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How Many Basses at the Live Gig?
- Thread starter bmusic
- Start date
Take one bass you trust, unless you also play fretless, then take a fretted bass you trust and a fretless bass you trust and call it good.
One and a backup. Set right in the mix, lock in with the drummer and play the right notes…Your “tone” will be just right. The audience is not listening the tonal differences of the bass you are playing from one song to the next.
For 40 years or so, most of them professionally, I had one bass at the gig - a Precision. It never let me down. Now I take a back-up simply because it’s quicker to grab it than it is to change a string, but so far I haven’t needed it.
The most basses I ever bring to a gig is 1 upright and 1 electric. In 40 years of gigging, I've never needed a backup bass.
One. Only one. Never had a bass fail or broken a string in 45 years.
Well you can do like Geddy did and bring a truckload of basses and play them all for a song and swap back and forth. Lol but seriously though, bring the fretless because if you want that twangy muahh that's what it takes. For the rest I'd say either the mustang or the pbass. They both seem like they can almost copy each other and do what the other does. Keep in mind that the venue and what your ears tell you during soundcheck is going to be what dictates the eq and all that. It's not like being in studio and twisting knobs trying to get takes. It's live entertainment and the focus is going to be on getting a good sound that's going to work for the whole show. The rest is all getting that audience following along and up out of their seats. Go have fun and don't worry about what eq for what part. The audience just wants you to get into it and jam along with the rest of the band.
When I was touring, I always had two... One that was the primary player, and a back-up; just in case something went wrong.
Once and a while I'd play a tune or two on the back-up bass if I felt like switching things up a bit.
Once and a while I'd play a tune or two on the back-up bass if I felt like switching things up a bit.
1
I once went with none...that's rght, I forgot put my bass in my car and had to call my wife to bring it to me. Fortunately, we were playing only 10 minutes from home but it was too late for me to make the round trip and finish setting up before start time.
I once went with none...that's rght, I forgot put my bass in my car and had to call my wife to bring it to me. Fortunately, we were playing only 10 minutes from home but it was too late for me to make the round trip and finish setting up before start time.
I've done gigs where I only use 1 bass for 3 sets and gigs where I use 4 or 5 basses for a dozen or so songs. There's no tried and true. It depends on what works for the the gig and the songs and the artist. I do keep in mind differing tones and levels when using different basses and will use a clean boost pedal or know where to set the volume on each bass to make sure the sound guy isn't having to make crazy adjustments song to song.
2 basses for a gig. What I will use as my main bass and a backup. No more than that for me. I don't want to haul around that much.
Live gigs, only one bass, either upright or electric. ... Recording gigs, I'll take one upright and electric.
2-ish. Fretless and fretted. Maybe 3 but usually not. Not really a backup but I want the fretless around.
2. In case you break a string. I would usually just use one "main" though. I ain't got time to be switching basses, all of my basses have Hipshot Bass Extenders if I need to Drop D (or Drop C# in the case of our band).
