MYSTERIOUS: 5 - What They Never Told You

“Everyone I've ever met that I worshipped has been a disappointment, so I want to keep him as my hero”: Geezer Butler names his favorite bassist of all time

His basslines with Black Sabbath are iconic, but Geezer Butler’s still a fan with his own four-string idols

Guitar World · Oct 4, 2024

“It’s sloppy and out of tune, but it seems to benefit the track”: How Ryan Martinie redefined metal bass playing for a new generation with Mudvayne

Ryan Martinie stepped out as a 21st-century bass hero on Mudvayne’s The End of All Things to Come

Guitar World · Sep 22, 2024

“There were no fret markers on it, so all I could do was try to keep a straight face and guess!” Fretted, fretless, double bass, eight-string – Sting is unstoppable on bass. Here’s how he developed his style

Songwriter, actor, author, activist, rock star, jazz freak... Gordon 'Sting’ Sumner is quite the renaissance man. Oh, and he played bass in The Police…

Guitar World · Sep 21, 2024

“I wrote that bassline when I was 16. I saw this dude slapping the hell out of a bass at a music store – the tumblers clicked in my head. I took a bus home, picked up my bass, and I was doing it!” Fishbone’s Norwood Fisher names his 10 best basslines

The most iconic bass riffs in Fishbone’s catalog, according to Norwood Fisher himself

Guitar World · Sep 8, 2024

“I didn’t know Corgan, but I knew he wasn’t the easiest person to work with. I thought, ‘This isn’t going to last but it’ll be interesting’”: Jane’s Addiction’s Eric Avery on his brief stint with the Smashing Pumpkins and what he learned from Billy Corgan

Avery briefly worked with Corgan on what would later become the Pumpkins’ seventh album, Zeitgeist

Guitar World · Sep 5, 2024

“I’m like the power forward on a basketball team – I bring out the best in my teammates”: A pillar of the L.A. session scene, Bob Glaub might be the most famous bass player you’ve never heard of

Bruce Springsteen, John Lennon, Stevie Nicks and oh so many more: for 50 years, Bob Glaub has kept things moving on hit after hit

Guitar World · Sep 2, 2024

“Prince picked up my bass – but it was tuned to Eb, so he just found one note that worked and he stayed on it the entire song”: Raphael Saadiq on playing with Prince, D'Angelo and the “dead” 1962 Fender that put the vintage in Instant Vintage

The Tony! Toni! Toné! trailblazer created a whole new rhythm section style on his 2002 solo debut

Guitar World · Sep 1, 2024

“They just looked at each other like, ‘What the hell are we doing with this bass player?’” The late Mick Karn recalls his first tour with David Torn and Bill Bruford

Few electric bassists have a style as singular and strong as Japan’s fretless sorcerer

Guitar World · Aug 31, 2024

“I hear bad intonation from some bassists, and that bothers me. I have no intention of being out of tune”: How Chick Corea bassist Avishai Cohen landed one of the most coveted gigs in jazz

Born in Israel and raised in St. Louis, Avishai Cohen followed the path of many bass players – electric to acoustic – and ended up landing in the hottest seat in the jazz circuit

Guitar World · Aug 15, 2024

“Eric was a bit taken aback”: When Jack Bruce radically reworked Cream hits to Eric Clapton’s surprise – and that time Marvin Gaye asked him to join his band

Some people believe rock ’n’ roll should never leave the cozy three-chord confines of the garage – and then there’s Jack Bruce

Guitar World · Aug 14, 2024