No Lead Guitarist = Small Problem For Me.

[SOA_bassist]

I have been friends with everyone in my band for a long time, we all love playing the same music and get along well, but our only problem is the only other person we know who would fit in as a lead guitarist for the band lives in Arizona for now ( we are in California ). We have tried other guitarists but they were either not good enough or didnt like the genre's we played ( death metal, thrash metal ).

Due to the lack of a lead guitarist a lot of our parts sound very small and empty unless i am harmonizing with the rhythm, which is fun at times, but unless i am playing the same thing as the guitarist the riffs sound too hollow. I have experemented with different EQ's and multiple lines and different fills ( im not that good of a bassist but i experiement as much as i can, seeing as how we play these songs dozens of times per practice ) but it just doesnt sound right.

now, getting a small bass break here and there and harmonizing in octaves, fifths, or thirds with the guitarist sounds cool at times, but it gets boring for me. any of you know of any solutions?

[Peter McFerrin]

Your other guitarist could do the Meshuggah thing and put a slapback delay in his signal chain, leaving it on constantly. Or, you could get an 8-string bass.

Where in California are you guys located? Surely there's someone your age in your town, or a neighboring one, who plays death/thrash lead guitar.

[SOA_bassist]

I live in the morongo basin and there is one hardcore band and their guitarist is very fast and good with all kinds of metal but doesnt know enough theory for decent leads ( he even admits that he isntready for leads ) then there is another DM band and they are dedicated to their 1 band, and then every other musician is into either emo and pop-punk or classic rock. So far we have gone through 5 leads that really jammed with us and only the guy that is currently in Arizona works out.

Ill tell the guitarist to try a slapback delay effect to see if it thickens stuff up, and ill try out some 8-string basses next time i go to a GC.

thanks for the help, and i never knew meshuggah did that lol, gotta listen to more of them.

=-p =-)

[Peter McFerrin]

See if you can't find a dude in Yucca Valley or the Coachella Valley area. You're sort of in one of the major cradles of heavy music: Fu Manchu are from Joshua Tree, and Josh Homme and Nick Olivieri (Kyuss, QOTSA) are from Palm Desert. Morongo Valley is pretty much equidistant from the two.

What's it like growing up way out in the desert? I'm from the very fringes of the Chicago area, but that's soybean fields and nuclear power plants, not sagebrush and meth labs.

[SOA_bassist]

omgosh i cant freaking believe there are big bands from here or that someone knows of this place. the singer and i live in yucca, and my guitarist and drummer live near landers.

We have checked with every guitarist we know and they either dont like the genre ( this place is big on emo, pop-punk, hip-hop, and classic rock and classic metal ) or they just are not any good ( some have been playing over a year and still cant play power chords well, i can play power chords on my bass in a low position drop-tuned that sound cleaner and better lol ).

oh and my dad used to lvie in chicago lol.

here in the desert it sucks. small towns that have weather that fluctuates more than a woman's personality during that time of the month, tons of alcoholics and druggies, tons of useless people that bum off of others, few if any job openings, and decent bassists are rare here and not respected most of the time. Infact, i only know of five other good bassists in this area, three are adults that have their own jam bands and two teens that are also in their own bands.

[SOA_bassist]

sorry for the double post, comp lagged, sorry