Guitar and drum bands. I just dont get it? I want the bass!!

[jason cook]

Call me a traditionalist but I dont want to go see a band with two people onstage with no Bass guitar. I'm a drummer myself and couldn't dream of wanting to create a rythym section with no throbbing pounding bass guitar there beside me.

I just dont understand it?

Your thoughts please.

[Steve]

Sometimes it's just doin' with what you got. I'm a bass player (living in Olympia, WA at the time) and when a drummer friend of mine, Matt, said we should start a band, the Bodides, we were switching off between drums and guitar because it was just the two of us. I thought, fuck yeah. We played our first gig a week later with the Rock and Roll Adventure Kids from Oakland (two guys).
Matt's touring thru L.A. now with his current two person band, The Maxines.
I'll agree that sometimes a bass would have filled out the sound a bit, but that's not what we were after. Nobody ever left a show feeling they didn't get their moneys worth for the performance.
And as far as band dynamics go, there's less people to disagree when I make a suggestion. Oh yeah!

[John Battles]

Sometimes , the fewer people you have , the less likely someone is to get killed. Also , two people might have the chemistry that 4 or 5 don't. It all depends. If it's still good music , I don't mind the absence of a bass so much. But , about 10 years ago , the bassless bands started getting so bad , Donald "Duck" Dunn , God rest his soul , probably could'nt have helped them.

[James Porter]

I think the Equals had to have had a bass player in the studio. That instrument was usually the loudest thing heard on their records.
 
John Battles said:

The Equals , three Guitars , no Bass....centuries before it was cool.

 

[Speedy and the Fuck Offs]

if they have a biiiiiiiig subby bassdrum ... well, then i don`t care ;-)

but honestly: with a bass player in your band you look more sexy, hehe.

CHEERS

[jason cook]

I was in a band back in the 90's called Headbutt. We had four bassists and four drummers playing lumps of metal broken cymbals and floor toms. We put out several singles and a few lps. Now that was insane!

 

[Wipeout!]

Hate to sound like I'm swingin' fer both teams but my current garage-slop band, the Get Wets, started out as just bass, organ & drums (NO guitars allowed)...we wailed & the bassist often usta fuzz out this sound (as did the organ-pounder)

...fast-forward to now, same band but different instrumentation: baritone sax, baritone guitar & drums (NO bass no mo')...it sounds mighty trashy in a how-low-can-ya-go sorta low-end-bop but not a bassist to be found...even tho in a perfect party world I'd love to have a bass (& combo-organ fer that matter) back in the mix we really don't miss 'em...

Last Night said:

What about a bariton guitar ?

[shmo]

i actually sort of dislike bass...... i'm in a two piece guitar /drums band on purpose. i like to point out certain things (to whoever will listen) at our shows on the subject.  the bands we play with often are perfect example of what i dislike.  i see it all the time , awesome gritty, sincerely angry guitar intro for two measures. then the bass comes in and shmeers the  edges of the thing. in our band (because we have tried out many bass player that though they could "add" to it) we call it chopping the tops off. all the edgy- ness goes in the "wall of sound". sure, you went out and "saw" a band.... there were decibles thrown at you, but its all too comfortable to me. i like thin. maybe if i we making music to make people nod, and say what i nice young man i've become. but not while i'm in a garage rock band, and trying to stay good and angry.

[John Battles]

You're probably right , but , they seemed to have their guitars tuned funny to compensate (Not all 3 of them) , but , if you listen to them , live , on Beat! Beat ! Beat ! , they more than make up for the lack of bass.....They had their personalities , the underrated guitar mastery of one Eddy Grant , and the fact that they were probably the only English /Guayanese / Jamaican  outfit to hit the international charts, in their favor ....not to mention ,they were often anachronisms , and proud of it ("I Can See But You Don't Know " , the only Freakbeat single released in 1970 , barring The Troggs' "Feels Like A Woman".
 
James Porter said:

I think the Equals had to have had a bass player in the studio. That instrument was usually the loudest thing heard on their records.
 
John Battles said:

The Equals , three Guitars , no Bass....centuries before it was cool.

 

[John Battles]

Do you mean like the instrument used on Hugo Montenegro's soundtrack work ? That CAN more than compensate for the lack of a bass. I've heardit done.
 
Wipeout! said:

Hate to sound like I'm swingin' fer both teams but my current garage-slop band, the Get Wets, started out as just bass, organ & drums (NO guitars allowed)...we wailed & the bassist often usta fuzz out this sound (as did the organ-pounder)

...fast-forward to now, same band but different instrumentation: baritone sax, baritone guitar & drums (NO bass no mo')...it sounds mighty trashy in a how-low-can-ya-go sorta low-end-bop but not a bassist to be found...even tho in a perfect party world I'd love to have a bass (& combo-organ fer that matter) back in the mix we really don't miss 'em...

Last Night said:

What about a bariton guitar ?

[John Battles]

YOW ! I saw Deke Dickerson lead seven or eight stand up bass players , together , once. It was painful. that was the idea. Actually , your concept reminds me of a friend's band in Denton , Texas called Charred. They usually played customized guitars (Using TV parts instead of strings , for example.) , but , they'd also stage public performances , encouraging anyone that was handy to beat out a rhythm on pieces of metal. One time , they got about 50 people beating out a rhythm on the sides of a house !
 
jason cook said:

I was in a band back in the 90's called Headbutt. We had four bassists and four drummers playing lumps of metal broken cymbals and floor toms. We put out several singles and a few lps. Now that was insane!

 

[James Porter]

While we're on the subject of more than one bass...

When a band has more than one bassist, or drummer, I'll be damned if I can tell the difference. Either live or on record. It still sounds the same to me.

There is one Melvins CD I have where the sound is noticeably fatter with the additional bass/drums in the mix, but with everybody else, it doesn't really change the sound much. So you have two bass players? May as well have stuck to just one for all the good it did...

 

[John Battles]

JAMES! This has nothing to do with the Bass , but , drop what you're doing ,now! If you were'nt doing anything, do something , THEN drop it !!!  I just found something highly covetous concerning The Equals. The ever - elusive "EVEN WHITE PEOPLE !!" version of "Soul Brother Clifford" on vinyl!! A reissue , of course , but not the Astan comp that never turns up on vinyl , and my cassette copy has HAD it.
 
James Porter said:

I think the Equals had to have had a bass player in the studio. That instrument was usually the loudest thing heard on their records.
 
John Battles said:

The Equals , three Guitars , no Bass....centuries before it was cool.