Metal band with no Low End

[powmetalbassist]

So a friend of mine has rejoined the band that I had left earlier in 2012. No big deal I could care less, we are all still on good terms.

Anyway I was talking to him and he says the band is going forward without a bassist and now has 3 guitarists.....wait for it....breath......ok

Now that the shock has passed through your veins lets look at this. 3 guitarists in a metal band...not unheard of, but fairly rare, on top of that it has no bassist (they don't seem to want to find one). Ok....sure. Just wondering what the community thinks of this. Personally I think it'll sound mediocre at best, they are all good guitarists and know their stuff. I just can't see them doing the covers they were mentioning. Can't remember the exact songs but some covers include: Behemoth, Iron Maiden and Dragonforce.

I just can't imagine it sounding very good without the low end keeping those three egotistical bast...I mean guitarists in line and maintaining a balance as it were.

Now I know alot of you smart asses are going to pop into this thread. I'm just wondering what you guys think and if my friend is walking into a train wreck waiting to happen.

[tink9975]

Maiden with no Bass? FAIL

[Russell foulkes]

Im in a..........'metal' band with three guitarists, luckily they seem to let me do what I want. ive listened to them without me during writing and its a w9nk fest

[PurpleDrank]

Your friend joined a metal band with no low end, huh?

I didn't know Metallica needed another guitarist...

[father of fires]

If they down tune into the bass region it could work. I've seen a few bands pull it off but it would usually be original music designed around not having a bass.

[Legault]

It's possible one of the guitar plays could be tuned down to a bass, meshuggah tuning

[ZeroSymbolic]

I wouldn't do it, but Motorhead, although they have Lemmy, the way he plays is more of a rhythm bass than a deep bass. I think it could work, but dragonforce... LMAO.

[SquierJazz72]

Maiden with no Bass? FAIL

+1 Epic Fail

Original music written without bass in mind is one thing. Covering bass heavy music without it, is ...........something else.

[4dog]

Originally Posted by SquierJazz72

+1 Epic Fail

Original music written without bass in mind is one thing. Covering bass heavy music without it, is ...........something else.

Uh crap.

[SquierJazz72]

Uh crap.

Just my opinion, and not unlike someone elses, so why not clarify your own, rather than just throwing a one liner?

[Evil Undead]

I think he was saying that crap should go where the something else is.

[knumbskull]

just to play devil's advocate, i played a gig with these guys a few years back and they sounded great. not exactly metal, but very heavy, and not at all lacking in low end. they had 3 guitarists and a drummer... i think they tuned to drop C.

at least one guitarist had a big fuzzy bottom end

Let Our Enemies Beware:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv0zrAOwcNQ

[SquierJazz72]

Ah, if so, my bad. Sorry.
Didn't intend to take anything the wrong way.

I guess brevity is sometimes easy to misread.

[Nashrakh]

3 guitarist and no bassist = someone is gonna be stuck in bass duty and it's usually the worst of the three lol.

Can already see where that's going including the possible drama of hurt egos.

[father of fires]

Here's some metal without a bassist:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_SqtCNhv44

[gard0300]

Not sure if its a duplicate. But Metallica on the Justice album.

[nixdad]

The funny thing is, most major metal concerts I have attended have had almost no bass in the mix (which was audible.) It was all bass drum, guitars and cymbals.

Very disappointing.

[LeoSash]

I find that most metal i've heard now a days doesn't really need a bass because its so distorted and heavy already the bass wouldn't add much, especially with 3 guitarists.

That being said, the only problem i see here is trying to play iron maiden without a bass which is like trying to play any judas priest song without the halford like voice. It just doesn't work. It may sound good or it may sound really bad but we won't know until we hear it.

[alec]

Animals As Leaders manage OK without a bassist by downtuning 7 string guitars.

[keiththebassist]

Originally Posted by alec

Animals As Leaders manage OK without a bassist by downtuning 7 string guitars.

Also 8 string. Bunch of kids in my area are now all onto 8's as the "new thing". Meh, at that point they should just play bass with super light gauge strings. Oh wait, then they wouldn't be cool anymore. Damn.