Want to play bass - maybe stuck with guitar duty

[Bloodhammer]

Okay, here's a hypothetical question for you guys (actually not hypothetical in my case):

A friend and I are determined to start a band together whenever he's done with college. That should be next fall or maybe even late summer if he can keep his nose to the grindstone, so I'm dealing with a lot of time before we try to get this thing going. The trouble (besides having to find a drummer) is that we're both bass players.

I play guitar and bass and can do some backup vocal stuff if it doesn't involve having to be able to sing.
He's a singer and a bassist, but can't do both at the same time. He wants to do lead vocals, which isn't a problem with me, but that makes it to where we'll need to bring in another guitarist or another bassist as well as a drummer.

My dilemma:
I would really like to play bass in this project because no one ever plays bass along with my riffs in a creative manner. But I also want to play MY riffs :tantrum:* and if I'm on bass, whoever we bring in on guitar is not going to want to do that or he/she will change them into something that no longer fits the original time signature. (I'm being pessimistic here - just bear with me....) Should I surrender the riffage to someone else and be all the bass I can be, or should I take control of our overall sound on guitar and just [go to therapy to]* deal with the fact that I'd rather be playing bass?













* humor

[MatticusMania]

Go a step further, take control of your overall sound via the bass.

Listen to anything from early 90s Janes Addiction, most of that is all written around Eric Avery's bass lines. You can make your bass so awesome that the guitarist has to write parts to support your bass pwnage.

[Bloodhammer]

The trouble with that is finding a drummer who plays with the bass instead of the guitar Maybe I should work on my tapping so I can do some Tony Choy type stuff and make him think I'm way better than I really am. Like a Ceasar Milan type of dominance thing...




Also I need name suggestions for the sub-sub-sub-genre of metal we're going to play.*










* Humor, once again

[Eater_of_Birds]

Sympho-grey jazz-polymathemetal.*



*also humour as I enjoy obscure metal choons.

[chaosMK]

I think you should be able to have your input on things regardless of which instrument you choose. Just work with your collaborators.

[jwj1701]

at least you have a gig. if you have to play guitar, be he best damn guitar player they've ever heard.

[DaDrew2112]

Honestly, if your going for artistic control you're going to want to play guitar IMHO. It's easier to dictate how songs are going to go if you play guitar. Not saying bass doesn't make/break a song because it does frequently, but guitar is a more straightforward way to do it. Plus you'll get more attention from the ladies. That being said, don't become a douche-bag lol

[klejst]

Simple perhaps trade off playing one instrument on certain songs and the other on another song. Flip a coin, or better yet just choose the one you feel the strongest towards. You can still play one or the other, just maybe not in the band. Because you don't play it in the band does not mean you can't as a hobby. It's really up to you to make the choice man.

[ggunn]

There's no reason you can't be in more than one project. Play guitar in one, get some recording gear and play all the parts in another.

[Bloodhammer]

Originally Posted by klejst

Simple perhaps trade off playing one instrument on certain songs and the other on another song. Flip a coin, or better yet just choose the one you feel the strongest towards. You can still play one or the other, just maybe not in the band. Because you don't play it in the band does not mean you can't as a hobby. It's really up to you to make the choice man.

Oh I know it's my choice. What's really going to make up my mind in the end are the people I end up collaborating with. I was just interested in what you guys would do.

I've always played bass in gigging bands and the bulk of original material was usually the work of one of the guitarists. Of course I wrote my own bass lines, but once the band broke up, those were all I had to salvage. I couldn't just steal someone else's songs and teach them to other people. I want to be in a situation where when somebody quits, I can replace them and keep going with the same material.

[seanm]

Originally Posted by Bloodhammer

The trouble with that is finding a drummer who plays with the bass instead of the guitar

Hmmm, I have never had that problem.

But it sounds like you would be much better off playing guitar. Bass tends to be a more supportive role (doesn't have to be, but tends to be) and it sound like you want a dominant role. It will be a much easier fit on guitar.

And I voted cowbell because you can never have too much cowbell!