ARTIST BIO

Igor is a prominent Latin American bassist who is known as a virtuoso, educator, and extended-range bass innovator. In addition to giving many clinics and master classes, he has performed with a wide range of artists.
Igor Saavedra is a prominent Latin American bassist, teacher and columnist for Bass Musician Magazine (USA) and Bajista Magazine (Spain).
Incredibly, he didn’t pick up a bass until the age of 22, in 1988. Completely self-taught, Igor has gone on to share his insights and skills on his very comprehensive Spanish-language website.
Starting in 1991, Igor developed a fingerstyle “sweeping” technique he now refers to as the “Vectorial Synthesis Technique.” He now uses this technique exclusively, and for this purpose, he also created “Igor’s Mic ramp,” a wooden ramp located under the strings. A pioneer of extended-range basses, Igor has been playing an 8-string bass since 1999. That same year, he developed a concept called “Rear Truss Rod Access” and has installed it in all his basses. The RTA allows bassists to access the truss rod without moving the strings to insert an allen wrench.
Since 1988, Igor has worked with more than 100 top Chilean and international artists and groups in all musical styles, and recorded on more than thirty CDs. This list includes Bob Sheppard, Hanz Zermuhlen, Fareed Haque Quartet, Tom McMorran, Ramón Stagnaro, Jim Paxson, Jan Fabricky, Jean Marc Belkady, Miucha Buarque, Antti Kotikosky, Marcelo Berestovoy, Robert Incelli, Enzo Villaparedes, Walfredo Reyes Jr. and Joe Bianco. In 1997 he recorded a version of Rymsky Korsakoff’s Flight of the Bumblebee, note by note, at original speed, with finger technique (no pick), and without any tapping or tricks.
In 2009 he joined a project called B3L, a bass trio with two other top Latin American bass players, Guillermo Vadalá and Gerardo Carrillo.
Igor has taught more than 400 private students and performed hundreds of master classes in different countries, including clinics shared with Jeff Berlin (1990), Walfredo Reyes Jr. (2002), Gregg Bisonnette (2002), Marty Friedman (2003), and Gary Willis (2004). From 1995 to 1999, he was the head teacher of the Electric Bass Department at California Music Studio in the US. In 2008 he published “T.G.E.S Rhythmic Applied to the Electric Bass Vol. 1”, the first volume of a series of three books. “Applied Technique for the Electric Bass and Vectorial Synthesis Vol. 2” and “Applied Harmony and Improvisation for the Electric Bass Vol. 3” are coming soon. This ambitious set of books will offer more than 500 pages of bass knowledge and deep analysis of all aspects of the electric bass.
Igor plays a custom set — Stainless Steel Round Wound extended range scale: .020 .025 .035 .050 .060 .080 .100 .125