Greetings, all you Low Enders! I hope this post finds you all doing great, playing a TON, and enjoying the holiday season. I know it’s been a long while since we’ve added anything to this section, but we’ve been extremely busy. Today I finally had a few minutes to get over here and drop a few words. So here they are!

A few weeks back, David did a Meet and Greet at Music Garage, one of our newest dealers. The verdict was unanimous: the DNS series cabinets sounded awesome! Some of the biggest names in the Chicago area dropped by to check out the entire line and were seriously impressed. In fact, even though some of them did their absolute best to get the cabinets to break up and misbehave, they were unable to get any of them to sound bad! Even the small but mighty DNS-110 reproduced low Bs with applomb.

Last weekend, we had two of our SEAL Team members test the new power amp module. You’ll be able to read their reports here soon. For now, suffice to say that the module outperformed even David’s own expectations, and we’re moving to the next step in development.

Speaking of development, we’re having a conversation over on the forum about compression. If you’d like to weigh in with your opinion, please do visit the forum and join the conversation.

So… that’s the quick rundown. I’m off to visit the forum myself and catch up on my reading and posting. Until next time, don’t forget to practice every day (at least 15 minutes) and enjoy life! And, as always,

Keep Thumpin’!

Lane on Bass

Now that we are delivering DNS series speaker cabinets to dealers, we’re ready to move forward on producing a special T-shirt to commemorate the event. Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings, everyone, and welcome to the new site! Give all the credit to Spydah - AKA Roger Barlow - as he is the one who did all the back end work to make this happen. Roger and I have been working on this for several months, and he has been exceedingly patient with me as I requested numerous changes and modifications, and nit picked all the silly little details.

The great thing is that we were able to launch the new design just as the cabinets are shipping to dealers. Yes, they are real. Yes, they are available. Yes, you need one. Or two.! Read the rest of this entry »

Keep Thumpin'!

Lane on Bass

Ask not what Bass can do for you, Ask what YOU can do for Bass!

Lane's Web Site | Lane's Bio

Got a suggestion for an article, lesson or weekly tip? Care to submit an article of your own? If so, please send us an email.

The long weekend is over, the barbecues a memory, and summer is here in full swing. That means that NAMM is just around the corner.

DNA will not be exhibiting this time around, but I’ll be there, walking the floor, and having some meetings. Of course, there’s also the Low Notes For Nashville benefit concert to think about. Sean O’Bryan Smith and Mick Donner are working out details with several bassists, and we’re all becoming more excited by the minute.

One reason that I’m so excited is that we are providing the speaker cabinets for the backline. More than a dozen top bassists will get a chance to hear the cabinets in a working situation. That should be a ton of fun.

For more information, see our Events page, and visit Low Notes For Nashville.

I’m even luckier than the rest, as I’ll be using a rig this Saturday at Springfest. I haven’t decided for certain, but I think I may use the DNS-410. I won’t need it, but it’s here, and it’s bored. I’ll report back next week to let you know how itgoes (went).

Practice Tip of the Week

As you may already know, this has not been a good week for Nashville and the surrounding area. The Cumberland River not only flooded, but rose higher than it has in more than one hundred years. Some are saying it’s the highest the river has ever been.

The last report we received said that, while official flood level for the Cumberland is 22 feet, the river crested at 2-1/2 times that level - an incredible 57 feet! According to some reports, downtown Nashville was under ten feet of water at one point. This has been devastating, to say the least.

We’ve made every attempt to reach our many friends and supporters in the area. We haven’t reached all of them yet, but so far, everyone seems to be safe. We’re very sorry to report that David and Barbara Crossman, owners of The Learning Dock, LLC, publishers of Roy Vogt’s Teach Me Bass Guitar, were forced out of their home and probably can’t go back. Thankfully, they got all of their belongings out, and the home was a rental. They also have close fmaily in the area, so they have a place to stay while they look for new digs.

Corner Music suffered mionor flooding; luckily, they were able to move verything off the floor before the water arrived. As of last report, JD and the crew had everything back together and were going strong.

Obviously, we’re sending all the positive thoughts, prayers and good energy we can muster, and we hope you will do the same. If you’d like to do something more concrete, our friends Bryan Beller and Kira Small sent this link around for those wishing to donate to the flood relief:

Donate to Tennessee Flood Relief

In other news, David has authorized the declassification of a trio of photos of the prototype cabinets. While at an undisclosed location, he is combing through other photos and we may declassify more shots soon. View the pictures on our Cabinets page.

We also updated the Videos section, grouping videos according to type: Field Tests, interviews with David Hisownself, and endorser clips.

The SEAL Team page now has links to all Field Reports.

One last thing to mention - our Forum is going strong, and it’s been great to see so many old friends join in the fun. Right now, we’re running a poll to determine our own nickname for the forum. So if you join now, you’ll have a say.

Visit Our Forum

Practice Tip of the Week

Greetings from the Deep End, all y’all! I’m in the middle of working on today’s upload, which is going well. However, this just can’t wait:

I’m thrilled to announce that David Garcia is our official Original DNA User (ODU for short)! David just sent me a text informing me that he just put a deposit down on a DNS-410. And since he emailed as I was writing this, here’s the scoop straight from Dave himself:

As always, it was a very good experience dealing with them as they’re knowledgable and put a big emphasis on their customer service. I absolutely cannot wait to receive that cabinet and make some serious noise!

David knows how to make cabs better than anyone so I feel perfectly safe in putting the money down without even seeing one yet. Plus, I wanted to get in there before there’s a huge backorder on them.

To top all that off, I told them to let me know when they can take preorders for the heads, because I want the big one!

I was here first!

Sincerely,

Dave Garcia

Oceanside, CA

Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines…er, credit cards. Something. Dealers are taking advance orders.

Call an Authorized Dealer for Pricing

Back now at seven in the evening. Spent the afternoon calling and emailing dealers. It’s only fair to let them all know the gate is open. So. Moving on:

Speaking of dealers, please join us in welcoming Corner Music, Nashville, TN, as our newest dealer. David and I have known JD and the rest of the crew for a god long time, and we’re reaaly excited to be working with them again. Learn more here…

Had a great talk with Traa Daniels of P.O.D. yesterday. He’s been back in the states for a few days in between legs of their South American tour. So far, things are going really well, and they’re looking forward to continuing the festivities.

Another great piece of news is that P.O.D. is writing material for a new CD. Traa says everyone is pumped for the project and the songwriting is going really well. More on that as it develops.

Sean O’Bryan Smith had a total blast taping the Kenny Rogers 50th Anniversary Tribute special. And why not? What with all the legendary performers with whom he appeared. I’m hope ful that by next week I’ll be able to tell you more and maybe even show you pictures.

Late last week, I got an update from Angeline Saris. She continues to improve after surgery and hopes to be back playing by the beginning of May. In the meantime she’s keeping herself busy revamping her web site. She asked me to thank everyone for the prayers, good vibes and well wishes. If you sent her an email, she’s been working through a few a day, and promises to answer every one.

Articles: Roy Vogt offers a series of articles on studio work

Studio 101: Old School

Studio 201: New School

Studio 202: Breaking In

Practice Tip of the Week: Practice in Your Head

That’s about it for now. If you haven’t voted in our current poll, please do so now. And don’t forget to join us over at the forums to keep up with all the latest.

It’s been a busy few days, and I’ve spent almost my entire morning on the phone, talking with endorsers and dealers. Man, I’m getting excited! Let me fill you in on some of the news:

Sister Angeline Saris has made it through surgery and is in good spirits. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to talk long, becasue right after she called they came to take her to her ultrasound checkup on her artery.

Angeline sent me a pair of pictures earlier today. I feel safe posting the one below, but I’m going to hold off on the other one and make sure it’s OK with her to post it, as it shows the drain, which only Gene Simmons could love. But it is a funny shot in an Oh, Gross! sort of way.

Angeline Saris recovering from surgery, with her friend Josh.

UPDATE: Angeline took a nap after the ultrasound, but called me a few minutes ago. She’s still really tired after the surgery, and I hate to say it, but the test showed she may not be out of the woods yet. I won’t say more until Angeline gets to talk to the doctors.

Angeline did say it was OK to post the second picture, so here it is:

Blech! A blood grenade! And it’s mine! Eeew!

By the way, we’re doing all we can to help Angeline raise funds to help pay for all of this. If you can pitch in a dollar, I’m sure she’d appreciate it. And I know that we would, too!

Spoke with Roy Vogt today, as he raced from one appointment to another. He’s been keeping extremely busy, even during Spring Break, what with extra sessions, preparing for the final stretch of this school year, and dealing with the launch of his own learning community, Thunder Row. I’m assisting over there as well, and Roy and I both have blogs. We’re also building a library of lessons, articles and videos, which will feature Roy’s and my current library of material as well as new content. I’m also reaching out to other bassist/writers to invite their contributions.

While all of that is open to the public, there is also a forum which is divided into a public area and Chateau Groove, a private area for owners of Roy’s course, Teach Me Bass Guitar. (You can read my full review here. Whether you’re just starting out, are have been playing for decades, Thunder Row is a great place to improve your skills and pass some knowledge to others. I hope you’ll join us.

And speaking of joining us, have you noticed that we launched the DNA Forums? Thanks to Roger Barlow, we got it up and running last Friday, just in time for the weekend speaker testing. (More on that in a minute.) We already have a couple dozen members, including many old friends. We’ve got over three dozen topics going, including discussions on gear and upcoming designs. If you haven’t registered, please do so now, and join us as we build our community!

Snow Owl and I had a great long Skype call and caught up on several fronts. He’s expecting to attend NAMM 2011, and we’re going to see if we can work a few days in Chicago into his schedule so he can do some in-depth testing with us. Of course we also talked about his upcoming master clinic at Berklee on April 15.

One other thing we discussed - and I’m just so grateful to Snow Owl for this - was the video he sent me. It’s of the Austrian band Rock Office, which includes Hans Baumgartner, one of Snow Owl’s students. The video is of the band’s cover of my song Time of My Dyin’, Part 2, from Dig the Hole. Man, I was thrilled, and honored, they liked the songs that much.

Thanks to today’s technology, I have a video of them doing it as an internationally-sharable keepsake. You can watch it here, if you’re so inclined.

And just HUGE thanks to Hans and the rest of Rock Office - who did an excellent job! - and to Snow Owl for helping it all happen.

Now we get to the really fun stuff. If you haven’t noticed, there are four more videos (five total) from last weekend’s field testing. One word: amazinglyinstenselytotallyawesome. Check out the written report, including Jeff Carlson‘s toughts, on the SEAL Team report page. I haven’t heard back from Mark yet, but I’ll post his comments as soon as he weighs in. By the way, we also kept touch with the forum during the test. It’s in the report.

While the schedule is not set, I can tell you that the first Road Trip for field testing will be to Nashville. In addition to Roy and Sean, Abe White will be taking part, as well as a new member of the family, Marc Williams. In fact, Marc is so new that he and I haven’t met face to face yet, much less have his fake tooth with the cyanide capsule inserted, so it will be an event-packed trip for him. Of course, I’ll be shooting video and stills (of the testing not the insertion of the … never mind) during the test. If there’s time I’m going to try to get each one of them to sit for a shoret interview.

OK. That’s pretty much everything that’s going on… or at least everything I’m allowed to talk about. I’ll see you in a few days, with more.

Hey, all y’all! To say I’m excited is a serious understatement. I am thrilled beyond words to announce that the David Nordschow Amplification Forums are now LIVE!

Spydah, AKA Roger Barlow, has completed his work and done an outstanding job. We just loaded the forum to test. Everything looks good, so we’re open for business.

Please join me in a HUGE Thank You to Spydah! Then, go tell all your friends, and join us for a great new hang.

Visit the DNA Forums

Here were on Hump Day again, and so far it’s been a productive week. It also appears as if I’m going up for further speaker testing. We’ll get to that in a minute. First let me catch you up on some other things.

For starters, if you haven’t voted in our first Players Poll, please vote now! I’ll wait while you run back to the home page, OK?

(humming)

Cool. Thanks, we really appreciate it. You see, we’re very interested in your thoughts. We’ve got lots more of that kind of thing coming and we hope you’ll take part in each one.

Now for some endorsers news:

Sean O’Bryan Smith tells me I can finally let the cat out of the bag on his participation in what looks to be a killer gig: The 50th Anniversary Kenny Rogers Tribute. The all-star homage features a wide variety of top names, and not all of them are country… not by half from what I hear.

Among other things, Sean will be performing the opening number featuriing Wynonna, The First Edition and a 40-member choir. More info to follow as the production company authorizes its release. If you want to keep tabs on the updates yourself, check out this web site. Scroll down and read just how successful Rogers has been. The man must have a small warehouse full of awards.

Traa checked in yesterday as well, but by email. He’s down in South America with P.O.D. kicking off their tour plans for the year. The band always has a blast down South, and this time looks to continue the tradition. We should get a full report when the band returns Stateside. Catch his tweets here.

I also want to give a major shout-out to Wes Watson, who is finally back from Germany. Wes served a tour there with the Air Force National Guard. Not long ago, he served in Afghanistan. We’re just glad he’s home safe, we’re betting his wife is, too!

The Homecoming party is this weekend, then Wes and his Lovely Bride head off for a delayed honeymoon before Wes settles back into his Civilian Life.

Today I posted a third video from the last field test. This is another interview with David, discussing ports and cones. There’s a little more interview footage, but I think I’m going to wait until I’m back up there so we can go over those points again, and add a little more info.

As it turns out, I’ll be heading back up North again this Saturday. David has the DNS-410 reay to go, and we’re going to revisit the DNS-110 and DNS-210. Waiting to hear back from Jeff to see if he can make it. Also put a call out to a few others, in case they’re in town.

Roger is putting the tweaks on the next major section of the web site. I’m being a pain in the neck about nitpicky little things, and he’s being really patient with me!

No, I don’t know when it will be done, and I’m not going to guess. Let’s face it, any date i give you will be part hope, part wish, ad part dream. Instead, I’m going to stick with my “when it’s ready” line and leave it at that. But, boy am I excited!

OK, that’s about it for now. I’ll see you in a few days. Until then, keep an eye on the Twitter stream, and don’t forget to Subscribe and Friend Up with us over at You Tube.

Lesson: Proper Hand Position, Part 2: Four Fret Warm Up Exercises.

Practice Tip of the Week - Build a Riff Encyclopedia

We are thrilled to launch our first Player’s Poll today. Many thanks to our good friend Spydah - aka Roger Barlow to “civilians” - for doing such a great job assisting us with the code! (May his strings never rust!)

All kidding aside, David and I have long wanted to do this. David had his first team of field test bassists two decades ago. I know many of the players who took part in those tests back in the beginning - and the many tests since. Back the Dark Ages, when we built our first forum, we asked a lot of questions; we gathered a ton of useful info, but were unable to act on the bulk of it.

If you’ve been keeping tabs on us since we launched, you already know we’ve been talking to a lot of our endorser family. We’ve also been talking to a few other select people who can keep thier mouths shut. But we wanted to take the next Giant Step and talk to all of you directly. We want to know what you think.

While polling and meaningful surveys weren’t possible in our “past life.” they are now. The only thing holding us back was me, or rather, the fact that I don’t do much pure code. Enter Spydah, whom I’ve known for quite a while, both through our mutual respect for David, and our mutual love of Spector basses.

See, Spydah does do code, and he’s the one who built the poll. He’s also going to teach me how to manage them so we can do more of them. Everybody shout out a huge Thank You!! for Spydah…

We’ve got more things in store, so keep an eye peeled and check back often. And, please, if you haven’t already done so, go back to the Home Page and VOTE! Your future may depend on it.