comes to styles of music, and we feature up-and-coming bassists as much as megastars. It’s our job to lay accolades at the feet of bass players from the jazz, soul, pop, blues and funk worlds just as much as players who specialize in plain old rock, and we’re not easily impressed by sales figures. With all that in mind, though, even we have to admit to blown minds at the sheer stature of the Rolling Stones. You may, or may not, regard them as innovators in their field; you may feel that their best days are long behind them. These are arguable viewpoints, but two essential elements are not open to debate: 1) the Rolling Stones are still…

Price | $1,599.99 Made In | Indonesia Color | Brown topaz burst, low gloss finish Body | African mahogany core, panga panga and figured maple top Neck | Panga panga and purpleheart five-piece laminate, 34” scale, satin finish Neck Joint | Bolt-on, four-bolt attachment Nut Width | 45mm Fingerboard | Bound panga panga Frets | 24 Pickups | Aguilar Super Double hum-cancelling pickups x 2 Electronics | Active Ibanez custom 3-band EQ, 9-volt Controls | Volume, pickup pan, bass, middle, treble/passive tone control, three-way mid-frequency switch (250Hz, 450Hz, 700Hz), active/passive selector switch Hardware | Gold hardware, Ibanez MR5S monorail bridge, Gotoh machine heads Weight | 9.25 lbs Case/gig bag included | Gigbag Left-hand option available | Yes WHAT WE THINK Plus | Punchy tones Minus | Might be a bit…

ASHDOWN SAINT  Price | $999.99 Made In | Korea Body | Lightweight alder Neck | Maple Neck Joint | Bolt-on Nut Width | 44.5mm Scale | 34” Fingerboard | Rosewood Frets | 20 Pickups | Ashdown Custom Wound (1 x split coil, 1 x single coil) Electronics | Passive Controls | Volume, Volume, Tone Hardware | Hipshot Ultralite tuners, Wilkinson bridge Weight | 8.8 lbs Case/gig bag included | Yes Left-hand option available | Yes WHAT WE THINK Plus | Sonic versatility Minus | Body shape might not be for everyone Overall | A fantastic tool for stage and studio BP RATING…

TRICKFISH TF-112 CABINET Price | $799 Made In | in USA Power | 300 watts @ 8 ohms Impedance | 8 ohms Frequency Response | 35Hz-16kHz Speakers | 1 x 12” Eminence Neodymium speaker and 1 x HF driver 80 degree conical horn, with HF Level control Connections | 2 x NL2 Neutrik Speakon/ Jack sockets Dimensions | 395mm / 15.5” (H) x 485mm / 19” (W) x 465mm / 18.3” (D) Weight | 36.2 lbs WHAT WE THINK Plus | A fine array of tones, keenly priced Minus | A lot of competition—and the cab can only do so much Overall | A fully-featured, powerful amp and a highly portable cab BP RATING…

Hamstead Soundworks www.hamsteadsoundworks.com/subspace Why spend a sum equivalent to two new tyres for your van on a distortion pedal? Nowadays you can buy a noisy plastic stompbox from crappedals.com for the cost of a set of strings, pretty much. The answer is, of course, the same as it’s always been, which is to say that 1) a cheap pedal will give you a very short list of tone options, and 2) it will snap into 50 pieces when (not if) your intoxicated guitar player steps on it. This leads us to the Subspace Intergalactic Driver, made by pedal designer Peter Hamstead and his team. With a name like that, we were hoping that it would be powered by dilithium crystals or at least a flux capacitor, but no, what we…

Welcome back! I hope you’re all staying healthy and positive during the current pandemic-related upheaval. For those of you who practise with a band, or if you’re at the stage of playing live gigs, the requirement to be physically separate from each other for the time being will have brought all of those plans to a grinding halt. My various social media feeds have been full of people trying to find novel strategies for getting creative—either to develop their craft, or to perform and create in new ways—with varying degrees of success. This month, let’s look at some interesting ways to practise while remaining safely isolated. So much of the solo practice that we do is about getting things prepared so we can then try them out in a setting…

Welcome! Ready for some cool theory to lift your spirits in these strange times? As many of you will already know, we tend to employ Lydian Dominant over dom7#11 chords, as its construction is 1, 2, 3, #4, 5, 6, b 7—see Example 1. But, and it’s a big but, we don’t always encounter chord symbols which capture every extension unique to the mode which we may choose to employ. This means that we often need an understanding of a chord’s function relative to the harmony in order to come up with suitable, harmonically ‘correct’ choices. We’ve looked at tritone substitution in past issues, but just to recap, we can substitute a resolving dominant for a dominant chord a tritone away. Dmin7, G7, Cmaj (Example 2) could now become Dmin7,…

The post-war period of the early 50s was a time of great innovation. Following major advancements in instrument design after the war, radical developments at Fender saw the release of both the seminal Esquire and Broadcaster by 1950 (renamed the Telecaster in 1951). In 1952, Gibson’s Les Paul model similarly heralded the beginning of a new era in guitar building. As creativity flowed between musicians and guitar builders alike, popular culture and music technology moved forward in tandem and a new style of instrument began to take shape, beginning with Fender’s Precision Bass in 1951, followed by the Gibson Electric Bass or EB-1 in 1953. As the decade progressed, the electric guitar industry’s biggest rivals—Gibson in the east, Fender in the west—began battling it out for their stake in the…

ehold 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…

Making you a better bass player  elcome 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…

Hello! Studying vocabulary can always potentially throw up a few hazards, particularly in the application of practice time. It’s not that you won’t develop any number of positive attributes from running up and down any number of completely random scales—the increase in dexterity will prove beneficial to most of us. It’s just that we should be spending more time asking why we’re doing something and what the long-term goals are. A good example of this could be the time spent learning structures such as the Min7th ( b 5) arpeggio, also known as ‘half diminished’, as it’s not something that we come into contact with on a day-to-day basis. It’s not a chord type that we’ll hear in most Bruno Mars tunes, for example—so is it a good use of…

“AWARENESS OF DETAIL IS WHAT SEPARATES GOOD AND GREAT BASS PLAYERS” Hello bassists! This time around I will be looking at live recording scenarios, and what it takes to be a successful bass player in these settings. This might be a live recording in the studio, on the radio, on TV or as part of a show that is recorded for future release. Even within those categories, the roles can differ subtly in terms of the experience—but here are some core fundamentals that are consistent when taking on the job of a live recording bass player... NERVE Ever heard the term ‘red light fever’? This is the moment when the record button is pushed, and we tense up—and suddenly we can’t play the line we had down so accurately in…

ASHDOWN GRAIL  Price | $1,099.99 Made In | Korea Body | Lightweight alder Neck | Maple Neck Joint | Bolt-on Nut Width | 46.5mm Scale | 35” Fingerboard | Rosewood Frets | 21 Pickups | Ashdown Custom Wound Single Coil x 2 Electronics | Passive Controls | Volume, Volume, Tone Hardware | Hipshot Ultralite tuners, Wilkinson bridge Weight | 9.9 lbs Case/gig bag included | Yes Left-hand option available | Yes WHAT WE THINK Plus | The pricetag Minus | The Grail’s B-string could be clearer in the upper register Overall | Sonically outstanding, a true passive J-Bass BP RATING…

TRICKFISH BULLHEAD 1K BASS AMPLIFIER Price | $1,349 Made In | in USA Power | 1000 watts @ 8/4 ohms Features | Features ¼” jack Input, Hi/Lo Input selector (+/-9dB), Gain (with Input Level indicator), Bass, Bass Frequency selector (40Hz/80hz), Low Mid, Low Mid Frequency selector (333Hz/473Hz), Hi Mid, Hi Mid Frequency selector (1kHz/1.8kHz), Treble, Treble Frequency selector (4kHz/8kHz), Master Volume, Mute switch, 3.5mm Aux In input, ¼” jack Headphone output, 2 x Neutrik Speakon/ Jack output sockets, FX Loop Series/ Parallel switch, FX Loop Ground/Lift switch, ¼” jack Send/Return sockets, 1/4-inch jack Tuner output socket, ¼” jack Mute footswitch input, Direct out Level, Direct Out Pre/Post EQ selector, Balanced XLR DI output socket, Ground/Lift switch Dimensions | 95mm / 3.7” (H) x 395mm / 15.5” (W) x 225mm /…

Price | $429.99 Made In | Finland Features | Low Comp, Low Level, High Level, High Drive, Low Pass (50Hz, 250Hz, 500 Hz), High Pass (100Hz, 500Hz, 1kHz), Master (+/-12dB), Low Shelf (+/-12dB @ 80Hz), 250Hz/500Hz/1.5kHz/3kHz(+/-12dB), High Shelf (+/-12dB @ 5kHz), Distortion selector stomp button, Bypass stomp button, ¼” jack Input socket, ¼” jack Output socket, Balanced XLR DI output, Ground Lift selector, Cab Sim selector, 3.5mm Aux-In input, 3.5mm Headphone output, Micro USB B socket Dimensions | 125mm x 96mm x 57mm / 4.9” x 3.8” x 2.2” Power | 9 volt DC power supply Weight | 15oz WHAT WE THINK Plus | Versatility, tone range, component quality Minus | Some players may find it too complicated—and it’s pricey Overall | Another high-quality winner from Darkglass BP RATING…

Welcome back to my new series on advanced slap bass techniques. Over the past two issues we’ve been examining the use of fretting hand slaps, initially from open strings, then from fretted notes. We’re going to move on to a new technique in this instalment, but one that is a natural extension of the fretting hand slap—the ‘machine gun triplet’. Though they are perfectly safe in the right hands, they should nevertheless be used with extreme care! A machine gun triplet is essentially a blur of notes performed with various different combinations of slapped notes, popped notes and fretting hand slaps. They have been used by many bass players over the years but are probably most synonymous with Mark King of Level 42. You should make a point of checking…