A very big thanks to Andy Long for bringing this one to my attention: Alun Vaughan has released a very special Christmas treat for bass fans: 10 Christmas carol arrangements for solo bass. These are chordal arrangements for solo bass in notation and tablature. It might seem a little early, but you’ll need time to practice, right? You can get it from http://bassbook.co.uk. [More...]

I was just about to write a post on bass cabinets, then I saw that Markbass has a plug-in that models all of their amps and a number of their speaker cabinets. The Mark 1 Studio Amp modeling software and digital effects have been popular in the thin-stringed world for a while. Options for bassists have been a little more limited. [More...]

Last night I got an invite to see Leonard Cohen at the O2 arena in London. He might be in his mid 70’s, but he still gave a performance with more standing ovations than I could count. He had a great band behind him, but obviously I was watching the bassist carefully. [More...]

Much as there is joy in playing bass, sometimes it is also nice to indulge in a bit of bass culture. With many thanks Steve Lawson, I am sitting down reading “Bass Culture – The John Entwistle Bass Collection” (on Amazon US and UK).

[More...]

This made me smile on a cold, wet British morning. It looks like Mark is playing the original Status Graphite King Bass in this video (complete with rather nifty the bendwell that Rob Green put into the design). Check out this video on Killer Chops TV: [More...]