I get press releases from Rotosound relatively frequently. Some of the information in those releases has found its way onto this site if I thought it might be useful to others.

This time though, I’m posting an image from this Rotosound release just because I like it.

Rotosound say they found a programme from Thin Lizzy’s Bad Reputation tour in their archives and it contained the ad above for their Jazz Bass strings. They say some other stuff about strings and other users and whatnot but I tuned out to be honest.

I just enjoyed the pic and the memories.

Well that’s quite snazzy, isn’t it?

That’s the Fender Roger Waters Precision Bass and it’s now shipping. As you can see, it features a none-more-black body, pickguard, bridge and control hardware which I think looks great teamed with the maple neck and fingerboard. Very smart, indeed.

At first glance, the inclusion of chrome tuners is a little odd when all of the other hardware is black. It gives the bass sort of a ‘bitser’ look which may well be the point. Whatever the case, and possibly perversely, I quite like it.

The body is made of alder and is finished in the usual gloss urethane. As I mentioned, the chunky, C-shaped neck and board are maple and they have the usual P-Bass contingent of 20 frets – a medium jumbo gauge. The scale length is 34 inches, so about that distance from the black bridge, we find a surprise – the nut is made from brass. Interesting. Don’t get that so much these days but there are some that swear by brass.

Another couple of interesting features are the F-stamped neck plate (complete with a rubber gasket underneath) and the ’50s, spaghetti-style Fender logo. These little disparate things, along with the ’70s style tuners keep adding to that ‘bitser’ thing and, like I say, I think it’s doing if for me.

The grunt comes courtesy of a Seymour Duncan Basslines SPB-3 Quarter Pound pickup. Nice. The usual volume and tone controls manage the usual volume and tone noises.

Fender tells us that for a suggested US$1,199.99, you’ll get this and a Deluxe gig bag. It’s at the price-point where a hard case would be nice but you can probably expect to find it selling for less than this if you shop around so I guess- Nah, a hard case still would be nice. You don’t want to mess up that prettiness.

Anyway, more at Fender.

We mentioned the launch of the, rather handsome, Epiphone Thunderbird PRO bass a while back.

Did you see?  Did you want?

Well, if you did want one, now’s your chance to win one.

Just pop off to Epiphone’s competition site, pop your email address in the email address field and you might just win a T-Bird Pro.

Not too shabby.

Closing date is 31st of January, 2010.

When it comes to rocking the bottom end on stage, there are few basses that look as good as a Thunderbird.  Sling one low and thud away for high-times.

Epiphone have introduced their ‘professional series’ basses, the Thunderbird PRO to bring the distinctive Thunderbird coolness to you at a price that the working bassist can afford.

As we probably all know, the Thunderbird is a neck-through-body bass for excellent coupling and great tone.  The neck section on these Epiphones are seven-piece sandwiches of walnut and maple and they look great.  The multi-ply neck is most obvious on the natural finish instrument but it peeks nicely through the tinted lacquer on the other basses too.  Epiphone tell us that the body wings are mahogany although those on the natural instrument seem very light-coloured.

These basses are fitted with active electronics – T-Pro bass humbucking pickups tied to a custom EQ allowing blend, high and low EQ and a master volume.  A separate, easy-access battery compartment supplies power.

A chunky, Bad Ass-style bridge anchors the strings at one end of their 34 inch scale length and die-cast 14:1 tuners grab them down at that cool T-Bird headstock.  Twenty frets sit in the rosewood fingerboard in between.  The keen-eyed will have noticed that five tuners adorn one of the headstocks – these are available as 4 and 5-string instruments.

The Thunderbird PRO is available in three finishes – Vintage Sunburst, Transluscent Black and Natural Oil.

No word yet on cost but we would expect Epiphone to be good to their word regarding affordability.

See Epiphone for more.

Fender are celebrating half a century of Jazz Bass goodness by introducing the limited edition, 50th Anniversary Jazz Bass.  The idea is that this bass incorporates design elements from several important periods in Jazz Bass history.

This baby includes features from a few different eras (even if ‘modernised’ versions of them).

From the 60′s:

• Nitrocellulose finish in Candy Apple Red.
• 60′s style headstock logo
• C-shaped neck
• Chrome pickup and bridge covers
• Pearloid block inlays on the fingerboard

From the 70′s:

• Bridge pickup placement
• Thumb rest

From today:

• High-mass, vintage-style bridge
• Modern tuners
• Posiflex neck support rods

Personally, I’ve always liked Jazz basses with block inlays (no matter how wrong many might think that).  And, let’s face it, who can resist a Candy Apple Red finish?  It’s a bit of a mash-up but all of these specs add up to a handsome bass.

More at Fender.

It looks set to be announced properly at NAMM but information is out about Warwick’s Bootsy Collins Infinity Signature Bass.  One thing’s for sure; it’ll get you noticed.

Based on the Warwick Infinity bass, the Bootsy signature is available in two flavours – the Black Star and the Orange Star.  Obviously enough, perhaps, the differences in the models are the colours of the stars in the finish – black on the Black Star (pictured) and orange on the Orange Star. Simple.

The bass has an through-neck in maple.  The body wings (hollow) are maple at the front and ogangkol at the back.  The rosewood fingerboard adds a touch of warmth and sports 24 frets.  The f-holes (almost disguised by the flames around them) show the semi-nature of the bass.  The star motif is continued up the fretboard with inlays and with a large star on the headstock.  The body finish, under those stars and flames, is silver-flake for maximum sparkle.

Power comes from an active MEC Jazz and a Twin-Jass pickup.  The MEC 3-band EQ lets you tweak to your heart’s content.

No information at Warwick’s site so far.  Thanks to Gear Vault for the story.

Way back in the mists of time – September, 2009 to be precise – Warwick began offering a ‘bass of the month’.  What this meant was that they would release a special edition bass each month.  The special bass would be, essentially, a tweaked version of one of their standard instruments but tweaked sufficiently to make it a little more unique and exclusive.  Here’s a round-up of the Warwick’s fall line.

September – Thumb Bolt On French Flamed Ash

A mouthful to be sure.  This is a twist on the regular Thumb Bolt On and substitutes French flamed ash in place of the usual ovangkol body.  There’s no doubt that the ash is a striking look.  Other tweaks include a multi-striped, black ekanga veneered, maple neck.  Nice.

October – Corvette $$ Birdseye Poplar

Who doesn’t love some fancy, exotic woods?  The swamp ash body of the Corvette $$ has a birdseye-patterned poplar veneer.  Other embellishments include yin/yang symbols inlaid into the wenge fingerboard.

November – Streamer LS Maple Neck

The standard Streamer LX is already endowed with an attractive, flame maple body.  This special edition also adds a flame maple neck to the mix.  It’s a three-piece, flame maple laminate with two thin layers of black ekanga pin-striping the neck.  A tiger-stripe ebony fingerboard and solid brass frets complete the front of the neck.

December – Corvette Ash Fretless

This instrument is more about the finer details than the big changes.  The snow-white, ultra glossy finish contrasts nicely with the none-more-black hardware.  As the name suggests, this is a fretless instrument and the black and white treatment is carried to the neck by using inlaid white fret markers in the tiger-stripe ebony fretboard.

For more information about the Warwick Special Editions, check Warwick’s site.

Rotosound have announced that metal legends, Duff McKagan (Guns & Roses and Velvet Revolver) and James Lomenzo (Megadeth) will lead a line up of artists at their NAMM booth in January.

Joining McKagan and Lomenzo will be Eva Gardener, Warren DeMartini, Robbie Crane (RATT) and also Billy Sheehan.

Pretty impressive line up that Rotosound have bagged there.

The event will take place on Saturday, January 26th at the Rotosound Booth (5596, Hall B) at NAMM.

The list of appearances and times is as follows:

• James Lomenzo (Saturday 11am)
• Duff McKagan (Saturday  1pm)
• Eva Gardner    (Saturday  2pm)
• Billy Sheehan  (Saturday  3pm)
• RATT  band  (Saturday  4pm)

More information at Rotosound.

Until November 29th, Line 6 are offering a complete set of their amp and effect tones for the POD, Pod Studio, TonePort or GuitarPort as a single download.  Basically, thats all model packs in one bundle.

Line 6 call this the Ultimate Model Pack Bundle and it includes:

• Power Pack – 20 vintage and modern amp tones and 26 effects.
• Collector Classics – 18 amp models based on boutique combos and rare vintage heads
• Metal Shop – 18 high-gain metal monster amps.
• FX Junkie – 35 effects including synths, filters, delays, choruses, etc.
• Bass Expansion – 28 bass amp models and 22 cabinet models.

Until Thanksgiving, this bundle is available for $99.95 – a saving of $75.

Don’t have an iPhone to enable you to view your tabs in electronic format but want a snazzy gizmo backed by a massive tab library?

Well, the iTab could be just the thing.

It’s a new device that, at its simplest, stores and displays tab.  It does a lot more besides – at least in one of its various formats.

Entry level is the iTab Lite with a 5″ screen.  This is the most basic model and can display and scroll chord tabs while allowing some basic editing capabilities.  It’s aimed primarily at beginners and learners.  The 7″ iTab Pro adds full tab scrolling and the 10″ iTab Max allows for scrolling musical notation as well as tab – this one being aimed more at performing and rehearsing musicians.  The Pro and Max versions also include a mobile ‘composer’ for writing music on the go.

All versions allow for video lessons and cover songs to play along with.

Last, but certainly not least, all versions have integrated Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G capabilities and can handle email and instant messaging.  It’s your personal musical assistant.

Aside from the devices themselves, the company have a website (a little bit of a work in progress at the time of writing) where it will be possible to download tabs, notation and lessons to your iTab.  This is really where the unique selling point of the iTab comes to the fore.  If they can get the back-end tabs and lessons up and running they will have something very interesting.  Their site claims they’ll have 18,ooo tabs online to start with.  They’ll also cater for stringed instruments other than guitar.

I hope that iTab can live up to their claim.  Most people reading will be aware of the problems that internet tab-sharing sites have faced at the hands of the record industry.  I assume that iTab have negotiated some sort of deal with the industry for a cut of profits in a similar way to ringtone downloads.

The back-end is where this business is.  If they can effectively monetise tab downloads (and many would happily pay a small fee to download a legal and, more importantly, accurate, tab), I would expect that we would soon see smartphone apps, desktop apps, etc.

All in all, this is a very interesting idea.

The 5″ iTab Lite will launch in time for the Christmas market, with the 7″ in spring 2010.

Watch this space.