Band idea, two bassists

[Bromosapian]

After hearing justin chancellor and joe lester doing a bass duet on intronaut's last album I got the idea for a band formulated like this: Bass, fretted, running trebly with a lot of grit in the sound, bass, fretless, with a very clean sound, preferably a 5+ string bass (I love the way fretless basses sound on the really low notes), a guitar, drums and a percussionist. Depending on the range of the fretless/fretted the guitar could be optional.

Has anyone else ever run a double bass (sorry for the pun....) set up like that? Any advice for wrangling people into trying this would help too :P.

[pklima]

No vocals? 'Cause that would make a pretty big difference.

[rhino333]

Didn't Spinal Tap do the multi-bass thing?

[Yerf Dog]

Originally Posted by rhino333

Didn't Spinal Tap do the multi-bass thing?

Big Bottom

[Hoover]

I've played in several multi-bass ensembles...but all were instrumental groups loosely in the category of "avant-garde jazz" so there was probably a bit more leeway than you'd find amongst rock or pop musicians. (Maybe.)

Irrespective of what your idea is though, I've found the best way to wrangle other people in to a project is to have an idea in the first place. Musicians are attracted to vision (and visionaries). You may need a bit more than just "I wanna have two basses, one grindy and the other clean & fretless" but if you can describe an aesthetic or a zeitgeist that this ensemble will embrace, you'll probably get some takers. I can't imagine anyone -- other than another bass player, LOL! -- will be put off by the two-bass concept if it's in support of a compelling idea.

[pklima]

Lots of people have done this kind of lineup, from weird noise to perfectly normal-sounding pop-rock (see here for an example with two very cute bassists). I've done it myself in metal with a combination of distorted BG and bowed DB.

As far as the people-wrangling goes, if there's no guitar it can't be too hard to find bassists and drummers who are tired of guitarists and want to get away from them for a while.

[Breslin dp]

Quite a few bands have done that actually.

Ned's Atomic Dustbin did that in the 90's.

[richardzbaraski]

theres a band called LCD cd system or something which do something similar, they really are bad though :/

[80'sRocker]

Originally Posted by Breslin dp

Quite a few bands have done that actually.

Ned's Atomic Dustbin did that in the 90's.

Yes , Ned's Atomic Dustbin had 2 bass players. They were pretty good

[basswalker2004]

Originally Posted by Bromosapian

After hearing justin chancellor and joe lester doing a bass duet on intronaut's last album I got the idea for a band formulated like this: Bass, fretted, running trebly with a lot of grit in the sound, bass, fretless, with a very clean sound, preferably a 5+ string bass (I love the way fretless basses sound on the really low notes), a guitar, drums and a percussionist. Depending on the range of the fretless/fretted the guitar could be optional.

Has anyone else ever run a double bass (sorry for the pun....) set up like that? Any advice for wrangling people into trying this would help too :P.

Been done many times...
Check out Vic Wooten and Anthony Wellington in Vic's group..
ALso,, bass extreams... Vic and Steve Bailey..

[dozicusmaximus]

Tusks of Blood
http://www.myspace.com/tusksofbloodaredead
2 bassists and a drummer

[Mete]

3 bassist, 1 vocal and a drummer, it was something experimental that i did with some friends like 2 years ago we successed on many songs, but improvisation sounded better (we were using distortion, flange & wah pedals)

[rythman6969]

was in a project called Smoked Arm Picnic. 2 basses, 2 drums. that is all.

there have been lots though.

double trios, double quartets and such.

[bosozoku]

Check out ''Butterfly Train". BT had two bassists and a drummer. Brett Nelson (bassist of Built to Spill) was the frontman.