Winter NAMM 2014 means a peek at the new Squier Vintage Modified Bass VI--music to the ears of those of us that haven't been able to afford a more expensive version. Nice block inlay too!
The doomgaze titans from Texas hit the road this year to celebrate more than two decades together, and they brought some of their favorite noisemakers for the occasion.
Post-rock/doomgaze outfit This Will Destroy You, formed in San Marcos, Texas, in 2004, are marking 21 years together, and 20 years of their self-recorded debut Young Mountain, with an anniversary tour. In late June, the band played Nashville’s Basement East, where guitarists Jeremy Galindo and Nicholas Huft and bassist Ethan Billips met up with PG’s Chris Kies to share what gear they packed for the roadtrip.
Galindo started off playing electric on his brother’s FenderTelecaster, and he’s never looked back. He’s played various models over the years, but got this Fender American Performer Telecaster two years ago. He strings it with .011–.052 strings for slightly more body and fullness, and tunes it to E-flat standard. Galindo mostly plays with his fingers, but when he picks he uses some of the thinnest picks he can find.
No Tubes? No Problems
A Music Man HD-130 is Galindo’s always-and-forever, but on the road, he likes this Roland Jazz Chorus 120 for its tubeless reliability and easy clean sounds.
Jeremy Galindo’s Pedalboard
The Boss DD-20 Giga Delay and Tech 21 Boost R.V.B. have been with Galindo since the early days, and he considers the Tech 21 to be the most essential tool of his kit. Aside from those, there’s a Walrus Canvas Tuner, Ernie Ball VP JR, Friday Club Fury 6-Six, Walrus Jupiter, Walrus Fundamental Ambient, Boss RE-20, and Mr. Black Deluxe Plus. A Walrus Aetos powers the party.
Smooth as Sandpaper
This Fender Jazzmaster, Huft’s first, was bought from Full of Hell guitarist Spencer Hazard, who equipped it with its “awful sandpaper texture” finish. Huft doesn’t use the rhythm circuit, so he’s taped it off. He plays with both pickups engaged at all times, including the humbucker rail pickup in the bridge.
United Solid-States
Huft has a soft spot for 1970s solid-state amplification, which makes this Peavey Standard Mark III series a perfect match for TWDY: It’s cheap, and it’s loud.
Nicholas Huft’s Pedalboard
Along with an ABY switcher, Huft runs a Boss TU-3, Ernie Ball VP JR, Gremlin Machine Shop Worshiper, Dead Air Portrayal of Guilt/Matt King Dual Drive, Boss DD-200, Boss RC-500, Red Panda Context, Boss DD-3T, Beautiful Noise Exploder, and Walrus Slo.
Cheap and Cheerful
Billips explains that he and his bandmates grew up on cheap instruments, and they still feel like home, so that’s why he rocks with this Marcus Miller Sire bass.
Community Cranker
Billips and his bandmates split on this Darkglass Electronics Microtubes 500 v2 head, which they share collectively.
Ethan Billips’ Pedalboard
Billips runs an Ernie Ball VP JR Tuner, a prototype bass overdrive from Mr. Black, a Death by Audio Bass War, Walrus Badwater, Danelectro Talk Back, Catalinbread Topanga, and a Radial BigShot ABY.
Frank Bello, best known as the bassist of New York’s legendary thrash metal pioneers Anthrax, has joined forces with Spector Bass to develop an all-new instrument. Dubbed the NC-4 Frank Bello, this bass is inspired by both Spector’s rich history and iconic American bolt-on bass design.
From its refined body contours and radiused top to the uniquely contoured neck heel, the NC-4 is built for speed, comfort, and stage-ready performance. Finished in a head-turning metallic purple affectionately named Tina Rose after Bello’s mother and grandmother and features a matching headstock, purple acrylic block inlays, and Bello’s signature EMG P/J pickup set.
Furthermore, the NC-4 features a solid Alder body, a 1-piece Maple neck, and a Maple fingerboard – a tonewood trio that delivers the perfect blend of warmth, brightness, and clarity. The neck profile, modeled after Bello’s favorite vintage instruments, offers a slim, broken-in feel that’s instantly familiar.
Finished with vintage-style chrome tuners, a modern adjustable bridge, and a brass nut for enhanced sustain, the NC-4 Frank Bello is ready to take on the world’s biggest stages – just like its namesake.
“Spector is known for quality. My signature bass is built for players and offers incredible tone, comfort, and affordability. From the neck profile to the woods, signature EMG pickups, and brass nut, this is my ultimate go-to for any gig, Anthrax or other.” – Frank Bello
The NC-4 Frank Bello is more than a signature model – it’s a statement. Available now at authorized Spector dealers worldwide.
Today, Ernie Ball Music Man is proud to announce the release of the Pino Palladino StingRay Bass Collection, a tribute to the unmistakable tone and legacy of one of the most revered bassists in modern music. The collection includes two Pino Palladino Artist Series StingRay Basses—available in fretted and fretless models—as well as the highly exclusive Pino Palladino Icon Series StingRay Bass, a meticulous recreation of his original 1979 fretless StingRay. Only 15 Icon Series instruments will be made available worldwide.
The Artist Series: Signature Feel, Legendary Tone
Inspired by Pino’s original fretless StingRay, the Artist Series models deliver the essence of his tone, feel, and style in both fretted and fretless options. Featuring a poplar body finished in ’79
Burst, a dark-tinted hard rock maple neck with rosewood fingerboard, and a custom asymmetrical neck carve, these basses offer a player-focused blend of comfort and authenticity.
A vintage-style Alnico pickup and hand-wired 2-band preamp (voiced with a 500k treble pot like Pino’s original) capture the warmth and detail that defined Pino’s sound on countless records. Additional features include:
Brass saddles with a string-through-body bridge and adjustable mute pads
Bullet truss rod and 3-bolt neck plate with micro-tilt adjustment
GraphTech NuBone hand-shaped nut
Fretted model strung with Pino Signature Flatwound Strings
Fretless model strung with custom Slinky Nickel Wound Strings .036, .055, .065, .090
Each bass ships in a MONO case with an Artist Series neck plate
The Icon Series: A Museum-Grade Replica of Pino’s Original
Limited to just 15 pieces worldwide, the Pino Palladino Icon Series StingRay Bass is an exacting recreation of Pino’s beloved 1979 fretless model. Every detail has been scrutinized and faithfully reproduced—from the nitrocellulose lacquer finish and genuine late-‘70s bridge plates (with era-correct serial numbers) to the placement of the headstock decal and string tree.
Highlights include:
Hand-selected poplar bodies and slab rosewood fretless fingerboards
NOS bridge plates with brass saddles and spring mutes
Custom-wound pickup with 5/8” Alnico V magnets and 42 gauge wire
Period-correct active preamp with CTS pots and aged voicing
Vintage waterslide decal, Wales Rugby sticker replica, and headstock hand-signed by Pino
Ships in a G&G black/gold-lined case with a certificate of authenticity and vintage-inspired case candy
This is more than a signature instrument—it’s a faithful time capsule of an artist-defining tool that helped shape the course of modern bass playing.
Behind the Build: The Music Man Legacy
From wood selection and relic distressing to preamp circuitry and final assembly, every step of the Icon Series build process reflects the same craftsmanship and attention to detail that defines Music Man’s legacy. Original tooling, hand-applied nitro lacquer, media tumbling, oxidation, and extensive handwork bring each bass to life—down to the last paint chip and softened edge.
Availability
The Pino Palladino Artist Series StingRay Basses are available now through authorized Ernie Ball Music Man dealers. The Icon Series is strictly limited to 15 pieces worldwide and will be available through select dealers as well as the Ernie Ball Music Man Vault.
Hot news from Snark! Taking the company’s ultra-popular product line to a whole new level, Snark has introduced a trio of high-precision clip-on tuners: the Snark ST-1X HPT, ST-2 HPT and ST-8 HPT. These models feature all-new software with ultra-tight “in tune” windows for pinpoint accuracy with a broad range of instruments.
Adding to the best-in-class performance: a patented anechoic sound shield on the back of each tuner helps block room noise. This unique shielding allows each of the new high-precision Snarks to deliver faster and more precise tuning in any environment. The Snark ST-1X HPT, ST-2 HPT and ST-8 HPT all feature super bright LCD screens for easy viewing in the brightest sunlight or on low light stages.
All three models are rechargeable (no batteries needed!) and come with a USB cable/adapter for quick, easy charging. Each tuner’s screen includes a prominent battery gauge, so you can feel confident that your tuner has plenty of battery power available. No matter what you play – stringed instruments such as guitar, bass, and ukulele, or brass and woodwind instruments – you’ll find one of the new Snarks that’s perfect for you. All three tuners offer adjustable pitch calibration. Also, the ST-2 HTP provides a switchable option for selecting Mic mode or Vibration mode. Choose Vibration mode for regular clip-on use; switch to Mic mode and clip the ST-2 HTP to your music stand. Snark’s new high-precision ST-1X HPT, ST-2 HPT and ST-8 HPT rechargeable tuners have MRSPs of $24.99, $26.99 and $26.99 respectively.
Co-designed with low-end professor and tone connoisseur Ian Martin Allison, the MXR Bass Synth will turn your bass into a filthy funk machine, delivering a range of monophonic synth tones that call back to hits from Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Parliament Funkadelic, and more. This pedal is ready made for intergalactic grooves, capturing vintage analog-style vibes with killer tracking and sustain to serve up thunderous sub-octave, expressive envelope, and lush modulation effects with the flexibility and control that modern players demand.
A full, player-friendly suite of controls allows you to shape not just the aforementioned effects but every other detail of your bass synth tone: blend dry and wet signals, sculpt filter sweeps from rubber-band bounce to syrupy slow-motion, adjust filter cutoff and resonance for extra punch, switch between triangle, sawtooth, or square waveforms, and add harmonically rich oscillators for more complex textures.
Or you can skip straight to the groove with eight presets that Ian crafted, inspired by iconic tracks from Michael Jackson, Herbie Hancock, Peter Gabriel, and more. And for tone chasers who love to dive deep, the Bass Synth offers advanced parameters, stereo capability, and flexible rig integration to take your sound anywhere you want it to go.
Whether you’re replicating pop hits in a cover band, holding down the low end at church, or touring the world, this pedal gives you instant synth bass magic. Get down on the one with the MXR Bass Synth.
“Over the years, I have tended to make synth sounds either with individual pedals or with blocks in a multi-FX unit, and while those sounds can be super cool and get close to legit synth sounds, the MXR Bass Synth gets closer and, in some cases, even totally indistinguishable from an incredible keys rig,” Ian says. “We worked tirelessly to make this thing as perfect as we possibly could—to tweak every single parameter, to get every aspect of how the knobs turned and what effects they controlled just right—and especially the latency and tracking. I wouldn’t relent until we got it perfect. This is perfect.”
MXR Bass Synth highlights:
Intergalactic grooves and vintage analog-style vibes reminiscent of your favorite funk hits
Designed in collaboration with Ian Martin Allison
Thunderous sub-octave, expressive envelope, and lush modulation effects
Killer tracking and sustain
Eight different presets to plug you straight into the groove
Three different waveforms, additional oscillators, tap and expression control, and more
Availability
The MXR Bass Synth is available now at $269.99 street from your favorite retailer.
MXR Bass Synth Serves Up Intergalactic Grooves & Vintage Analog-Style Vibes