Bass Player Features

Prince: requiem for a bass hero

By Bass Player Staff

The bassists that played with the late legend share their stories

Tony Levin: "Improvisation that has to fill in all the spaces with notes is pretty dreadful to listen to"

By Bass Player Staff

The Peter Gabriel and King Crimson bassist on his favorite bass albums and what makes him pick up the Chapman Stick

Session bass legend Lee Sklar talks fan frets, beard maintenance and touring every year since 1970 in this classic interview

By Bass Player Staff

"I’ve been on the road for 42 years and I’ve only broken two strings - and I play really hard!"

Jack Casady's 10 best bass performances

By Chris Jisi

The highlights of the Jefferson Airplane bassist's hugely influential career

Penn Jillette: magic is easy, music is hard

By Joe Bosso

One half of magic duo Penn & Teller discusses his other love: bass playing

Glenn Hughes: "It’s been rumored that I’m the only pick bass player who sounds like he’s playing with his fingers"

By Bass Player Staff

The Voice of Rock talks Black Country Communion, Black Sabbath and his love of Bill Nash basses in this classic interview from 2011

Lemmy: "I always wanted to be John Entwistle, but since that place was taken, I became a lesser version"

By Joel McIver

In this classic interview from 2003, the late, great Motörhead frontman shares his thoughts on five-strings, Jaco Pastorius and soloing - and he doesn't hold back...

Billy Cox performs with the Jimi Hendrix Experience at the Isle of Wight Festival, August 1970

Billy Cox: "Jimi and I were locked together spiritually... that doesn’t happen so much nowadays"

By Bass Player Staff

The Band of Gypsys bassist looks back at Woodstock, the evolution of his gear and Hendrix's skills as a bass player

Les Claypool performs with The Claypool Lennon Delirium at the Beale Street Music Festival in Memphis, Tennessee on May 5, 2019

Les Claypool: "I’ll go 20 years without changing my gear, and then I’ll say, 'This sucks - I’ve got to change everything!'"

By Karl Coryat

Primus's slap-happy oddball on prog, gear and the challenges of making The Desaturating Seven

Review round-up: short-scale, semi-hollow basses

By Ed Friedland

Putting the Fender Coronado, Fender Starcaster, and Guild Starfire basses through their paces

Bobby Vega: "I wasn’t that consistent with my fingers, so I got dexterity and stamina from the pick"

By Bobby Vega

One of the bass world's finest purveyors of the plectrum shares his top pick tips

Joe Jackson bassist Graham Maby looks back at four decades of bass playing with the songwriting great

By Chris Jisi

"Pushing the bass out front and center was carte blanche for me to take as many risks as I wanted"

Bassist Steve Harris of Iron Maiden perform during the Legacy of the Beast tour at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota

Steve Harris names his 6 favorite Iron Maiden basslines

By Freddy Villano

The most iconic bass riffs in the metal giants' catalogue, according to the man himself

Meet Eva Gardner, the bass phenom behind Gwen Stefani, Pink, Moby and Cher

By Jon D’Auria

The contemporary queen of pop bass dishes on her tireless work ethic and her favorite gigs

Geezer Butler on Black Sabbath's early days, the making of 13 and which album has the worst bass sound

By Rob Blasko

The man who pioneered heavy-metal bass reflects on his never-ending tonal quest

Bassist Mike Inez of Alice in Chains performs at Shoreline Amphitheatre on September 04, 2019 in Mountain View, California

Alice In Chains' Mike Inez: "Picking very hard is part of my tone secret - I attribute that to Zakk Wylde!"

By Freddy Villano

The alt-rock bass supremo on Rainier Fog, the four-string fraternity and landing high-profile gigs with Ozzy Osbourne and Heart

Bassist Sean Hurley of John Mayer's band performs at the DTE Energy Music Theater on August 7, 2013 in Clarkston, Michigan

Sean Hurley talks touring with John Mayer and how to succeed in the LA session scene

By Chris Jisi

"While I mostly played my Jazz Bass when I broke in, now it’s predominantly a P-Bass world"

Paul McCartney performs live on stage with Wings at Ahoy on 25th March 1976 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He plays a Rickenbacker 4001S bass guitar.

The iconic Rickenbacker 4001: an appreciation

By Bass Player Staff

We pay homage to the bass beloved by Paul McCartney, Geddy Lee, Chris Squire and Lemmy

The history of the legendary Ampeg B-15

By Chris Jisi

The full story behind the bass amp of choice for James Jamerson, Duck Dunn and Chuck Rainey

Tom Petersson member of the band Cheap Trick performs live on stage at Allianz Parque on December 13, 2017 in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Cheap Trick's Tom Petersson: "I love string noise within the tone, and I love using both guitar amps and bass amps"

By Jon D’Auria

The long-serving bassist and 12-string aficionado on his unending quest for tone