Latest articles by Joel McIver
“I bought a right-handed Hofner, re-strung it and learned to play like a lefty, which was a nightmare”: How The Bootleg Beatles’ Steve White became a carbon-copy Paul McCartney
Think you can play a bit like Sir Paul? It’s not as easy as you think, says Bootleg Beatles bassist Steve White
“John Lydon once made a stab at poaching Flea for Public Image. At which point Flea keeled over and passed out”: Anthony Kiedis takes a nostalgic look back at Flea’s finest hour from Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Flea’s reputation as a killer bass player almost saw him lured away from the Red Hot Chili Peppers
“On four-strings you have to jump to get the second octave, but on the five-string it’s right there”: Mohini Dey reflects on her switch to five-string basses – and the advice her dad gave her about Jaco
Mohini Dey has achieved more with the bass guitar than most of us achieve in a lifetime. And she’s only just getting started
“Randy Rhoads trusted me. He put his reputation with Sharon and Ozzy on the line to bring me in”: Rudy Sarzo talks Quiet Riot, Ozzy Osbourne and reshaping his bass tone for Whitesnake
With his work covering six decades of music, Rudy Sarzo has seen things we wouldn’t believe, from the world’s biggest stages to the darkest of tour buses
“Don’t sell your first bass. Even if you never play it again, in later life you’ll wish you still had it”: With a stage name coined by Bootsy Collins, Freekbass names the one bass that “like an idiot” he ended up selling
Chris ‘Freekbass’ Sherman on how a Rickenbacker and a BC Rich (via Tiran Porter from the Doobie Brothers) set him on a lifelong low-end path
“Slap bass has that metallic sound, like a hammer. If you played bass with a pick it wouldn’t sound the same. Actually, I did that on Epic”: How Billy Gould crafted his driving bass tone on Faith No More’s biggest hits
Billy Gould’s funk bass leanings powered We Care A Lot and Epic by San Francisco rockers Faith No More
“If I had tried to be another Ron Carter I would have failed. I don’t think that’s what Miles was looking for”: Dave Holland on the making of Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew
Few jazz bassists can match the pedigree of Dave Holland, thanks to his work with Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Chick Corea and just about everyone else
“As the bass player in a guitar-driven band, I don’t need to be in the spotlight. I don’t need to do any more than just rock out”: Troy Sanders on the perils and pleasures of playing bass in Mastodon
According to Troy Sanders, when it comes to laying down the bass parts in Mastodon, restraint is the key
“Am I a good bassist? I’m a f**king good bassist!” Sting on bass playing, Cream and his “battered looking” P-Bass
From the Bass Player Archive: An interview with Sting
“I hate punching in. If you don’t have your bassline down, you shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing”: Rex Brown reveals the tricks behind his super-heavy bass technique
Pantera bassist Rex Brown on his precision-engineered picking technique, and why he’s not into “bouncing around with Pro Tools”
“You could play a one-string bass with a pick and still create amazing music”: Billy Sheehan disputes his reputation as “an overplaying icon of lead bass”
For Mr Big and Sons Of Apollo bassist Billy Sheehan, there’s more to playing rock bass than mere mechanics
“Bass should stand on its own. It’s as powerful as the guitar”: Conrad Lant on his disdain for Ampeg SVTs and how he bought Andy Fraser’s Gibson EB-3 for £50 – “It was the exact one he played on All Right Now!”
Venom, the original black metal band, have been invoking Old Nick since 1981. On the bass, meet Conrad Lant – ‘Cronos’ to the (black) masses
“We were auditioning for bass players, but most of the guys who came in were too good. One day I just said, ‘What if I play bass?’” Shavo Odadjian on why he switched from guitar to the bass
Shavo Odadjian holds down the low-end in System of a Down, America’s most uncategorisable band
“When you’re the bass player and it’s time for the solo, you go nuts, because you’ve been playing rhythm for everyone else for so long!” Tony Visconti on David Bowie’s The Man Who Sold The World
Spurred on by guitarist Mick Ronson, Tony Visconti’s bass playing ranged from the wildest of improvised runs to proto-heavy-metal support
“Lars said, ‘You’re not really used to this kind of music, are you?’” Les Claypool on his failed Metallica audition
According to James Hetfield, Les Claypool was “too good” for the thrash metal giants
Tech 21 SansAmp Street Driver 48 review – a new Frank Bello signature amp pedal that delivers the full range of the Anthrax bassist's tones, and then some
Yes, the monstrous drive tones are unmistakable, but this impressively versatile SansAmp unit is not only about unhinged distortion that will terrify your neighbour’s cat
Origin Effects DCX Bass Tone Shaper & Drive review – an exhaustive pedal that will give your bass a range of sounds you never knew you needed
Designed to add analog color to your tone, Origin Effects’ DCX Bass unit gives you a host of old-school studio sounds in a box
“Even John Paul Jones, Geddy Lee, Sting, and Steve Harris dig this guy”: Cordell Crockett of Ugly Kid Joe reels off 5 albums that shaped his sound
Ugly Kid Joe’s long-term bassist reflects on Sgt. Pepper, and why Michael Anthony had the “hardest gig” supporting Eddie Van Halen
“McCartney was fantastic. Mind you, I tried one of those Hofner basses and I thought it was crap”: Judas Priest’s heavy metal veteran Ian Hill picks his top 5 bass albums
From the Beatles to the Bluesbreakers, we asked Ian Hill to name five albums that helped him along the righteous path to metal glory with Judas Priest
“My playing was a response to whoever said, ‘Bass should be felt and not heard’. To me, bass should be like warfare!” Derek Forbes, founder member of Simple Minds, on his five best basslines
Derek Forbes was Simple Minds’ bassist from 1978 to 1985. Here he explains how he was inspired by Andy Fraser and Stanley Clarke, why he prefers Precision to Jazz, and the influence of magic mushrooms...
“It wasn’t like a normal bass gig where you have 30 songs: I had to learn 300!” Ida Nielsen talks touring with Prince, and how she tackled her Paisley Park audition
You put a video of yourself playing bass on YouTube. Then Prince calls…
“It’s hard to think who the greatest bass players are. You could say Flea, but he doesn’t need the plug!” Jack Bruce on the bass players that shaped his sound
Back in 2010, we asked Cream bassist Jack Bruce to nominate five albums that influenced his bass playing
“I love the sound of the Rickenbacker, but I didn’t sound like Chris Squire on it!” Geddy Lee on his Rick-O-Sound tone and ‘crossing the floor’ to Fender
The Ricky 4001 is both loved and hated by bass players: for the Rush legend it’s still a classic
“I understand the Phil Spector wall-of-sound thing, but there comes a point where less is more”: How Tina Weymouth came up with her unforgettable bass riff on Talking Heads’ Once In A Lifetime
With a career heading back as far as the 70s, Tina Weymouth never strayed far from the cutting edge of cool – just don't ask her about Jaco Pastorius
“If I wanted to play like Geddy Lee I’d play a black-and-white Rickenbacker”: Les Claypool on his bass collection, and the Rickenbacker he bought from John Entwistle
The Primus frontman has employed a range of instruments during his career, including a Dobro bass and the famous one-string Whamola
