Tag Archives: Bass Guitar

New Interview…

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Believe it or not!

Believe it or not, this exquisitely crafted instrument (which I made myself!) is what I began learning to play bass on.  I found it in my Mum’s loft over Christmas — I thought it had disappeared years ago. Note that it has an eleven-fret octave instead of twelve — which means that I was probably playing in some kind of Indian tuning — particularly as the frets were positioned more or less at random.  Even so, I learnt Green Onions and many other … Continue reading

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For further information, go to the Profile Bass page. The first thing about it that stood out was that the pickup is probably the loudest P-bass style pickup I’ve ever heard, and the low end response on it is astonishing! For sure, this bass can rumble the house! But it also has a clear ringing high end when the tone control is dialed up. Also notable is the sustain, hit a note and it’ll ring for nearly a minute … The … Continue reading

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Hall of Fame #2

Having seen the post about Duck Dunn below, my buddy Jeff Owens at Fender sent me a YouTube clip of Ryane Askew’s cover of 5ive Gears in Reverse — a bass part of mine wholly modeled on Duck Dunn’s playing. So I thought it might be appropriate to have a couple more clips of bass covers on the site.  (Although no-one seems to have picked up on the fact that the repeated melodic figure at the end of this track … Continue reading

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Donald ‘Duck’ Dunn: 1941-2012

Perhaps the greatest rock and soul bass player of them all passed away in his sleep today, aged 70. Duck Dunn is rightly regarded as one a handful of truly great bass guitar originals for his work as a Stax house musician playing for the likes of Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, and Albert King … and as a member of Booker T’s ‘Memphis Group’.  He later played with Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan and Neil Young … and appeared as himself in … Continue reading

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I Never Knew That!

The following is a new interview I did recently for Jon Liebman’s For Bass Players Only magazine. JL: Tell me about your musical upbringing. BT: There was a piano in the house and it came as a great surprise to me when I started hitting the notes that a tune didn’t come out at all, just a racket.  After all, I was only doing what I’d seen everyone else do when playing the piano.  But my mother had a good ear … Continue reading

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Bruce’s Hall of Fame

  When I posted the clips for my new Profile Signature Model Bass on YouTube, I found quite a few bass players who’ve taken the time to cover some of my parts … because they like them.  Here’s a selection of some of the best … Nice playing, one and all …        

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The ‘Salmon Pink’ Myth

Few things in the vintage guitar market are as confusing as the custom guitar colour often referred to as Salmon Pink.  To understand why, you have to go back to Fender’s paints of the 1950s and 60s and realize they were also the automobile paints of the time.

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