Joel McIver, Editor

There are no boundaries in the world of bass: these days, this truth applies more to our chosen instrument than to any other. Look at the new issue of our magazine, for example. Our cover star Mark King has been anchoring Level 42 with a combination of lightning-fast thumb slapping and Jaco-style warmth for four decades now. Then there’s Lemmy, whose distorted roar of chords is the polar-opposite approach. Meanwhile, Cher’s bassist Ashley Reeve and Dimmu Borgir’s Victor Brandt both play huge venues, but with absolutely opposed aesthetics, and somewhere off to the side, you’ll see 12-string bass collector Mark Rowe taking a completely different view. No boundaries. It’s all valid, it’s all exciting and it’s all bass.

That’s an ethos which underpins everything we do on this magazine. Nothing is off limits: if you’re involved with bass, we want to hear from you. Elsewhere in this issue, we interview Dr Jonathan Kemp, the Scottish scientist and revolutionary string-maker; Jamiroquai’s Paul Turner, one of the funkiest bassists on the planet; and eight up-andcoming bass players in our brand-new First Bass section. We review bass gear from the affordable to the painfully pricey; we bring you state-of-the-art lessons from the finest bass teachers in the world; and we advise you on every part of the way to the top, from learning theory, to managing a pedalboard, to getting a gig and keeping it.

No boundaries. We’re all in this together. Stay well, and I’ll see you in July.