By guest contributor Jon Magidsohn, a Canadian writer and musician living in London. He is the author of a 2024...
How did the BB become so successful? Tim Fletcher looks at the history of a classic bass. The Yamaha BB Bass – Workhorses That Became Thoroughbreds....
Moments in Bass History… Class D Amplifiers and Smaller Speakers – the Rise of Smaller, More Lightweight Bass Gear. Bass amplification is heavy. To get a decent...
With a few exceptions, most bass guitars look very similar to Leo Fender’s Precision, Jazz, or Music Man designs. When the first Steinberger headless (and nearly...
Moments in Bass History… the Six-String Electric Bass Today, six-string electric basses are commonplace, with virtuosos like Oteil Burbridge, Steve Bailey and John Myung all-embracing the extra...
Who Was the First Person to Make a Fretless Bass? Great players like Jaco Pastorius, Pino Palladino, Tony Franklin, Les Claypool and Mick Karn all found...
Larry Graham Slap Bass Technique… Larry Graham is widely accepted to be the originator of the slap bass technique, but what prompted him to start a...
James Jamerson’s playing is legendary, but how did he become the iconic bass player for Motown records? Tim Fletcher investigates… James Jamerson was arguably the first...
Tim Fletcher looks at how Paul McCartney became the bass player in The Beatles, a role he didn’t really want… By 1959, the three remaining members...
When Elvis’s bassist Bill Black picked up a Fender Precision to record ‘Jailhouse Rock’, the double bass’s time as the dominant sound in popular music was...
Basses with active electronics have been around for years, but which manufacturer got there first? Alembic? Music Man? Tim Fletcher delves into the history of active...
Who was the first electric bass guitar player? It might have been Lorraine Tutmarc… In the early 1930s, Seattle musician, singer and inventor Paul Tutmarc had...
Moments in Bass History: Origins of the Iconic Ampeg SVT Tim Fletcher delves into the origins of the iconic Ampeg SVT; “the biggest, nastiest bass amplifier...
Forty years ago, on the 14th January 1980, Rush released their seventh album ‘Permanent Waves’. It was a departure from their previous albums; shorter songs (mostly),...
The Birth of the Roundwound Bass String – Important Moments in Bass History. This month begins the series, Important Moments in Bass History. In this issue,...
