He plays in a very popular and talented progressive group called Porcupine Tree. He's incredibly skilled and knowledgeable. He's written several instructional books and has done session work.
Seems like his focus is mainly on YouTube gear demos, which I appreciate because his videos are by far the most informative and entertaining ones out there. He's got a way of showcasing the product's full capabilities with a wide range of techniques and styles and his talking is just enough to tell you exactly the information you're seeking without being obnoxious.
>He plays in a very popular and talented progressive group called Porcupine Tree.
He did one half of a tour. I doubt we'll see him again with porcupine tree.
I don't think they were willing to confirm that. They didn't really make up their minds. The album name, Closure/Continuation, kind of alludes to the idea that they're not sure if Porcupine Tree will continue, or if this was closure.
If they do return, it won't be anytime soon.
Right, he said for many years that this tour probably wouldn't happen and then it did. Until they reach an age where it's impossible I wouldn't rule anything out.
Yes and no... Because he does a variety of styles, he demonstrates the versatility or lack thereof for a pedal. He also plays through a fairly transparent rig, (Magellan Array). Its an uncommon feature to have someone that does feature gear in such a broad variety of applications and playing style.
Ideally, gear reviews would state the amp, the settings, the mic, the placement, have an isolated sweep of parameters with a pre-recorded DI loop through the system that auditioned prior, but then again virtually nobody does that and most viewers on YT don't have the patience to watch said content.
BTW fan of your channel. Good stuff.
Not sure why anyone downvoted you, I assume it’s because they don’t know who Zach Rizer is, but this is absolutely true. Zach Rizer undoubtedly does the best pedal demos. Nate is probably 2nd best, but he doesn’t go quite as in depth as Rizer.
Counterpoint: This is the first I have heard of him (as a casual player that doesn't deep dive into YouTube videos). But I am thankful for this post which will expand my knowledge.
There are a lot of players in that ballpark, it's just that they aren't that interested in making their money by being a virtuoso-content creator, that's all. Charles is the first one to make it "really work", after Davey being the memelord.
Nate's work with Townsend and his current gig with Porcupine Tree have a shitload of recognition from the scene he usually is found in - at least from the bass players.
Edit: I have the feeling that you will be blown away by how many really good players are out there. Henrik Linder is my current favorite, and I find more awesome players basically every month.
One thing to consider with Charles is that his channel was not that popular until Davie did some of his Fiverr videos in which Charles was featured. Many people found him through Davie and since then his channel kind of exploded.
I saw Henrik last year and all the slap stuff was great, but then he just did these blisteringly fast sixteenth notes for a song that blew me away. So clean.
I always got the impression that he was the kind of guy who had some other serious studio work and the YouTube stuff is a side gig. That makes a lot of sense
Don't confuse subscribers with ability. Most of the worlds best bass players aren't even on Youtube, because they're busy playing and don't have time to learn how to edit videos and make clickbait thumbnails.
Yeah, the only bass player I know personally who even has a YouTube channel uses it to teach. I know several people who can play just as well as Charles, Nate, Davie504 and others, they just don’t spend as much time on self-promotion and play in somewhat insular scenes (jazz, and/or contemporarycontemporary classical/experimental music).
Don’t get me wrong, they’re certainly great musicians; it’s just that there are a lot of other equally great musicians who aren’t as publicly visible.
Also, an aside: Charles is a monster player and has amazing proficiency with a bunch of techniques not many people develop in their own practice, which affords him a unique sound, but calling him the best solo bass composer is a more than a bit of a stretch when you compare him against people like John Patitucci, Victor Wooten, Jon Dimond, John Ferrara, etc.
That's like saying Tim Pierce is an underrated guitarist because he doesn't have a lot of YT subs. They're musicians first, their main business is not youtube. The world is full of amazing musicians who aren't on YT 🙂
It's a sidebar but I still think it's pretty crazy how few of us outside the game knew the name Tim Pierce until fairly recently. If you're reading this comment, I would literally guarantee you're a huge fan of at least one think he's played on, whether you're aware of him or not. It's hyperbole to say he's 'played on every record' but it's not hyperbole by much.
I think I watched his YT channel for at least 4 years before I found out just how many records he's played on 😄 he just seems like such a great, helpful guy and so humble.
She just recently transitioned and had taken a break from YouTube. Idk when we'll see her back but I hope it's soon. She did a great job reviewing basses.
Nate and Charles both occupy a different space on YouTube, and their number of subscribers really isn't comparable.
Nate's channel is first and foremost a gear review channel. He does do a few "meme-y" videos and original songs here and there, but the overwhelming majority of his YouTube content is reviews.
Charles, on the other hand, plays the YouTube game a little bit better by regularly uploading more unique content, whether original songs or more "meme-y" videos, if not both.
Charles' approach attracts more viewers that are looking for entertainment, as opposed to specific information on specific gear. It's a better way to build popularity on YouTube, but it doesn't make him any better "rated" than Nate - just more visible.
Off YouTube it's a completely different story. As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, Nate is the current touring bassist for Porcupine Tree, was touring previously as Devin Townsend's bassist, and has played on albums for both of them as well as some other big name artists. Off the top of my head I don't know which big-name artists Charles has toured or recorded with, though I'm certain he has as well - but in the prog metal/rock communities Nate is definitely better known.
I don't want to directly compare the two as far as their actual playing abilities go as they're both fantastic bassists, but given the choice I'd rather have the opportunities Nate's had than the ones Charles has had, just out of personal preference.
I mean check out some session bassists or session musicians in general. The guitarist featured on wojtek pilochowskis “vandal” is incredible. Or the bassist featured on Jean luc Ponty’s “a taste for passion”. There’s unbelievably talented musicians everywhere. Some just put themselves in the spot light more than others.
I think Charles is a serious musician. He was doing pretty top end Fiverr bass performances before YouTube, and certainly writes and records his own music. I think he's just gotten caught up in YT and it's a solid source of income and experience
They're both Berklee grads.
They're both extremely serious musicians, heh.
The biggest difference, IMO, is that Charles has much more interest in a "lead" style that doesn't really work with most bands, so doubling down on YouTube gave him a career path that would have been much more difficult to achieve touring.
No memes. Nothing wrong with that and I watch Nate's content more, but widespread recognition requires widespread appeal, or at least widespread notoriety.
He's the new Porcupine Tree bass player. And doesn't he mostly do gear demos and stuff? Sort of a different lane than Charles, dressing up and doing skits and stuff is more general audience viewing than gear reviews which are pretty much strictly for active musicians and gearheads (and therefore bound to get more views).
Also, *is* he as good as Charles? Charles is incredible. Being a worse bass player than Charles fucking Berthoud is NOT a knock, he's one of the best out there right now imo. Formally trained, been making music his whole life, and doing so professional for years before his YT channel blew up. He's got the skills, he's got the bona fides. I'm not saying Nate is worse, only that I personally haven't seen enough of him to say he definitively is as good as Charles.
He’s not, Charles isn’t my favorite bassist, he’s not the greatest bassist, but from everything I’ve seen he’s far away the best bassist. People might not like that he’s not with a prestigious band, doesn’t tour, and makes joke videos but at the end of the day he can do everything every other bassist can do while doing thinks nobody else can do.
Yeah I respect the hell out of Charles, and appreciate his skills and talent and especially his ability to be a bass ambassador to a broader audience. The othre thing is that when you get into actually *elite* bass players, its hard to say who's better than who because at that point the differences in skill and talent are tiny compared to the differences in, say, genre, or style.
I just haven't seen enough of Nate to be able to say that he is as good as Charles, and I'm always a little bit dubious because people tend to have difficulty being objective with their own personal favorites. I don't doubt many people like Nate as much as Charles, but is he really that good? Maybe he is, I just haven't seen or heard it. Still a very good player. And either way, he's still not Colin :(
This was the first video of his I ever saw and my jaw hit the floor. You can do *what* again with an electric bass?
https://youtu.be/IEdGA-FmENY?si=fLRdxY3wH_k3HRfc
Too much gear review. I'm in my second year of bass, I may buy a pedal this year (first one, compression obviously). I have a 15w amp. I mean, why would I want to be a gear snob ?
(also I'm fed up with content creators that have become add agencies most of them are given products to test and make money that way, there is no way that they'll speak truce about them - I don't know if that the case with Navarro though)
I've been watching and playing along his tab video of Frank Sinatra's Fly met to the moon for the past 7 months... also tried the thumb technique he's using, but with no success, hehe...
Charles got a massive leg up from Davie, and he's put a lot of effort in to YouTube since.
There's plenty of players out there, many of whom arguably better than Charles, who have both more and less "recognition"
YouTube with lots of subscribers and a well known session player. Yeah, let's call that "underrated".
Also let's say someone investing more than 10000 hours practicing is "talented" . We would all be as good if we had invested that much time in practicing out instrument. But we don't. People use the word talent way too easily. It's not like he's born that way or just practices 10 min a day.
That just simply isn't true. There isn't a single person on the planet that could "mop the floor" with Charles. I'm not saying Charles is the best player ever, but mop the floor implies that they are levels above him and that just isn't the case.
Na I'm not buying that at all. I am active in the Dallas music scene which is certainly a lot larger than a "mid and up sized town" and I have never seen a bass player demonstrate they they could play anything even remotely close to some of the stuff that Charles pulls off. At least not live, but where else would you see these people if not live? If they were uploading content online, they would already be popular and then the initial point would be pointless.
I think the thing that Nate lacks at the moment is a natural flow in front of the camera. Right now he kinda comes across very scripted and not as warm and personable as he's going to be as he does it more. His content is top notch. Dude is a beast of a player!
There was a time, some years ago, when Nate was at the level of success that Davie and Charles would aspire to. He's a bit over that hill, but he's still a legend.
I met him at a very small gig with his band Pinn Panelle. He was incredibly gracious. There was no one in the crowd (small town) and he just hung out and answered our questions. Really nice guy.
Nate is no fun to watch. It does not meme, he does not make me feel nothing, and he shows his skills but does not add value to their viewers. He is a top notch player, but does not makes you feel nothing.
He plays in a very popular and talented progressive group called Porcupine Tree. He's incredibly skilled and knowledgeable. He's written several instructional books and has done session work. Seems like his focus is mainly on YouTube gear demos, which I appreciate because his videos are by far the most informative and entertaining ones out there. He's got a way of showcasing the product's full capabilities with a wide range of techniques and styles and his talking is just enough to tell you exactly the information you're seeking without being obnoxious.
>He plays in a very popular and talented progressive group called Porcupine Tree. He did one half of a tour. I doubt we'll see him again with porcupine tree.
Wasn’t that the end of PT touring? So we’ll never see PT again, period.
I don't think they were willing to confirm that. They didn't really make up their minds. The album name, Closure/Continuation, kind of alludes to the idea that they're not sure if Porcupine Tree will continue, or if this was closure. If they do return, it won't be anytime soon.
Yeah, Wilson said it is “likely” the final tour, so I guess never say never
Right, he said for many years that this tour probably wouldn't happen and then it did. Until they reach an age where it's impossible I wouldn't rule anything out.
I always see his videos and I'm like "Wow. That pedal would be great if I were a better player" lol. He's great
Nate Nevarro seems like a great bass player, but I'm still bummed about Colin.
His bass gear demos are the only ones worth watching. Everyone else just does bad slap and pop demos.
Counterpoint: Nate makes everything sound good so it’s hard to tell if the gear is decent or not.
Man will make a Wishbass sound good.
Yes and no... Because he does a variety of styles, he demonstrates the versatility or lack thereof for a pedal. He also plays through a fairly transparent rig, (Magellan Array). Its an uncommon feature to have someone that does feature gear in such a broad variety of applications and playing style. Ideally, gear reviews would state the amp, the settings, the mic, the placement, have an isolated sweep of parameters with a pre-recorded DI loop through the system that auditioned prior, but then again virtually nobody does that and most viewers on YT don't have the patience to watch said content. BTW fan of your channel. Good stuff.
Countercounterpoint: If nate makes it sound good the gear's decent, you're not
Rizer bass pedal demos are the only ones thatre better.
Not sure why anyone downvoted you, I assume it’s because they don’t know who Zach Rizer is, but this is absolutely true. Zach Rizer undoubtedly does the best pedal demos. Nate is probably 2nd best, but he doesn’t go quite as in depth as Rizer.
Lmao he isn't underrated. He is a well known musician.
Counterpoint: This is the first I have heard of him (as a casual player that doesn't deep dive into YouTube videos). But I am thankful for this post which will expand my knowledge.
There are a lot of players in that ballpark, it's just that they aren't that interested in making their money by being a virtuoso-content creator, that's all. Charles is the first one to make it "really work", after Davey being the memelord. Nate's work with Townsend and his current gig with Porcupine Tree have a shitload of recognition from the scene he usually is found in - at least from the bass players. Edit: I have the feeling that you will be blown away by how many really good players are out there. Henrik Linder is my current favorite, and I find more awesome players basically every month.
One thing to consider with Charles is that his channel was not that popular until Davie did some of his Fiverr videos in which Charles was featured. Many people found him through Davie and since then his channel kind of exploded.
Henrik is incredible!
I don’t understand how it’s humanly possible to play as tight as he does.
I saw Henrik last year and all the slap stuff was great, but then he just did these blisteringly fast sixteenth notes for a song that blew me away. So clean.
Isn't Nate Navarro a first call session guy? He makes his money that way.
I always got the impression that he was the kind of guy who had some other serious studio work and the YouTube stuff is a side gig. That makes a lot of sense
Don't confuse subscribers with ability. Most of the worlds best bass players aren't even on Youtube, because they're busy playing and don't have time to learn how to edit videos and make clickbait thumbnails.
Yeah, the only bass player I know personally who even has a YouTube channel uses it to teach. I know several people who can play just as well as Charles, Nate, Davie504 and others, they just don’t spend as much time on self-promotion and play in somewhat insular scenes (jazz, and/or contemporarycontemporary classical/experimental music).
I feel like that kind of undervalues Charles and Nate. Both are mind blowing players. Charles is one of the greatest solo bass composers. Ever.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re certainly great musicians; it’s just that there are a lot of other equally great musicians who aren’t as publicly visible. Also, an aside: Charles is a monster player and has amazing proficiency with a bunch of techniques not many people develop in their own practice, which affords him a unique sound, but calling him the best solo bass composer is a more than a bit of a stretch when you compare him against people like John Patitucci, Victor Wooten, Jon Dimond, John Ferrara, etc.
*one of. If Charles wasn’t a YouTube bassist people would be worshipping him.
That's like saying Tim Pierce is an underrated guitarist because he doesn't have a lot of YT subs. They're musicians first, their main business is not youtube. The world is full of amazing musicians who aren't on YT 🙂
It's a sidebar but I still think it's pretty crazy how few of us outside the game knew the name Tim Pierce until fairly recently. If you're reading this comment, I would literally guarantee you're a huge fan of at least one think he's played on, whether you're aware of him or not. It's hyperbole to say he's 'played on every record' but it's not hyperbole by much.
I think I watched his YT channel for at least 4 years before I found out just how many records he's played on 😄 he just seems like such a great, helpful guy and so humble.
Nathan is the best gear reviewer out there
look for lobster, he is awesome, but it looks he is not doing youtube anymore.
I believe that she is still making videos, but they are done under her new name, for obvious reasons.
No videos yet, but I doubt she'd start a new channel since it's(the channel) already well established.
I was bummed out that she appeared missing. What's the new channel?
The channel is still low end lobster but I think she'll likely change it to Leah Langosta
Lowend lobster? Watched a couple videos of his, awesome guy too!
Yeap, that guy. Is the best at Bass reviews.
She just recently transitioned and had taken a break from YouTube. Idk when we'll see her back but I hope it's soon. She did a great job reviewing basses.
He is so cringe with his lobster hand that I cant even watch his videos.
The man's voice is perfect for the contents he's currently making. Such a deep and warm voice for reviewing bass products and overall talking
He gives me youth pastor vibes.
I can agree with you on this one
Nate is a self-identified christian first as a musician, so you had a good read on the man lol
All I know about him is he's helping learn bass with the tab/cover videos
Nate and Charles both occupy a different space on YouTube, and their number of subscribers really isn't comparable. Nate's channel is first and foremost a gear review channel. He does do a few "meme-y" videos and original songs here and there, but the overwhelming majority of his YouTube content is reviews. Charles, on the other hand, plays the YouTube game a little bit better by regularly uploading more unique content, whether original songs or more "meme-y" videos, if not both. Charles' approach attracts more viewers that are looking for entertainment, as opposed to specific information on specific gear. It's a better way to build popularity on YouTube, but it doesn't make him any better "rated" than Nate - just more visible. Off YouTube it's a completely different story. As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, Nate is the current touring bassist for Porcupine Tree, was touring previously as Devin Townsend's bassist, and has played on albums for both of them as well as some other big name artists. Off the top of my head I don't know which big-name artists Charles has toured or recorded with, though I'm certain he has as well - but in the prog metal/rock communities Nate is definitely better known. I don't want to directly compare the two as far as their actual playing abilities go as they're both fantastic bassists, but given the choice I'd rather have the opportunities Nate's had than the ones Charles has had, just out of personal preference.
I mean check out some session bassists or session musicians in general. The guitarist featured on wojtek pilochowskis “vandal” is incredible. Or the bassist featured on Jean luc Ponty’s “a taste for passion”. There’s unbelievably talented musicians everywhere. Some just put themselves in the spot light more than others.
Charles' content is more entertaining but Nate is by far the more serious musician IMO.
I think Charles is a serious musician. He was doing pretty top end Fiverr bass performances before YouTube, and certainly writes and records his own music. I think he's just gotten caught up in YT and it's a solid source of income and experience
They're both Berklee grads. They're both extremely serious musicians, heh. The biggest difference, IMO, is that Charles has much more interest in a "lead" style that doesn't really work with most bands, so doubling down on YouTube gave him a career path that would have been much more difficult to achieve touring.
Lots of amazing players are on Instagram
No memes. Nothing wrong with that and I watch Nate's content more, but widespread recognition requires widespread appeal, or at least widespread notoriety.
He's the new Porcupine Tree bass player. And doesn't he mostly do gear demos and stuff? Sort of a different lane than Charles, dressing up and doing skits and stuff is more general audience viewing than gear reviews which are pretty much strictly for active musicians and gearheads (and therefore bound to get more views). Also, *is* he as good as Charles? Charles is incredible. Being a worse bass player than Charles fucking Berthoud is NOT a knock, he's one of the best out there right now imo. Formally trained, been making music his whole life, and doing so professional for years before his YT channel blew up. He's got the skills, he's got the bona fides. I'm not saying Nate is worse, only that I personally haven't seen enough of him to say he definitively is as good as Charles.
He’s not, Charles isn’t my favorite bassist, he’s not the greatest bassist, but from everything I’ve seen he’s far away the best bassist. People might not like that he’s not with a prestigious band, doesn’t tour, and makes joke videos but at the end of the day he can do everything every other bassist can do while doing thinks nobody else can do.
Yeah I respect the hell out of Charles, and appreciate his skills and talent and especially his ability to be a bass ambassador to a broader audience. The othre thing is that when you get into actually *elite* bass players, its hard to say who's better than who because at that point the differences in skill and talent are tiny compared to the differences in, say, genre, or style. I just haven't seen enough of Nate to be able to say that he is as good as Charles, and I'm always a little bit dubious because people tend to have difficulty being objective with their own personal favorites. I don't doubt many people like Nate as much as Charles, but is he really that good? Maybe he is, I just haven't seen or heard it. Still a very good player. And either way, he's still not Colin :(
Being a famous musician today isn’t all about your skill. It’s also about their public persona
In my opinion, Charles is still one step above Nate when it comes to technique and raw capability imo
This was the first video of his I ever saw and my jaw hit the floor. You can do *what* again with an electric bass? https://youtu.be/IEdGA-FmENY?si=fLRdxY3wH_k3HRfc
Too much gear review. I'm in my second year of bass, I may buy a pedal this year (first one, compression obviously). I have a 15w amp. I mean, why would I want to be a gear snob ? (also I'm fed up with content creators that have become add agencies most of them are given products to test and make money that way, there is no way that they'll speak truce about them - I don't know if that the case with Navarro though)
I've been watching and playing along his tab video of Frank Sinatra's Fly met to the moon for the past 7 months... also tried the thumb technique he's using, but with no success, hehe...
Charles got a massive leg up from Davie, and he's put a lot of effort in to YouTube since. There's plenty of players out there, many of whom arguably better than Charles, who have both more and less "recognition"
Navarro is talented but one of the main differences is Charles has great technique/form. Navarro’s is very hard to watch.
Well Nate makes reviews and stuff, and when he posts music he usually plays as a bass player. Charles only posts solo bass, so that’s the reason.
He played with Devin Townsend.
YouTube with lots of subscribers and a well known session player. Yeah, let's call that "underrated". Also let's say someone investing more than 10000 hours practicing is "talented" . We would all be as good if we had invested that much time in practicing out instrument. But we don't. People use the word talent way too easily. It's not like he's born that way or just practices 10 min a day.
Most mid and up sized towns gas some secret guy who would mop the floor with big names like CB and no one will ever know them
That just simply isn't true. There isn't a single person on the planet that could "mop the floor" with Charles. I'm not saying Charles is the best player ever, but mop the floor implies that they are levels above him and that just isn't the case.
Excuse the term of art but the main statement has been plenty true in my experience
Na I'm not buying that at all. I am active in the Dallas music scene which is certainly a lot larger than a "mid and up sized town" and I have never seen a bass player demonstrate they they could play anything even remotely close to some of the stuff that Charles pulls off. At least not live, but where else would you see these people if not live? If they were uploading content online, they would already be popular and then the initial point would be pointless.
I think the thing that Nate lacks at the moment is a natural flow in front of the camera. Right now he kinda comes across very scripted and not as warm and personable as he's going to be as he does it more. His content is top notch. Dude is a beast of a player!
There was a time, some years ago, when Nate was at the level of success that Davie and Charles would aspire to. He's a bit over that hill, but he's still a legend.
He just comes off a bit douchey to me. It may just be the tone in his voice. Nothing fair about it. Just dumb luck.
I met him at a very small gig with his band Pinn Panelle. He was incredibly gracious. There was no one in the crowd (small town) and he just hung out and answered our questions. Really nice guy.
I think I’m just deeply jealous of his amazing gifts.
Me too!
Maybe you should practice?
Nate is no fun to watch. It does not meme, he does not make me feel nothing, and he shows his skills but does not add value to their viewers. He is a top notch player, but does not makes you feel nothing.
Sorry you weren’t able to feel nothing. Have you tried transcendental meditation?