Now you may ask, how does that possibly tie in with a magazine about bass instruments and those who play them? From the standpoint of the electric bass, though, it must be remembered that there have been no major changes in the instrument since it’s introduction to public consumption in the 50’s. Certainly 5 & 6 string variations are somewhat innovative, whammy bars, drop-tuning and so on, but it still basically comes down to strings, a magnetic pick-up and a fingerboard.

There have been some rustlings of late in the wind about ideas that could shake up a lot of the ways that we think about & play the bass. Bunker Guitars is about to announce a major creation in the arena of TouchStyle instruments and in our July Issue we will be introducing you to Dave Bunker, owner and luthier of Bunker Guitars. Dave is just about beside himself with what he feels is a complete breakthrough in TouchStyle instruments. He will be presenting us with his solutions as well to some of the major difficulties players of TouchStyle have to wrestle with.

Next, we move on the LightWave pick-up, an absolutely silent alternative to the magnetic pick-up. Dann Glenn, our Cover Story artist this issue, cannot say enough good things about this new creation. As well, LightWave has some great news about MIDI in connection to all this.

We live in interesting times. Though it will not be in the foreseeable future that electric bassists will willingly give up the fingerboard and strings, I suspect great things are in store for us over the next few decades nonetheless.

Warren Murchie

We here at Global Bass are totally blown away in appreciation for the fact that at this early stage we are already receiving over 51,000 hits a month. I look forward to what the count will be like when I actually put some time into connecting this magazine to chat rooms and bulletin boards! It is my goal however to soon produce a hardcopy of the magazine for those of you that wish to receive it.

Two things however:

First, the magazine will in fact be free except for the cost of the postage. Our website will move to a point where it will be a great meeting place for bassists, still full of interesting articles and interviews. The hardcopy version however will be fully developed, with full interviews and many more interesting and innovative ideas.

Secondly, and I don’t want to seem too ‘rammy’ here, but the only way we will be able to print this magazine in hardcopy, therefore, will be through advertising revenue. For that we will need the support of luthiers, manufacturers, record labels and particularly bassists themselves. Global Bass will be an excellent and very low cost way of reaching tens of thousands of people who will be interested in your product or your record.