Judas Priest’s only lifetime member, Ian Hill helped invent what heavy metal bass playing is and what it means to make an arena headbang.

Paolo Rossi is the bass player for genre-defining Italian symphonic death metal band Fleshgod Apocalypse. He took time out of his schedule to email with me.

Let’s take a look at the Darkglass Alpha Omega Ultra, Microtubes X Ultra, Microtubes B7K Ultra, and Vintage Ultra and see which ones will give you the fuzz and which will try to kill you.

Does your band need a second guitar player? No, you need to find that perfect tone and turn the bass up.

Bass virtuoso and innovator Michael Manring talks about his songwriting process, how he thinks about the bass, whether or not he’s secretly a punk icon, and how he sees this moment in human history in relation to music in general and bass specifically.

Come behind the scenes of one of The Bass Channel’s most popular videos to find out how we added bass to Metallica’s low-end light masterpiece …And Justice For All.

There’s nothing like the feeling of a new-to-you bass.

How does one go from deciding you want, no- need, a new bass to plugging it in? These are the steps.

You may have heard the popular phrase, “You get what you pay for”, and while it’s largely true in most facets of life, it’s one that’s not widely adopted amongst musicians.

Do electric instruments really sound better with age?

Maybe just the fact that a bass has been played time and time again for over half a century has made it sound so good that you now have to explain to your significant other why you’re taking out another mortgage for an “old, beat up piece of junk”. Their words, of course. You know treasure when you see it. They don’t even make this shade of blue anymore.

Two things about me that you need to know to get this. Well, one thing, and two things about that- I’m a teacher in my day job. That means a) I don’t have a lot of money to throw around on instruments and b) I’ve figured out how to make things, and make do, with what I’ve got.

Which is why when I got the wild hair to have a fretless bass I had to try to make it myself.

If you are lucky enough to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds live you won’t once look at the bass player. But you won’t stop feeling him.