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Bands with more than one bass player

#42
There are a couple of Jah Wobble/Bill Laswell records where Wobble does his dub thing and Laswell does high pitched fretless stuff. I'm a fan of both of those guys and even saw the two of them do this live a million years ago at the original Knitting Factory, but I found this particular combo pretty disappointing in practice.

There was also a band back around 1990 called Cop Shoot Cop that had two bassists, one doing low ending stuff and the other chords guitar like stuff. Again, kinda less exciting than it sounds.

Probably the best two bass combo is the Cure when they bring in the Bass VI, even as it's played melodically and is quite distinct from Simon Gallups' regular bass work.
 
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#43
When I was a teenager a friend and I thought it would be cool to have two bass players in a band. Why not? We thought we could be trend setters. This idea was influenced by the Allman Brothers who had two drummers and played to great effect. It didn't occur to us for one to play high while and the other low which makes sense but instead for one to play a part that compliments the other or to play in syncopation or one to play the even 16th (or possibly 32 beats) while the other plays the odd beats resulting in some fast timing.

Anyway, it was just an idea that we never got the opportunity to experiment with. But good question by the OP and I'm curious if anyone actually made this work. So I'll go back and actually read through the thread.
 
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#48
This is a live performance by Racer-X covering "Godzilla". It's not a true two bass player performance but it's close. Paul Gilbert (who is amazing) plays a guitar with the fattest strings you can put on an electric guitar and tuned low making it almost a bass. Take note of what he says about at the beginning. His bass heavy guitar works for this particular song. I really like their version and their performance is electric. One key thing about the song "Godzilla" is that the punch of a P bass powered by saturated tubes make a big impact to give the effect of Godzilla's feet stomping the ground. In this version, Paul's bass heavy guitar does a good job accomplishing this feat (or feet). Headphones or audio system cranked up is recommended.
 
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#53
I tried getting a 2-bass band together recently. I was to be on 8-string while the other guy was playing fretless. The fretless guy never made it to the second meeting, but posting an ad on Craigslist for a drummer for a dual bass doom band brought the drummers out in force.

A few others haven't been named yet:

January's Little Joke - from Albuquerque, one normal bass and one piccolo bass

Sorxe - from Phoenix. Two basses on their first album.
 
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#54
Come to think of it. I saw a Roger Waters concert just a few years ago and he had a second bass player in the back. Pink Floyd music is not that technically challenging and they never needed a second bassist. However, I give Roger a pass since he's getting up there in years, has to focus on singing, he's a legend and we're fortunate that we can still see him perform live. The concert was incredible with amazing visuals, beautiful twins singing chorus beautifully and well, he's the man. Too bad Roger and Dave have burned too many bridges.
 
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#55
Mine!
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