[youtube]https://youtu.be/9KhbM2mqhCQ[/youtube] Motown Records had a few regular session bass players in their stable (such as Wilton Felder, heard prominently on the studio recording of I Want You Back by the Jackson 5), but the one you heard often but never knew his name was James Jamerson. Why? Because for anything Motown released prior to 1971, … Read more
This instrument was specifically designed with a goal other than music; it was made to send a message not to give up when faced with a life-threatening disease and to “fight back”, hence the name given to this particular instrument. The description below is really long, but really good and well worth the read because … Read more
The main reason why any player carries around batteries in his or her gig bag is for pedals and/or for an active pickup system. For pedals in particular, when you want the least signal noise, you use 9-volt batteries instead of an external power source for the reason that it skirts around any wonky stage … Read more
Fret wire is something where you have a few choices concerning how the ends look and feel like. One of the more interesting fret end shapes is what’s affectionately known as the “hot dog”. Here is an example of this type of fret end (from Skjold Design Guitars): Notice above that the fret ends have … Read more
Some of you guys and gals out there have straps that are really old where the strap button holes are stretched so far that it barely holds on to the instrument. And yeah, I totally understand why you keep your old crappy strap. It’s comfortable. And no, I’m not telling you to get a new … Read more
You’ll notice in the sales verbiage for many higher-end bass guitars that the word “quartersawn” is thrown out there quite a bit (usually in reference to the neck). Does quartersawn wood really matter in the build of a bass guitar, and if so, how? Before I answer that, I’ll tell you what quartersawn wood actually … Read more
This week’s Bass Of The Week from Mark is a Sei 7-string in what they call an “offset flamboyant” shape. This instrument screams pure luxury in every way, from the woods to the hardware to the light-up LED side markers and everything in between. As you’ll read in Mark’s story below, it took a year … Read more
When frets wear down on a bass guitar neck and you’ve decided to keep the instrument fretted (as opposed to converting it to a fretless), you basically have two options. a) You can have your frets leveled and re-crowned or b) Have it refretted. This is what’s involved with each: Fret Leveling/Recrown This is traditionally … Read more
Best Bass Gear’s online presence has been growing quite a bit (we’re over 20,000 “likes” on Facebook now), but we’re very well aware that YOU make things like that happen. With that said, BBG has a simple question for you: What do YOU want to see on BBG? What would you like to read about? … Read more
TV show themes are awesome. They are songs, after all. Short ones, but good ones. These are the top 5 television show themes every bass player should know that prominently features the bass guitar being heard. 5. NIGHT COURT The moment you heard that two-note octave slap, you knew what was on TV. A funky, … Read more
