Funny, at least a few of these two-bass acts have a Ric as one, playing high up on the neck, which sounds kinda guitarish.
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Band with two bass players
- Thread starter BklynKen
- Start date
Nice one. I think I was searching for two girls in one cup.
It's also worth remembering that there is a much longer history of this as a studio technique, than just as an unusual lineup for a band :
It's quite common to overdub an electric bass, on top of an upright bass ("Walk On The Wild Side", being a famous example), and there was a period where "Fuzz Bass" was considered a separate instrument from the regular electric bass, having dedicated specialist players ("Under My Thumb" by The Rolling Stones be an example).
Nine basses and eleven trombones would be just about right.
I was in a band with another bassist once, with me playing distorted riffs with a pick and him doing a lot of clean slap stuff. Had that band not broke up over personality conflicts I think we could have really been on to something.
To be fair, Ned's Atomic Dustbin became a live phenomenon (cranking out 200+ shows a year in the early 90's) before they had a record deal, and their first 3 independent EPs were so successful, the band was immediately signed by Sony (about as huge a major label as existed at the time).
Their debut album went straight in to the UK charts, at number 1, and they had a number 16 single out of that (as well as a couple of top 20/30 singles from subsequent albums.
They recorded the theme song to Mike Myers movie "So I Married an Axe Murderer", and have tracks on the Grand Theft Auto.
Beyond the usual multiple world tours etc, they even played the CEO of Sony up, and back down the aisle at his wedding in Japan (which is frankly bizarre in so many ways).
Now, obviously their music never was to everyone's tastes, but it's a bit disingenuous to label that kind of success "limited", or to suggest that they hadn't figured out how to make the whole 2 bass players thing work.
We saw Little Richard at The Bottom Line in NYC...ha had two bass players both using 8x10 Hartke rigs.. one of the top 5 shows I’ve been to.
Victor Wooten, Stanley Clark, and Marcus Miller make 3 work. I work at a company where there a lot of musicians, and at Christmas, people form ad hoc bands and we do a show. One year, I was part of a group that had no guitars, 8 bass players, and a drummer. The key is figuring out parts for everyone.
2 bassists is very doable.
2 bassists is very doable.
Red Hot Chili Peppers and Talking Heads have used 2 bass players for live shows.
Not disingenuous. Possibly ignorant on my part maybe since I’m genuinely not familiar with them. But definitely not disingenuous. At least as far as I understand the meaning of disingenuous.
But back to an earlier question I had: Do they have two simultaneous bass parts going - or is it more there’s two bass guitars with one handling the bass role and the other doing more a guitar role?
Update: Ok. I just caught a few vids over on YT. Pretty clever on their part using a Fender and a Ric - and yes! both doing separate bass parts but with contrasting voices.
So ok. I stand corrected. There’s at least one band that made it work.
Thx for bringing them to my attention.
Talking Heads did it with Busta Jones and Tina Weymouth.
If you expand the concept of bass a tad, King Crimson had Tony Levin on bass and Chapman Stick and Trey Gunn on Chapman Stick and Warr touchboard guitar back in the '90s.
Interesting that Adrian Belew is in both line ups...
If you expand the concept of bass a tad, King Crimson had Tony Levin on bass and Chapman Stick and Trey Gunn on Chapman Stick and Warr touchboard guitar back in the '90s.
Interesting that Adrian Belew is in both line ups...
Not disingenuous. Possibly ignorant on my part maybe since I’m genuinely not familiar with them. But definitely not disingenuous. At least as far as I understand the meaning of disingenuous.
But back to an earlier question I had: Do they have two simultaneous bass parts going - or is it more there’s two bass guitars with one handling the bass role and the other doing more a guitar role?
Update: Ok. I just caught a few vids over on YT. Pretty clever on their part using a Fender and a Ric - and yes! both doing separate bass parts but with contrasting voices.
So ok. I stand corrected. There’s at least one band that made it work.
Thx for bringing them to my attention.
No problem, and apologies if I came across as a hardass.
It was a Stingray (through Trace Elliot), and a Rickenbacker 4001 (through an SVT).
Two Bass parts, but often with one mostly high, and one mostly low.
"Suave and Suffocated" / "Walking Through Syrup" / "Swallowing Air" each display three slightly different approaches to using the two basses together - and that's just in the first three or four tracks on their second album "Are You Normal?"
The single "Happy" was their biggest hit, which opens with the high bass riff - the guitar is mostly just there for added bite, though generally when the high bass was melodic, the guitar would be thrashy / wah chords, and when the high bass was power chords, the guitar would be melodic.
Hugo Largo. 2 basses, a violin and singer. No drums but ironically named their first album “drum”. Pretty eclectic and ambient at times but definitely worth checking out. Brian Eno signed them to his label and then somehow David Byrne got involved and that was all they had in them. Plenty of stuff on YouTube.
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Check out The Dirtbombs, with Mick Collins on guitar and lead vocals, two basses and two drummers....
Bass Invaders - a heavy metal band with no guitars that is led by Peavy Wagner of Rage fame. Rage is a legendary German thrash band. Not saying everyone should be all over this stuff, but it was done. And I haven’t seen anyone mention this band or genre yet, so there’s it is!
Once...against my will. It was the biggest cluster ^%&# of mud I've heard in my life. Never again.
