If you’ve played bass for any length of time, you have no doubt heard the phrase, “real bass players don’t use a pick.” I don’t know what anyone means by “real bass player”. If you’re a person that picks up a bass guitar and plays it regularly, then you’re a bass player. And of course … Read more
There are a lot of terms thrown out there when it comes to the parts of a guitar be it a bass guitar or not. For example, Fender calls the portion after the nut the pegboard, while in Gibson vernacular it’s called a headstock. Personally, I call it a headstock. The distinction between fingerboard and … Read more
This week’s BotW comes from Don, who sent us photos of his pristine-clean ’58 P-Bass. Don writes: This P-Bass, build date 11-58, came to me in the late 60’s with basically no finish. I continued to strip her down to bare wood. Completely removed all components, cleaned them as best I could, keeping all of … Read more
To “relic” an instrument basically means to make it purposely look old and very-well-used. There are varying degrees of “relic’ing” (pronounced “rell-ih-king”), and the Fender Jazz Bass above is one of the more extreme examples as the body was burned on purpose to give it its final look. Builders have come up with some fairly … Read more
If one were to state the generations of bass amplification, this is what they are in a nutshell: Tube-type amplification: First generation Solid-state amplification: Second generation Digital amplification: Third generation To be even more specific, tube-type was the dominant amplification method up until the 1970s, solid-state was and still is the dominant amplification type, and … Read more
For a while now, Best Bass Gear has had the ability for you send us your stuff for feature material (such as for “Bass of The Week”) on both our web site and Facebook page, however the process of sending us your stuff was a bit difficult. Now it’s easy for you to send us … Read more
Chances are likely a good number of you still own your very first bass guitar. Chances are also likely you haven’t played it in years and it’s sitting in a closet or the basement. And chances are also likely something (or many things) on that bass guitar is messed up which doesn’t allow you to … Read more
An interesting part of bass tone is that some players actually prefer having fret buzz. Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot, but there are certain instances where buzz actually makes the tone sound better. Here are a few examples: 1960s Overdriven Tone Certain acid rock and psychedelic rock songs of the 1960s featured bass players … Read more
Cyanoacrylate, which you commonly know as superglue, is something that probably isn’t in your tool kit. Or if it is, you probably would never bring that stuff anywhere near a bass guitar when repairing it. Well, it just so happens that with the correct type of superglue, it can be one of the best things … Read more
If you thought the guy falling off his amp was bad, this is even worse. Can you say… “strap locks”? 🙂
