2 basses... power struggle?... unneccisary?... useful?

[bergy9650]

i recentley invited a second bassist to jam with my band this perticular guy was pretty good and has good taste in music... so as the night wore on it seemed like there was no use for too basses and we both were trying to be more prominenent... so me being a leader.... i took charge and said ok look ill take care of the bass riffs and groove you can work on the root notes... soo it worked out well what do you think?

[dalkowski]

"It worked out well."

Your words, not mine.

[smogg]

there can be only one...............

[R. Laevinus]

Depends. Two basses in a 'normal' band I don't think would work out very well - there's just not enough sonic space, once you have a couple of guitar players, keys, sax, fiddle, etc etc etc.

However - just for my own amusement, I occaisionally do some simple little tunes that feature more than one bass - one actually features three simultaeneous basslines - a melody, a harmony, and a rythym line. There are no other instruments, and I figure it works pretty well - it's not something many would listen to, but it does work okay.

So I guess it can work - but only if you specifically write songs that have multiple basses in mind.

[grifff]

I love spell check.

You said it worked out.

[JimiLL]

Originally Posted by grifff

I love spell check.

You said it worked out.

im sure thats what he thinks....

[JHorstmann]

Even though you may have 2 basses, you don't have 2 bass players. Even though you have 2 electric guitars in the band, one is 'usually' rhythm and the other electric (although sometimes they switch, etc.) Just like with any instrument in a rock band if you have a lot of one instrument playing the same thing it generally gets cluttered unless the music calls for it.

[ggunn]

Talk about mud flaps!

[7StringBassist]

I can see two bass recordings in a jazz setting or in a bass solo

but if it worked for you then eh

[paganjack]

I don't know if I would call that "working out well" were I the one stuck playing root notes yet again.

I think 2 basses could work if you had an unusual setup. It seems that it would work for experimental music like noise or doom. It clearly can work with funk a la SMV...if you have enough chops to go around. For playing rock...not so much.

[Axtman]

I currently play in a church band with an upright bass player. I'm and electric bass player. What we do is she plays the long bowed bottom notes and I play up an octave and play faster groove notes. I am even trying to get 2 octaves above her but stay away from the electric guitar players territory. Sometimes she plays the whole song if it is a slow soft ballad. I sometimes play the whole song if it is a rock'n or funky piece.

I don't play fretless when she is there because of the possibility of us both being out of tune. She usually intonates of my fretted playing.

[iamlowsound]

I have jammed it in the past and had a small project going with a bass player and a piccolo bass player. It was a lot of fun, but that was about it.

lowsound

[PZapdos]

itd work if you both had different, distinguishable sounds.

[bergy9650]

Originally Posted by PZapdos

itd work if you both had different, distinguishable sounds.

wee did completely diffrent hshaha

[bergy9650]

Originally Posted by paganjack

I don't know if I would call that "working out well" were I the one stuck playing root notes yet again.

I think 2 basses could work if you had an unusual setup. It seems that it would work for experimental music like noise or doom. It clearly can work with funk a la SMV...if you have enough chops to go around. For playing rock...not so much.

he didnt seem to mind, knowing him like i do he dosent mind doinng grunt work, he rather enjoys it and to him the fun is in the who senario-good guy