Bass Guitar Play-Along: Led Zeppelin Songbooks

These songbooks are designed so you can play along to many of the best-known Led Zeppelin classics in the comfort of your own home.

These TABs and tracks deliver unprecedented accuracy and insight into the music of Led Zeppelin and the style of John Paul Jones. All new transcriptions and tracks were drawn from more than 30 years of documentation, interviews and recorded footage.

Each book includes complete music notation and TAB transcriptions to eight Led Zeppelin classics. There are two versions of every song on the included CDs: an instrumental sound-alike recording, and an Instrumental accompaniment track (without bass) so you can play along. 

When you use the CDs in your Mac or Windows-based computer, the TNT (Tone ’N’ Tempo) Changer lets you easily loop sections for practice, slow tracks down or speed them up without changing the pitch, change the key, and switch back and forth between full instrumental and accompaniment tracks.

There are two separate volumes you can get:

Volume 1 includes:

1. Black Dog
2. Communication Breakdown
3. Dazed and Confused
4. Heartbreaker
5. Immigrant Song
6. Rock and Roll
7. Since I've Been Loving You
8. Whole Lotta Love

Volume 2 includes:

1. Stairway to Heaven
2. The Song Remains the Same
   
3. Over the Hills and Far Away
4. Trampled Under Foot
5. Kashmir
6. Achilles Last Stand
7. Nobody's Fault But Mine
8. All My Love

Here at Vintage Bass Guitar we're glad to see bass play-along songbooks for Led Zeppelin, who were one of the most successful and influential bands of the 1970s.

Roger Waters Concert at the Honda Center

For those who missed it here is a link to a review and slide show of the recent Roger Waters concert. It looked awesome.

He played his Fender Precision Bass (Roger Waters edition of course).



Check out Vintage Bass Guitars to learn more about the legendary P-bass.

Vintage Gretsch Bass Guitars

Most people associate Gretsch with electric guitars and drums but they also made bass guitars starting in the 1960s.

Some of their basses had great sound quality while one, in particular, had a rather unusual design.

Find out more about their bass line at: Vintage Gretsch Guitars

An Evening with a God of the Bass Guitar

"Victor Wooten, simply put, is a god. Of the bass guitar, I mean."

The quote is from the following article about a Victor Wooten interview. Nice piece about a living legend.

Speaking of legends, if you want to learn about some legendary bass guitars you can check them out here: Vintage Bass Guitar

Basses Made by Vox - Yup Basses!

Well known for their amplifiers, Vox also delved into the bass making business throughout the 1960s.

They started out making "copycat" basses but later on they became very creative, to say the least, with unique designs all their own.

Find out more about Vox basses at Vintage Bass Guitar

Are These The 50 Best Bass Lines Of All Time?

Here are 10 of the best 50 bass lines of all time... at least according to this blog.

Sound clips are included so check it out and see if you agree: Bass Lines

Vintage Bass Guitar

Silvertone Basses by Danelectro - Affordable Quality

IN THE 1950S AND ’60S, THE SEARS CATALOG was a staple in virtually every household in America. A variety of manufacturers made guitars and basses for Sears, including Harmony, Valco/Supro, Teisco, Kay, and Danelectro, who made the bass shown below. Nathan Daniel started making amplifiers for Epiphone in the 1930s, and in 1947 he founded Danelectro. The next year he landed the Sears & Roebuck account, and began manufacturing amplifiers for them exclusively. In 1957, Danelectro began making guitars for Sears under the iconic Silvertone brand name. For the next decade, a wide variety of well-made, inexpensive basses and guitars jumped out of the Sears mail order catalog into the eager hands of aspiring musicians all over the country. The classic Dano features—lipstick pickups, semi-hollow masonite bodies, and the infamous “amp in the case”—all became part of Silvertone lore. John Entwistle played a Dano on the Who’s epic “My Generation,” and the E Street Band’s Gary Tallent has used Danelectros extensively over the years.

This 1967 short-scale bass—known as the 1442— and its big brother, the 1443, were the last Silvertone bass models produced by Danelectro before the company was sold to MCA. At the time, the vast majority of Danelectro’s products were made for Sears, but this was to be the end of the line, as the company ceased production in 1969. The 1442 sold for the bargain price of $79.95— or you could pay $5 a month! For a mere $114.95, you could get the two-pickup 1443, a long-scale bass which also featured Fender-style tuners, as opposed to the one-piece “skate key” tuners on the 1442. Silvertones may have been inexpensive, but they were very well made, and this two-tone coffee-colored beauty still sounds great and plays wonderfully.

This slim solidbody’s shape is reminiscent of a Fender Jaguar, and features the classic Dano bridge (with a wooden saddle), a large pickguard, and a thumbrest. The 21-fret neck is straight and fast, and the intonation is quite good. It has a neck tilt adjustment on the back, as well. The large, round volume and tone knobs look like they came off a Silvertone amp of that era. The electronics are elegant in their simplicity and allow quite a bit of variation. The alnico “lipstick” pickup sounds sweet, and the three-way tone switch gives a number of cool sonic options. In the middle position it is flat, and the bass boost position fattens things up nicely with a throaty midrange. The third position cuts the low end quite dramatically and could be helpful if playing a palm-muted “tic-tac” style part. In any position, the short-scale thump is always in evidence, especially with flatwound strings. In short, this bass is a gas to play and could fit into any number of musical situations.

The 1442 may have been the last bass model to be made in the Neptune, NJ Danelectro factory, but the influence and style of the company’s guitar and bass models have stood the test of time and had a big impact on many young musicians of the day. It’s been a long time since Sears was in the musical instrument business, but way back in the day, Silvertone products were an affordable option for many aspiring musicians, and considering the build quality of the 1442, there may still be few of these out there in good shape. 

You can find out more about Danelectro by visiting Vintage Bass Guitars.

Thanks to Nashville bassist Don Kerce for sharing this cool bass from the Swinging ’60s!