Robert 
Donald “Duck” Dunn is one of my all time favorite bass players. There’s a deep, soulful feel to his deceptively simple bass lines.
Best known for his impeccable, rock solid bass playing with Booker T. & the M.G.’s, the house band for Stax Records all through the 1960’s.
Buying a bass player a gift can be a tricky thing. That’s why we put together this bass player gift guide. The first thing to consider is the level of the player. Buying a gift for a beginner is the most straightforward because you most likely will be looking at budget basses and accessories. For more experienced players it can get a little more involved but I put together some bass gift ideas that hopefully will help.
There’s so much myth and mystery around the brilliant Motown bassist James Jamerson that it’s sometimes hard to know who he really was. Thankfully though, we have his amazing basslines to listen to, and for many bass players, these recordings are a sort of sacred archive. They represent the beginnings of modern bass playing and … Read more
After picking up a Fender Rumble Bass Amp, I thought it would be a good idea to write a review about it. To be totally honest, I had never been a big fan of the Rumble series amps in the past. I always thought they sounded kind of sterile. And, I wasn’t in love with the looks either. However, while browsing through the music store a while back, I noticed that Fender had a new series of Rumble amps, and it immediately caught my eye.
I know some of you are probably wondering why I’m writing about a
bass player who is not really known for playing a Fender Bass, although
Bruce did play a Fender VI Bass early on in his career.
The main
reason I feel I should include an article about Jack Bruce is his
enormous impact on how the electric bass was played and perceived in
rock music, regardless of whether he was using a Fender or not.
When Fender first released the Road Worn bass line, I was both puzzled and fascinated with them.
I had always considered relic basses to be Custom Shop instruments, built by master craftsmen with a high attention to every detail, not stock production models that anyone can pull off the wall.
Of course it was inevitable that one day relic guitars and basses would be mass produced, given their huge surge in popularity over the last few years. The question is…are the Road Worn basses any good?
Changing bass strings for many players is often just a normal part of life. Whether you’re trying a new roundwound set, some new tapewounds, or just needing to replace some dead strings that you’ve had too long, we’ve all been there. But, some bassists have trouble with the task. So, if you’re still wondering how to change bass strings correctly, read on.
And while there is no one completely agreed upon method, I’ve found over the years that one way, especially for Fender Basses, seems to work best.
Good sounding practice amps are tough to find, especially one that still has enough power to play small gigs. I was recently searching for such an amp, with my main thoughts being something around 50 watts, not too heavy, with a decent speaker and a good tone.
Well, I’m pleased to say that I’ve found it in the Ampeg BA112 Bass Combo. This cool-looking,
Fender has completely revamped their American Vintage Series bass line for the first time since they introduced them in 1982. Gone are the ’57 and ’62 Precision Bass and the ’62 and ’75 Jazz Bass. Fender is now offering a ’58 and ’63 Precision and a ’64 and ’74 Jazz Bass.
So the question is….what’s the difference?
In 1959 Leo Fender and his design team started work on a new bass. The Precision bass had been Fender’s only bass model since 1951. After Leo and his build team redesigned the P-Bass in 1957 the marketing department at Fender pushed Leo to introduce a new model to augment to the bass line.
The original prototype Jazz bass was conceived as a “deluxe model” to appeal to guitar players who wanted or needed to double on bass. The neck was markedly thinner than a Precision bass, only 1 ½” at the nut compared to the 1 ¾” of the Precision. The body featured an offset asymmetric design borrowed from the recently introduced Jazzmaster guitar (hence the name Jazz Bass).
