Best bass for garage rock ?

[2cooltoolz]

Gibson EB-0, EB-2, very common back then.

Silvertone, Airline, Teisco Del Rey.

His garage band "when" is not OUR garage band "when". That's all we could afford. And I couldn't afford the Gibsons.

Mine was a Kent, by the way.

 

[2cooltoolz]

Can't get much more garage than this.


"Sales of the Kingsmen record were initially so low (reportedly 600) that the group considered disbanding. Things changed when Boston's biggest DJ, Arnie Ginsburg, was given the record by a pitchman. Amused by its slapdash sound, he played it on his program as "The Worst Record of the Week". Despite the slam, listener response was swift and positive.[90]"

First song we (and everybody) learned!!

 

[Bighouse]

For most garage bands you can easily save 3/4 of the cost and get a bass with only three working strings, so long as it's not the E string that's broken.

 

[Koshchei]

Hi guys, Im in a 4piece garage rock band (guitar,bass,drums and singer) - just wondering what peoples thoughts are for a bass that would be most appropriate for style/sound ? Thanks

A Fodera Emperor Elite.

Seriously, whatever you have.

 

[Smith357]

 

[aus_bass]

^ That's so ugly, I kinda dig it.

 

[bobyoung53]

His garage band "when" is not OUR garage band "when". That's all we could afford. And I couldn't afford the Gibsons.

Mine was a Kent, by the way.

I'm not sure who 'his' is but I had a long scale single pickup Japanese bass from 1967 until 1969, probably a Teisco. I bought a new P bass in 1970, but that first bass got me through for a while. There's one thing young garage banders need to remember though, we were not consciously trying to sound like a 'garage band.' we were doing the best we could with the crap we had, Japanese guitars and basses and Silvertone amps. We all wanted Fenders and Gibsons just couldn't afford them. When I finally got the P bass and Dual Showman I was in heaven, of course by then we looked at that early stuff like it was caveman music, who knew it would actually become a style with a name? The 60's rock which is really what garage band music is, had at least as much to do with the level of musicianship as it had to do with the equipment.

 

[Fynn]

I'm all aboard with the P bass idea. And don't get afraid to use a pick. Also some light overdrive is great to cut through, without being overly intrusive. A P works great with the overdrive, and the sort of hollow sound you get from that split pickup really suits all kinds of hard music, where the guitars are in your face

 

[REMBO]

A Fender P Bass!

 

[salmon256]

Petey Dammit didn't even play a bass.

Lol, love Thee Oh Sees, Hellman is pretty sick though!

 

[2cooltoolz]

I'm not sure who 'his' is

"His" is the OP.....................

I don't believe he was asking about what you (and I) did 50+ years ago. I assumed he was talking about NOW. I would love to believe that there are still young people playing in Mom's garage.

The rest of your post.... "me too"

 

[Mosthigh]

P bass. A jazz is not big enough sound to keep up with the drummer

Tell that to John Paul Jones.

 

[bolophonic]

Anything thumpy.

 

[Element Zero]

Fodera, FBass, Ritter, Alembic...

I've taken my Fodera to a number of garage jams.

 

[Element Zero]

P bass. A jazz is not big enough sound to keep up with the drummer

Wait what?

 

[Auspuff]

Hi guys, Im in a 4piece garage rock band (guitar,bass,drums and singer) - just wondering what peoples thoughts are for a bass that would be most appropriate for style/sound ? Thanks

If you piss off the neighbors, you are golden.

 

[J-Mags]

Literally any 4-string bass with passive electronics would work, so get whatever seems to play well and strikes your conceptual aesthetic fancy.

I've always liked short-scale basses for garage rock. A Mustang would be cool, or a Gretsch Jr Jet, or a Guild hollowbody, or even a Musicmaster or Bronco.

I play garage punk and I have a P copy and a J copy and a Mustang and a Japanese oddball. They all work. I mostly use the P for gigs, but I used the J for the first time tonight. The reason I use the larger basses is mostly for aesthetics because I'm a big guy.

 

[Topkat13]

A bass guitar.

 

[gtirard]

Anything that feels good (neck, balance etc.), and looks great.
Excludes: 5 strings, headless, multi-scale…
Includes: P, J, Stingray, any G&l, Hollow or semi-hollow, Short scale…

 

[Michael Stanley 2112]

The jokester in me wants to say: "Ideally, it would be a bass made out of wood from an old garage that was torn down."

I think that would be poetically just.

To seriously answer the question: Recently, I have come to really appreciate the tonal span of P/J configured basses. I think they cover a huge area and many genres.