Allmighty octave

[Gerovit]

Hello there fellow bass musicians!! I became a member recently, and I am happy, since I found the site only for bassists.
Anyway, I saw immediately that topic concearning "how-to-be-heard" dilemma, and I have a question for experienced colleagues out there.
Well, I simply discovered that using a lower octave on bass when guitar plays higher, and vice versa gives excellent results, in those cases, bass is always clearly audible. It also goes great with down-tuned distirted guitars as well.
Well, my question is, are there any "limitations" or downfalls of this theoreticall approach? I haven't seen many bass players who employ this way of thinking.

Thanx in advance

[Festus]

Maybe, just maybe, you got lucky.

[kdash]

well the guitar is tuned one octave higher than the bass, so whatever the guitarist does, he cannot reach the low E which we can with our basses. so the bass should be able to be distinct. unless the guitarist whacks his bass strings and your bass amp is weak.

i've encountered times when the guitarist's/keyboardist's playing covered my bass playing. i'd inform the guitarist/keyboardist to listen out, and to lower their bass equaliser. don't let them take away your bass role.

[Fendr1320]

I'd also add that, depending on the style of music, if you go up an octave (as opposed to the normal 1 below guitar), the bottom will drop out of the band's sound if it's a hard rock/metal thing. Maybe that's what you want, groups like Tool do that sometimes. If it's a cleaner guitar tone, and there's more room in the arrangement, you're a lot freer as to what will sound "right". I play in a band that does riff-based hard rock, so most of the time I need to lay right under the guitar, because he's tuned down and plays with lots of distortion, so there's no point in trying to fight through that. I pick my spots to go up the neck and do melodic stuff, almost always it's when the guitar does simpler stuff with a cleaner tone.

[Jazzdogg]

Clarity and audibility have as much to do with the timbre and relative complexity of each instrument's sound as they have to do with the octave(s) each instrument is occupying.

Consider the difference between a jazz guitarist playing straight chords with an upright bassist who's playing a walking line versus a rock guitarist playing so-called power chords through a distortion pedal and an electric bassist who's using effects and playing 16th notes.