A bass guitar is a very physical instrument comprised of wood, steel and most of the time plastic (for switchgear, knobs and scratch plate among other things). On its own, the bass does absolutely nothing for you, and you do have to make it do what you want. Said another way, nothing about a bass … Read more
With bass guitar strings, there is no question that roundwound is always the most-available. No matter where you shop for strings, roundwound will always be there and always outnumber any other string type you could buy… …but that’s not to say you couldn’t experiment with a different type of string such as flatwound or halfround. … Read more
See Matt’s business listing here This week’s BotW is a green machine from Matt, which he calls the “Mutant Bass”. His story on this bass is: I’ve had this idea for a bass for a while and I finally brought that idea to life. Here’s a bit of the story behind this bass that took … Read more
Over the weekend our illustrious leader Max put this together: …and this is what it used to look like: Yes, it is completely functional, and yes there is now a battery box in the back where there wasn’t one before, but the point is this: This totally dives into what you would call “heavy modification” … Read more
Mudbucker is to the best of my knowledge not a brand but just a nickname given to a very particular type of pickup. The mudbucker originally gets its name from the early-1960s Gibson EB series; a bass usually with only one pickup, being this absolutely gigantic thing in the neck position and absolutely slammed right … Read more
In the bass community you have one of three opinions for Gene Simmons (real name: Chaim Weitz). You either: a) love him, b) hate him or c) hate him but respect him as an entertainer. For most players, the answer is C. They hate the man, but respect the entertainer. Note that I said entertainer … Read more
While Max was at NAMM he took a bunch of photos (with more coming on the way), and when he saw the above little 15-watt offering from Ashdown Engineering, he snapped a photo and purposely put his sunglasses on top of it just to give you an idea of how small this thing is. The … Read more
The BotW for this week is what happens when a luthier has some time on his hands but no fretting tools to work with at the location he’s working in, so… he goes fretless! This bass guitar technically has no official model name to it (none was mentioned); “Tasmanian Blackwood” is in fact what the … Read more
Ray-Lin asked on Facebook: I was wondering if you could talk about the difference between standard strings, taper core strings and exposed core strings? “Standard” means “conventional construction”, which means “roundwound” (or “full contact”) string. Taper-Core is where the outer wrap ends at the bridge, leaving only the inner wrap left, and that inner wrap … Read more
Chances are if you read this blog you’re either in a band or know people in bands. And whether the band is a “working musician” cover act or all-original, promotion is part of doing the whole band thing. One of the best ways to promo a band is to make your fans walking advertisements; that … Read more
