Apr 17, 2011

Fretless Bass Conversion (DIY)

Jason Holder from The Musician’s Den in Evansville, Indiana.
in demonstrates converting a 4-string fretted bass, to a fretless.
TO FELLOW BASSIST..THESE ARE WORTH WATCHIN' VIDZ













Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10

Rhythm Series: Improving Rhythmic Accuracy by Subdividing

by Donovan Stokes

Rhythmic Accuracy

Last time we talked about one of the major physical components rhythm: feeling the beat internally. However, for the performer there are two components to rhythm, physical and mental. Accurate execution of musical rhythm requires the cultivation of both aspects. One important mental element needed to precisely perform rhythms is active subdivision.

Subdividing

Most of us understand that the musical beat can be divided into smaller parts (i.e. subdivided). While theoretically a beat can be subdivided into any number of equal or non-equal parts, in practice it is generally subdivided into 9 or fewer equal parts. Most common are subdivisions of 2, 3 or 4. Few people have trouble understanding this concept intellectually.

For the performing musician, however, subdivision must go beyond theoretical understanding. Although it is certainly necessary to, at any given moment, comprehend how a beat is subdivided, this is not enough to ensure proper rhythmic execution. We must actively subdivide the beat mentally while we are playing, if we are to achieve precision. CLICK HERE FOR MORE..

Apr 13, 2011

Bass Guitar Designer’s Toolkit


Jerzy Drozd
Instructional DVD

Want to design your own bass? No experience? No problem! At least that’s what Jerzy Drozd says. The acclaimed bass designer and builder recently released his Bass Guitar Designer’s Tooklit, a step-by-step DVD tutorial for turning concept into reality. Never having broached the subject of bass design myself, I decided to take a look at BGDT to see how a “non-tech” guy like me would fare.

Bass Guitar Designer’s Tooklit includes a combination of video and PDF tutorials, providing all the tools and guidance necessary to begin the intricate process of bass design -- even if you’re a total beginner! The DVD opens with a video of Jerzy recounting his background and the trial-and-error ordeals that inspired him to develop this instructional guide. While Drozd acknowledges that his English is less than grammatically perfect (“My English sucks” is how he so eloquently states it!), he invites the viewer to have a laugh at his expense. Truthfully, you’ll have no trouble understanding any of the points he makes. In fact, I admire him for having the guts to put himself in the spotlight. MORE....

Apr 9, 2011

The Bass Center - Cape Town



Network for Bass Players world wide.The Center is managed by Bass Players for Bass Players.find out here!!


Warwick Announces Steve Bailey Signature Bass

by Kevin Johnson
Fretless bassist Steve Bailey has joined up with Warwick as an endorsing artist, and the company has just unveiled a new Steve Bailey Signature Bass. The model is a six-string fretless based on their Streamer, though the design has been modified for better access to the upper register of the neck.

The Steve Bailey Signature bass features bolt-on construction and a 34” scale. The swamp ash body is matched with an ovangkol neck that has a signature asymmetrical profile, topped with a snakewood fingerboard.

A pair Seymour Duncan active Soapbar pickups are coupled with Bailey’s signature Seymour Duncan active 2-way electronics. The bass is rounded out visually with a black high polish finish with a polished stainless steel pickguard.

Steve Bailey Signature Bass

Apr 8, 2011

An Interview with Victor Wooten

by Kevin Johnson
Fifteen years ago, Victor Wooten released a solo electric bass album that inspired countless bassists to push themselves to new limits. Today, you’d be hard pressed to find a “best of” or “reader’s choice” list of top bassists without him.

Victor is a busy bassist, teacher, and more recently, record label owner. We caught up with him during one of his stops on the Spring Road Trip Summer 2011 tour with Stanley Clarke, to discuss his new album, label, the Flecktones, his camps, and his career so far.

What is it about bass that keeps you playing every day?

I would say it’s less and less about bass as I get older, and it’s more and more about music and connecting with people. It’s almost like you having a bass voice or a tenor voice. It’s not so much about the pitch of your voice that keeps you talking. It’s about having something to say and communicating with people. I just happen to do it on a bass. And I like the bass in general, because the bass is designed as a support role by nature. The whole role of our instrument is made to make other people sound good and make other people feel comfortable, so I like that just from the nature of the instrument. But I would say not even that keeps me going every day… I think it’s just the relationship with the people, you know? Because I’d probably do it anyway, but probably not every day if I wasn’t doing it on tour. So I think it’s the people… the people that come to hear it. I hadn’t thought of it… [that] was a good question.

You just released A Show Of Hands 15. Tell us a little about what brought that about.

I had originally planned on releasing or recording another strictly solo bass record, 10 years after the first one. That’s what I thought. But 10 years came and it didn’t feel necessary to me. It didn’t feel like I needed to make that statement again. For one, because there were many other bass players making that statement and doing it well. You know, Michael Manring had solo bass records and not even all the people were making the bass records but people were capable of it. There were people now doing solo shows… you know, we were meeting people at camps. Steve Bailey actually had a solo bass competition… we heard great stuff. So it just didn’t feel like I needed to do it again.CLICK HERE FOR MORE...

Basic Funk Formula, Bootsy style

by Corey Brown
Bootsy Collins, one of the funkiest bassists ever, shares his formula for a basic funk line.

Just keep it on the one, and you can do anything you want with it!

WATCH HERE!!

Web Searches Surge for Frances Cobain

by Mike Krumboltz

On April 5, 1994, Kurt Cobain took his own life at his home in Seattle, Washington. Tuesday marked the anniversary of the Nirvana rocker's death. His daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, was not yet two years old when her father died. Now 18, Frances is focusing on her future, and online interest is heating up.

Over the past 24 hours, web searches on "frances cobain" and "frances bean cobain" have doubled. Lookups for "frances bean photos" are also jumping. Considering how famous her father was (and how controversial her mother, singer Courtney Love, continues to be), it's interesting to note that Frances has kept a relatively low profile.

Interviews with Frances Bean are rare, but online queries are not. Of particular interest to Web searchers: her middle name. According to TMZ, she earned the unusual middle name after Kurt saw an image of her on the ultrasound. Kurt allegedly remarked that the as-of-yet unborn Frances looked a bit like a kidney bean. The name stuck.

Frances, like many celebrity children, has famous godparents. Michael Stipe of REM is her godfather and Drew Barrymore is her godmother. She's interned at Rolling Stone magazine in recent years, but it does not appear that she is focused on journalism at the moment. In 2010, she gave an art show in Los Angeles under a different name, the mysterious moniker of "Fiddle Tim."

Why the alter ego? It could be a desire to earn success without family connections. She clearly has problems with those who, in her opinion, rely on famous family members. In 2009, she let those thoughts be known on social networking site Twitter. Frances ranted about Lindsay Lohan's younger sister Ali. To Ali, she wrote: "You blatently (sic) don't care how your recognized, its the objective to get famous and that is what makes you replaceable and a recycled idea." yahoo buzz

Apr 6, 2011

Sound-Off: Rihanna's 'T.M.I.' Description of Sex Life

by Jamilah-Asali I. Lemieux
In the new Rolling Stone, Rihanna offers an extremely revealing look at her sex life (and at her amazing body... what's in that Barbados water and how can I import some?). In addition to a few predictable questions about her former abuser, Chris Brown, and her upcoming role in the "Battleship" film adaptation, the 22-year-old singer gave a few details about her fetishes and desires that have started tongues to wagging and men to salivating.

Here she describes the autobiographical tone of her single "S&M":

"Being submissive in the bedroom is really fun," she says. "You get to be a little lady, to have somebody be macho and in charge of your s**t. That's fun to me... I like to be spanked. Being tied up is fun. I like to keep it spontaneous. Sometimes whips and chains can be overly planned -- you gotta stop, get the whip from the drawer downstairs. I'd rather have him use his hands."

Oh. Well now. Good to know if I'm ever over Rihanna's house and planning on trying to seduce her.

Don't get me wrong. I'm hardly conservative when it comes to sexuality and I fully support Rihanna's right to be grown and free with hers. However, I can't help but wonder why we were given such personal details... and why via Rolling Stone? Isn't this material more fitting for a women's magazine, where ladies come together to share sex tips and dish on what we like to do in the bedroom? Here, it feels like it was deliberately offered to titillate readers and provide fantasy fodder. Or to keep her name on the blogs. Or all of the above.

Between the article, the body baring photos and the singer's recent Vogue appearance (dressed in a sheer frock that is a bit more provocative than what we are used to seeing on cover models), it just seems like the "RIHANNA IS SEXY AND WILD" memo is being pushed a little bit too hard. I can't help but feel like her camp's attempts to avoid a victim characterization in the wake of the 2009 Grammy night incident have rendered her some sort of sexual object. And it again begs the question: why are Black women in the media so often required to be either hypersexual or asexual? MORE ....


Apr 4, 2011

Custom Shop: Wyn Guitars

by kevin johnson
Wyn Guitars is a one-man custom bass shop run by Randy Fullmer, a man with a healthy obsession for exotic woods. An artist at heart, Fullmer got his his start as a luthier at an early age before becoming an animator and producer for Disney. He eventually returned to building instruments, switching to exclusively making basses.

Fullmer just finished moving into a new shop when we got a hold of him to get his perspective on bass building.

How did you get your start building basses?

I started building guitars when I was 12 years old because my parents wouldn’t let me buy a 12 string. They told me I had a guitar. Yes, I explained, I have a 6-string but I also want a 12-string. “No go” said my parents, so I threw them the ultimate curve ball and asked if I could buy the wood and build my own. They were dumbstruck at this request and just couldn’t say no. Somehow I figured out how to build it with a bit of help from a cool fiddle and guitar maker named Tom who my guitar teacher introduced me to, and the rest is history. It was the best magic trick ever, and I built another 30 guitars by the time I was 18.

I then went to art school and had a nice career at the Walt Disney Company as an animator and producer, but one day I realized I had done that long enough and that I wanted to go back to guitar building. I’m leaving out a lot of history in the name of not taking up too much space, but when I made my luthier re-entry, I decided on basses for some pretty clear reasons. I like bass players – they are by and large very nice guys. They are interested in an individual instrument, not just an old Les Paul or an old Strat, and for me, the tone woods have a much larger impact on the sound of a bass than on a guitar. The fantastic hardwoods that I use and their tone properties are my biggest interest and focus. So about five years ago, I launched Wyn Guitars and began exclusively building basses.

So you were originally a guitarist. What drew you to the bass?

I have always liked bass. When teamed with a great drummer, it always felt like the engine. I remember hearing my first band that had a truly great bass player. I couldn’t figure out where that cool sound was coming from. It was so integrated with the kick drum that I went back and forth trying to figure out what was what. From that point on, I realized that all the great bands that I really wanted to hear had a great bass player. It’s the foundation that everything else is built on.

What is the concept behind your designs?

Boy, that’s a million dollar question. I don’t know that I have one brilliant answer for this one. I wish I did.

I have a bit of a Zen approach to building basses. I once spent three days dissecting all the discrete steps for me to build a bass. I came up with 360 steps. So to me, you have 360 chances to mess up! You also have 360 chances to do things right, concentrating on each one until it’s great. Then you move on to the next.

I can talk about visual design and unexpected wood patterning and breaking the traditional silhouette for hours. So visually, although there are many ergonomic reasons for the basic Leo Fender shape, it is great to bring a fresh look to a bass by breaking rules. Like not book matching a top just because everyone else does. Ultimately, the quality of the whole is determined by every individual component. I build these bass guitars completely by myself for that reason. I want to know every single step and how it was accomplished and never settle for any step having been just okay. The design, the shaping, the electronics, the hardware, the multiple wood choices, and the laminating process are all component parts of the whole. I guess after answering all of this, what I should have said in the first place is that my design philosophy is really that making a great bass comes about when you get every step in the process right.

On your website, you have a decent glossary of exotic woods. What is your favorite wood to use and why?

These are tough questions. That’s like asking a mother which one of her kids is her favorite and why? Okay, the answer is Wenge! To heck with all those other woods!

No, it’s Ziricote, that’s my favorite!

The truth of the matter is, to build a great bass – the way I go about it anyway – is like a stew with great ingredients, including great spices. Everything is in balance. I love Wenge because there is a hugeness, a clarity, an attitude and a bark that I have never gotten from any other wood. But I usually tame it with African Mahogany or a warm fret board, or Eastern Rock Maple in the neck to balance the lows with more brightness.

To me, a successful bass is one that is really versatile. It’s loaded with useable tone. It slaps and pops in a nasty biting way and then can sound pristine bell clear in the upper highs and play a melodic ballad. If the electronics are right and the wood is combined in the right proportion, you should be able to get a great range. Every wood that I use has a tonal property that’s unique to that wood, and we haven’t even gone into the visual aspect. If there is a medical condition known as wood-a-holic, I am very much in need of the treatment. It is unbelievably hard for me to pass up a beautiful piece of wood. FOR MORE CLICK HERE

Babbling Twin Babies a Hit on YouTube


A blogging mom landed 15 minutes of fame for her twin baby boys.

Her two-minute YouTube video simply titled “twin baby boys have a conversation” is approaching two million views and has been shown on news outlets around the world.

Everyone just wants to know: what are her cute little boys saying?

In the video, the two kids can be seen standing in a kitchen, wearing nothing but diapers. They’re babbling back and forth, but taking turns at it, almost like they’re debating something serious. Could it be politics? Personal finances?

You’ll have to watch for yourself to find out.

On her blog , the mom writes, “We’ve had a fascinating time seeing language blooming around here.”

“The debate video of the boys’ has REALLY caught on! In a truly overnight, head spinning way. See the piece on ABC News. We are taking a moment to breathe before deciding how far to let this 15 minutes go.”

lols..watch them on youtube!!