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Band with two bass players

It's really rare, the question is whether you want to take the time to do the arranging that would make it work, and whether your audiences will care much for the music you end up with after that's all done. I see it in jazz and funk sometimes, a band called Ghost-Note was in town last year and I saw them with two killer bassists (AJ Brown and Mononeon) but that kind of music is not for everyone.




And that is pretty much exactly how Prince used to use 2 bassists (himself being one of them).
 
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That's actually something I've been trying to figure out, which could also work into this situation. Mostly for recording ideas at home, since I don't play guitar, I'd like to find out how to make a bass sound like a guitar. There are some all-bass bands who've done that. The only one that comes to mind is these guys: Switchblade Kittens . Something about not wanting to deal with guitarists' attitudes.

Fundamentally, all he's doing in Royal Blood is splitting the bass signal, with one line going through an octave up (POG, or whatever) and a bunch of guitar effects - creating a typical bass & guitar in unison, like most of the Sex Pistols tracks.

It's been done millions of times the other way around, with guitarists using an octave down effect, to get guitar & bass in unison, an octave apart.

In Royal Blood, he can mute either line, so that the bass can kick back in, or the pseudo-guitar can solo.

This was pretty common, using Rick-O-Sound (the Rickenbacker 4001 originally had a resistor on the bridge pickup, that filtered out the low end - of course a lot of people snipped that resistor to have a full sound from that pickup), where you'd send the neck pickup to a bass amp, and the bridge pickup to a guitar amp - perhaps through effects etc.

Death From Above have been utilizing that technique from the get-go (though through 2 bass amps).

You could just as easily take the feed from the bridge pickup of a 4001, and put that through an octave up effect, prior to the guitar effects, and amp.

Combining Death From Above / Royal Blood technique bass, with GVSB / Ned's / C$C low end bass, would be absolutely awesome - but I've been trying to do that for decades, and never found the right combination of 2nd bassist & drummer...

The drummer is a truly major component in the success, or failure of a band like this.

It still boggles my mind that Ned's Atomic Dustbin were, on average, 17 years old when they put out that first record (the drumming on "Aim" really turned a lot of peoples heads, across many genres, at the time), and the girl who produced all their records, up to & including their debut album, was only 21 years old.

Older, and wiser, but a tremendous drummer none the less, Girls Against Boys sound is defined more by their drummer, than the fact that 50% of their songs feature 2 basses (check out "Tucked In", or "Kill The Sex Player").
 


I've seen them a couple of times. This is a weird situation. That's Peter Hook's son on the other bass. Hook doesn't play at all when he's singing.

Fundamentally, all he's doing in Royal Blood is splitting the bass signal, with one line going through an octave up (POG, or whatever) and a bunch of guitar effects - creating a typical bass & guitar in unison, like most of the Sex Pistols tracks.

It's been done millions of times the other way around, with guitarists using an octave down effect, to get guitar & bass in unison, an octave apart.

In Royal Blood, he can mute either line, so that the bass can kick back in, or the pseudo-guitar can solo.

This was pretty common, using Rick-O-Sound (the Rickenbacker 4001 originally had a resistor on the bridge pickup, that filtered out the low end - of course a lot of people snipped that resistor to have a full sound from that pickup), where you'd send the neck pickup to a bass amp, and the bridge pickup to a guitar amp - perhaps through effects etc.

Death From Above have been utilizing that technique from the get-go (though through 2 bass amps).

You could just as easily take the feed from the bridge pickup of a 4001, and put that through an octave up effect, prior to the guitar effects, and amp.

Combining Death From Above / Royal Blood technique bass, with GVSB / Ned's / C$C low end bass, would be absolutely awesome - but I've been trying to do that for decades, and never found the right combination of 2nd bassist & drummer...

The drummer is a truly major component in the success, or failure of a band like this.

It still boggles my mind that Ned's Atomic Dustbin were, on average, 17 years old when they put out that first record (the drumming on "Aim" really turned a lot of peoples heads, across many genres, at the time), and the girl who produced all their records, up to & including their debut album, was only 21 years old.

Older, and wiser, but a tremendous drummer none the less, Girls Against Boys sound is defined more by their drummer, than the fact that 50% of their songs feature 2 basses (check out "Tucked In", or "Kill The Sex Player").
Bookmarked for future reference!
 
The Band did some two bass stuff in the 80s.

Band.PNG
Band2.PNG
 
NADB had one of the best t-shirts ever... on the front it said, "If you missed Ned's Atomic Dustbin"...and then on the back it said, "You F***ed up".

Their T-shirts were legendary

They were extraordinarily canny in that regard, being the first band of that era to truly understand, and capitialise on merchandise.

They spent years touring their asses off, building a fan base, and becoming a truly outstanding live act, before they had a record deal - so the only product they had to generate extra income, was T-Shirts.


I think between 1987, and 1996, they'd produced over 80 unique designs - and they were really high quality, with their distinctive logo embossed in 3-dimesnional rubber (the long sleeve T-shirt for the "Happy" tour had a giant, glow in the dark, hand printed on the back).

Back then, the tickets to their shows were only about £5, and the T-shirts (which were a must have item back then) were about £8 for the short sleeved designs, and £12 for the long sleeve, and still considered pretty cheap - so you can see how big a deal clever merchandise was...

These days, most bands merchandise seems lazy, and vastly overpriced (much like the tickets).
 
Not many people would pay to see a band with 2 bass players. Even *I*, a bass lover, wouldn’t see such a band.
I would and did.
Twice.
Dixie Dregs with Andy West and Dave LaRue onstage 2005

Even three bass players at the same time.2007
BX3.

 
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