Again I would be interested in peoples views on this latest product.  It sounds like pretty good value to me, but as ever it’s difficult to determine just how good a product is without trying it.

Luckily you can again get a full refund (less shipping) if you aren’t happy with it within 90 days. If at that time you contact him he’ll even give you another 120 days to try it with some level of assistance from him to help you ‘get it’. If after that period you still aren’t happy he says he’ll pay you $25 for ‘wasting your time’. See the full details at his site here.

This product combined with Alex Sampson Bass Guitar Secrets could be quite a powerful way to learn bass guitar and for not much more than the price of a few dry tutorial books.  So, it’d be good to hear your views on the products.  As ever the reviews out there are mixed.  In general though, reviews from those people that have actually tried using Alex Sampson’s stuff to help them learn bass state they are pretty happy with the results.

The Fretboard Formula includes the “Fretboard Formula Master Class” 6 DVD Set, the “Fretboard Formula Audio Discs” 6 CD Set and the “Fretboard Formula Work Book” PDF.  These cover various relatively interesting looking topics.  Again for full details click here to see the Alex Sampson Fretboard Formula site.

If you’re not familiar with the RHCP, their music or Flea’s bass playing then you may not be aware that Flea isn’t exactly your typical, quiet, stand at the back out of the spotlight sort of bass player.

I’m not suggesting that watching the videos below is going to immediately teach you how to play bass guitar, but it can’t hurt to see what can be done with the instrument. The first video is a lesson on slap bass that Flea put out a few years ago – it features some of the riffs from a couple of Red Hot Chili Peppers tracks. I guess you could try learning the bass guitar from this video!? The second video is Flea playing bass and Chad Smith, also from the Chili Peppers, on drums. They’re just having a laugh jamming together, again playing some of the RCHP tracks.

The Chili’s are currently taking a bit of a break from each other that was originally only meant to last a year. Rumors now are that they may extend the break for a little longer – see links below. I hope they don’t leave it too long to start playing together again.

Enjoy! Then get back to learning the bass guitar.

More about the Chili Peppers and people who feature their music:

• Red Hot Chili Peppers Extend Hiatus
• AWESOME ALTERNATIVE HITS OF THE 90′S!
• “Signature” Song?
• “Ryan’s Variety Music Show

Now if you follow the link you’ll see that you get a massive long page with loads of claims on it, but the thing i did straight away was watch the video at the top. Having watched it I decided I quite liked the way the guy plays. If you’re going to try and learn the bass guitar from someone it may as well be someone you like the style of – and this guy I like! So check out his site Bass Guitar Secrets and see what you reckon – I’d appreciate your feedback here as well.

Well, this update is to let you know that it’s now available, get it here.

Workshop Live start from the very basics for beginners, with their teachers explaining everything you need to know to get started. The bass lessons begin with advice on buying a bass and an amplifier and move on to how to play with your left and right hands before introducing some ’simple grooves’. Things then progress smoothly up to some pretty advanced stuff, so most levels of bass player should be catered for.

UPDATE: The amPlug is now available, see the related VOX amPlug post. Or just get the amPlug.

The next thing that had to be sorted was how I would learn, so I asked if there was a bass guitar teacher I could learn with. The response this time was “Um, I’m afraid we don’t have a bass guitar teacher but we do have a regular guitar teacher – I’m sure he could teach bass”. So that was how it started; I began learning bass guitar from someone who had never picked one up before! The guy, named Mr Rosenburg (I can still remember him!) was quite a character. He sort of reminded me of a cross between Mick Jagger and Jools Holland – with a bit of Eddie Izzard thrown in! To be fair to the guy, he gave it a prety good go and tried to learn a bit of bass himself in order to teach me, but it wasn’t the best way to try and learn bass guitar! I managed to learn enough to bang out a few notes, and the highlight of my bass playing career was playing some pretty funky (well, they seemed it to me at the time) bass lines in the school production of Bugsy Malone when I was 14. I stopped playing bass when I left secondary school at 15 (I had to give bass back!) and haven’t picked one up since. As part of my drive toward mid-life crisis I feel it’s time to try to learn bass guitar all over again, but I don’t think I’ll look up Mr Rosenburg….

This may not be the ideal bass to buy if you are just starting to learn bass guitar, but look at it, it’s quite an impressive bit of kit! And, if you have a spare $250,000 you may be able to buy it! This guitar is one of a number of hand-crafted guitars made in Germany by a guy named Jens Ritter. Believe it or not Jens started out when he was just 7, making a bass guitar out of a piece of wood, a food can and some wire for a school project! Later he started re-designing electric bass guitars and at the age of 19 he made his first original bass guitar. Since then he hasn’t looked back, and now produces around 50 to 60 guitars a year, all of them works of art!

The bass pictured above, the ‘Flora Aurum’ is being sold be Wynn & Co for around $250,000 and you can click here for the complete story.  For more information on Jens himself, as well as more stunning bass guitars have a look at his site, Ritter Basses. Look around the ‘models’ section for some gorgeous pictures. The 5-string bass pictured below is one of my favourites, and Jens named this one “The Zephyr Concept”. Right, I promise the next article will be of more use to us in our quest to learn bass guitar, but when I find stuff like this I get a little distracted!

An 8 year old boy from Wisconsin plays guitar regularly in bars and clubs and has even played with the likes of Les Paul.  He’s got a number of festivals lined up and has venues around the world interested in having him play.  Making you green with envy yet?  The boy is Tallan Latz, and he started learning when he was 5 having seen Joe Satriani play on TV.  Blues is Tallan’s music of choice and he’s a genuine prodigy, but it’s not been an entirely smooth ride.  Apparently some of the other guitarists in the area aren’t too keen on his level of popularity – and i guess they are a little jealous of his talent!  Complaints have been made that he’s too young to be playing in taverns and nighclubs, and Tallan’s booking agent has even received an anonymous letter containing a death threat!

Still, Tallan isn’t being put off, and has endorsements from at least 9 companies to use their equipment and has already built up a collection of 13 guitars!

Read the full story here:  Associated Press – 8 year old guitar prodigy

So if you want to learn bass guitar, i suggest you go out there and get one of the 12-string bases and give it a go! Or perhaps not! I think it may be wise to stick to a nice simple 4-string bass as a beginner….