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.

[John Battles]

I think it depends , since the Bass CAN be so loud it's painful , or , just provide the bottom.

With The Dirtbombs , the two Bass , two Drums combination does'nt sound radically different , because it's all balanced out , to where it musically makes sense , even to my tin ear. But , I'm sorry , I never got it with Deadbolt , especially when I saw them live , two Basses just bleeding all over the place , cranked to "11". But , you're right , I don't see where two bassists is an improvement.

But , we both saw Lemmy's Rockabilly side project , The Head Cat. So , he had a Rockabilly standup Bass and his own Motorhead Bass , but , it musically made sense , even if it's too gratuitous for the average Rockabilly fan , and not gratuitous enough for the average Motorhead fan , I'll wager. NOW , if he had a proper Drummer , he'd REALLY be saying something.
 
James Porter said:

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...

 

[James Porter]

YIKES! We gots ta talk...
 
John Battles said:

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.

 

[John Battles]

ALL God's children gots to TALK.
 
James Porter said:

YIKES! We gots ta talk...
 
John Battles said:

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.

 

[John Carlucci]

Well I have to admit, I'm biased about this topic.  Yes there are bands that sound okay without a bass player, but IMO, they would sound better with one. Just about any band I've ever seen live that had no bass player, whether it was Suicide, The Cramps, Black Keys, or even my good friends the Vooduo, when I'm there watching them play, I'm playing along with them, on bass, (in my head) & I hear things that would help tie everything together.  @ John B above...Lee Michaels played bass pedals on the Hammond live. Suicide used a bassy tone on their keyboards & played repeating bass patterns much like a bassist would do. No-one mentioned The Doors, they had no permanent bassist, In the studio they used session bassist Harvey Brooks & live Manzarek played Fender Keyboard bass. The Dead Boys used local NY musicians to play bass with them until Jeff made the move from Ohio. One of which was Rudi from The Fuzztones who played live with them at least once at CBGB's.

Also, IMO most of the bands doing the no-bass thing are doing so out of convenience.  Take my own former band, The Speedies. They played out for 6 months without a bassist before I came along. I saw them play at Max's and I could feel what they were missing. I walked up to Allen, the drummer & flat out told him, you need a bass player & I'm him. We tried it out the following week, and they never went back to playing without one.

 

[John Carlucci]

Also at John... I was the first Bass player in Head Cat with Lemmy. I played electric, he played acoustic guitar. Also.... someone mentioned baritone guitar. I also play baritone & I've been hired to do an occasional Rockabilly gig to play along with a standup. Basically I play bass lines exactly like I would on an electric bass, but since it's tuned to B you get a cool effect. And I add echo. BTW, don't confuse a baritone with a bass VI. They are different. Bass VI is 30 inch scale tuned to E, baritone is 27 inch, with lighter strings, tuned to B. I play both.

[Axel Björnsson]

Im more for the drummer/bass lineup.. but like many have said it's different between bands...

[The Honey Harlows]

I like bass too, but THE HONEY HARLOWS use a 70's Fender Super Six 6X10 combo, everything turned up to "11", and it's actually better than the 5-piece Ampeg/Marshall assualt--don't get me wrong, I like that!--but the heavy low end and treble with reverb, you can't go wrong and our recording has a lot of punch and lo-end for a 2pc.! Possibly the equipment has a lot to do with what the ear hears, for me anyway.

[Black Rabbit]

I could not agree more. Where's the interplay and harmony? A troubling trend in rock music today. You need at least three people in a band! Of course there are exceptions but most people are not as talented as The Cramps or White Stripes or whoever...

[swt]

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion!

[shmo]

yeah, we had a guy approach us and said almost the exact  same thing.... we never got to try him out for geographical reasons, but i would bet dollars to donuts that he would have chopped the tops off the sound we are going for. and, in turn put everybody in the audience in a comfortable upright, head bobbing toe tapping position. people like bands like THAT because they don't have to worry about missing a show.... there will be another one just like it.

i sincerely mean no disrespect... but we get the "where's the bass player" thing a lot. usually before they have heard us. and i am way more concerned about where the energy is, and where the emotion is than where the bass player is.

John Carlucci said:

Well I have to admit, I'm biased about this topic.  Yes there are bands that sound okay without a bass player, but IMO, they would sound better with one. Just about any band I've ever seen live that had no bass player, whether it was Suicide, The Cramps, Black Keys, or even my good friends the Vooduo, when I'm there watching them play, I'm playing along with them, on bass, (in my head) & I hear things that would help tie everything together.  @ John B above...Lee Michaels played bass pedals on the Hammond live. Suicide used a bassy tone on their keyboards & played repeating bass patterns much like a bassist would do. No-one mentioned The Doors, they had no permanent bassist, In the studio they used session bassist Harvey Brooks & live Manzarek played Fender Keyboard bass. The Dead Boys used local NY musicians to play bass with them until Jeff made the move from Ohio. One of which was Rudi from The Fuzztones who played live with them at least once at CBGB's.

Also, IMO most of the bands doing the no-bass thing are doing so out of convenience.  Take my own former band, The Speedies. They played out for 6 months without a bassist before I came along. I saw them play at Max's and I could feel what they were missing. I walked up to Allen, the drummer & flat out told him, you need a bass player & I'm him. We tried it out the following week, and they never went back to playing without one.

 

[shmo]

don't forget the sex pistols.... haha.

[John Carlucci]

Glen Matlock was/is a good bassist. Now Sid on the other hand...