Your favourite bass YouTubers ..

[Old Man Riva]

Bit of an odd choice, as it’s not a tutorial, but I love this guy’s playing.

I think it’s a bass store in the Netherlands. The guy plays this same piece to demo a number of different basses, and I could (have!) watch all of them over and over.

I love his playing, and actually find it really inspiring - I always want to pick up a bass after watching him.

And yes, he does that little jump at the end on all of the demos!!

 

[Russ]

If I'm in the mood to be wowed, Zander Zon and Charles Berthoud are both pretty hard to beat. Berthoud is probably technically the best bassist on Youtube and seems to be able to play anything. As for Davie504, he plays well, but I find his sense of humour to be a bit obtuse and hard to take. 

Not always in the mood for histrionics though. If I want some honest gear reviews and some nice grooves, I enjoy BassTheWorld's content, Scott Devine's stuff (of course) and Julia from Thomann. I also find myself watching some excellent guitarists, like Sarah Longfield, Per Nilsson and Steve Terreberry (who also has a sense of humour that's, at best, an acquired taste). 

I find Beato to be hard going. He's knowledgeable, but opinionated and rather one-dimensional. He also seems to be fixated on classic rock and not a lot else. 

[ClassicVibes]

5 minutes ago, Russ said:

If I'm in the mood to be wowed, Zander Zon and Charles Berthoud are both pretty hard to beat. Berthoud is probably technically the best bassist on Youtube and seems to be able to play anything. As for Davie504, he plays well, but I find his sense of humour to be a bit obtuse and hard to take. 

Not always in the mood for histrionics though. If I want some honest gear reviews and some nice grooves, I enjoy BassTheWorld's content, Scott Devine's stuff (of course) and Julia from Thomann. I also find myself watching some excellent guitarists, like Sarah Longfield, Per Nilsson and Steve Terreberry (who also has a sense of humour that's, at best, an acquired taste). 

I find Beato to be hard going. He's knowledgeable, but opinionated and rather one-dimensional. He also seems to be fixated on classic rock and not a lot else. 

You like Stevie T but not Davie?!

[Russ]

2 minutes ago, ClassicVibes said:

You like Stevie T but not Davie?!

Yep. Something about Davie's overly forced Italian-stereotype schtick irritates me. At least Stevie T is intentionally obnoxious.

[Dood]

On 07/06/2020 at 08:27, Cuzzie said:

You want on point reviews our very own @Dood aka Dan Veal From Guitar interactive magazine gives very good demo’s.

Avoid Patrick Hunter, he makes every pedal sound exactly the same no matter what they are, Basstheworld are reasonable with some nice players, they will showcase the instrument - but - Male your own mind up on the stuff they show, they will never give a negative review as they are paid by the company they are reviewing to do a review so it won’t be entirely impartial.

Mr Excane Demi’s are good.

Rock Beato is absolute gold dust

Thank you SO much Cuzzie! I REALLY want to push the bass section out there more; it is difficult being a small section of a superb (mainly) guitar magazine though. I suppose we do have the benefit of being a magazine and doing HD videos per review in a proper studio. If anyone has any ideas to get these videos more visible to our bass community, I am all ears!

[Angel]

Maybe too showboaty for some bass players, but I really enjoy Charles Berthoud. I find his playing very inspiring, although it is a great many levels above me! I love his 'How to trigger a show off musician' video (below).

I'm also another big fan of Rick Beato, my fave YouTube channel.

 

 

[Barking Spiders]

Yep, Charles Berthoud is frighteningly top of the class for a young fella. I find Davie 504's  hamming up of the Italian stereotype humour gets wearing quite quickly although he's also a brilliant player. But, do these guys play in bands at all?

[Reggaebass]

One I haven’t looked at for a while is , real bass lessons, he really knows his theory and he can play ,

if you like the Motown thing , he’s got some good videos 

 

Edited July 6, 2020 by Reggaebass

[Reggaebass]

I also like DeLuca bass , he breaks down the grooves quite well 

 

[akabane]

2 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

Yep, Charles Berthoud is frighteningly top of the class for a young fella. I find Davie 504's  hamming up of the Italian stereotype humour gets wearing quite quickly although he's also a brilliant player. But, do these guys play in bands at all?

What if they didn't?  

[wateroftyne]

For someone who loves playing the bass as much as I do, I actually watch very little bass stuff on YouTube. I find much of it to be a little dry.

I like Davie504 just for the crack, rather than the bass content.

Ed Friedland I like, but his reviews are more like adverts.

I really liked MarloweDK, but he seems to have dropped off the radar.

[louisthebass]

15 hours ago, Russ said:

I find Beato to be hard going. He's knowledgeable, but opinionated and rather one-dimensional. He also seems to be fixated on classic rock and not a lot else. 

Rick likes his classic Rock as well as the Grunge thing, but he's also heavily into Jazz and he hasn't done a lot of that recently. I admire the fact that he's got the guts to stand up and say what he thinks, as a lot of his criticism is either aimed at the record companies that block his videos, or the "perfection" that seems so prevalent in modern pop radio.

[Barking Spiders]

1 hour ago, akabane said:

What if they didn't?  

Then it's just bedroom fretwinkery. If someone a wiz in their bedroom but can't lock in with a drummer for real then their skills are pretty pointless

[Bobthedog]

15 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

 

Edited July 6, 2020 by Bobthedog
Deleted for fact checking

[wateroftyne]

Davie504 is an entertainer, and a very good one at that.

My 8yo son watches him avidly, and has zero interest in playing the bass.

[Bobthedog]

27 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

Then it's just bedroom fretwinkery. If someone a wiz in their bedroom but can't lock in with a drummer for real then their skills are pretty pointless

Davie504 had had over 1 billion views on YT. Let’s say an income of $2,000 per million views and I would say his skills are pretty pointfull rather than pointless. Of course YMMV. 

Edited July 6, 2020 by Bobthedog

[akabane]

19 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

Then it's just bedroom fretwinkery. If someone a wiz in their bedroom but can't lock in with a drummer for real then their skills are pretty pointless

Let me state from the start I know where you're coming from, and I challenged it just as a thought experiment, as I think it's nice to do once in a while ; so let me ask again:

Why?

Solo artists perform...solo most of the times. Freeform time is a widely accepted thing too in those circumstances (if well done, obviously). You can argue that most bedroom bassists playing 'bass lines' can be as good as they can get, but playing with a drummer is different and a skill on its own. And I agree.

If the point is instead the idea that since they perform in their bedroom, they won't be able to put on a live show to - say - a paying audience, I think that is wrong again. There's plenty of solo bassists who get booked again and again to play a solo show. If you think about it, all those youtube views ARE their audience coming back again and again, and I bet they would go see them live if they prepared something. Why wouldn't someone prepare for such a show in their bedroom, at this point I ask myself?

So, what I'm left with is: what you say is true IF the following assumption is true: "A bass player is a musician playing the bass as instrument of choice, within the context of a real-time band, providing the foundational rythmic bass role to the piece at hand". Would that be correct?

My assumption was shorted, as in a bass player "is a musician playing the bass as instrument of choice".

Peace,

Em

Edited July 6, 2020 by akabane

[Reggaebass]

5 minutes ago, Bobthedog said:

Davie504 had had over 1 billion views on YT.

Wow , I didn’t know that, I remember him from about 8 years ago, his videos are not for me but he’s done very well 🙂

[ahpook]

20 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

Davie504 is an entertainer, and a very good one at that.

My 8yo son watches him avidly, and has zero interest in playing the bass.

Same with Mrs. Pook

 

[Bobthedog]

14 minutes ago, Reggaebass said:

Wow , I didn’t know that, I remember him from about 8 years ago, his videos are not for me but he’s done very well 🙂

To be honest, I am not a fan either  

[Barking Spiders]

4 hours ago, wateroftyne said:

Davie504 is an entertainer, and a very good one at that.

My 8yo son watches him avidly, and has zero interest in playing the bass.

I guess his wacky vids have an appeal and with his wagers /challenges he's found a shtick that works.  Same with Steve Terreberry. Not my bag but clearly they've succeeded building up fanbases and winning over advertisers.

[louisthebass]

I found this fella over the weekend - really good player, don't know if he's a member on here but there's some transcriptions of some of his videos on YouTube:

 

[Reggaebass]

On the few occasions that I’ve tried playing something different to reggae I’ve used a few of Constantine’s videos , he’s such a good player, and he’s also a member here 

 

[fretmeister]

Nathan Navarro ( now of the Devin Townsend Band)

 

 

[Russ]

1 hour ago, fretmeister said:

Nathan Navarro ( now of the Devin Townsend Band)

 

 

Nathan's one of those Youtubers, like Berthoud, Zon and Davie, with a scary amount of technique that makes for great 'stunt' bass videos. It was a pleasant surprise to see him join Dev's band for their last tour. He did a pretty good job too, although I think Dev's DTP band was, on the whole, better, especially for playing his older stuff. The recent gigs were a little too 'noodly' and unfocussed for my taste as a long-time Devin fan.