This is serious stuff

ok

 

YEAH!!!!! UP WITH BASS!!!!!

 

right

 

W3rd to yah!!

 

Actually there have been bands without bass players - like the Doors never had a regular bass player and the role was performed by the Ray Manzarek's bass pedals. Also some guitarists play 7 ot 8 string guitars like Charlie Hunter and play bass lines as well as chords/lead.

I did see a group live who had no bass player - just guitars and drums, plus occasional theremin - the "Jon Spencer Blues Explosion" . I must say it did sound strange to me - saw them at a big venue in Camden, London and it did realy feel to me like there was something missing all evening - but nobody else in the audience seemed to notice - all dancing away!

 

No.

Guitar is far more versatile. We play bass because we like bass, not because you can do more with it, because realistically you can do more with guitar.

 

If ya can't get down with tha bazzz, you aint got da ballzzz to whoomp some azzzz

 

not true! both have infinite possiblities! i believe literally, you can do an unlimited number of things with both, which is what makes music so great. o yea and the bass is the god!

 

When people go to see a band in a club/bar etc and they listen to the music they dance to the groove of the bass mostly. I don't think a lot of non-musicians realise it but the bass is the main instrument they can hear in a live situation. On a recording the bass is usually a little more subtle in the mix, and people don't notice it as much.

Personally I love the bass guitar, if I could be given god-like talent in ANY instrument, or for that matter anything, it would be bass playing.

Also people that think bass is easy fail to realise that it is possible the most important part of a lot of musical styles such as funk, r&b jazz etc.
Remember bass is easy to play, but hard to play well.

 

I think you could safely say that about any instrument.

 

I'm not so sure you're right.

Most instruments are easy to pick up, hard to master.

Bass is just easy to pick up, but hard to put back down again

Bass is not superior to any other instrument. But no instrument is superior to bass, unless you factor in opinion.

 

i agree with all of this but you do realize that the bass is like the bastard child of the guitar. all of the guitar shops that i have been to have had all of the new shiny guitars in the front of the store but they almost always have the bass guitars hidden in the back some place. not to say that this makes the bass any less important or less of an instrument it's just that there are many more people who could listen to a band without a bass then one without a guitarist. i'm actually doing a poll around my school asking the people to name one bassist, and so far the answers i'm getting are not surprising. if they know a bass player it's usually somebody like flea or ryknow or somebody of that stature.

 

Yeah but a guitar by itself can't lay down that foundation shattering boogie and fire alarm trippin' funk that a bass can achieve.

Has anyone here ever noticed that lead guitarists ain't got the rhythm? Whenever I try to follow our guitar player when we're just jamming without the drummer its almost impossible to get a groove because he gets spastic with the beat. Stop, start, speed up, slow down, I feel sorry for his girlfriend.

 

I don't believe this is true - there is only one (not that popular) band I can think of that doesn't have some sort of bass. But there are thousands of very popular records with no audible guitar sounds on them - basically any programmed dance record will have a bass line but no guitar.

There have been lot of bands with keyboards, bass and drums that have had hit singles in the charts but I am hard-pushed to name even one without a bass line.

If you look at Jazz - most bands don't have a guitarist - like Weather Report who are one of the most successful Jazz bands ever had sax, keyboards, bass and drums.

 

...
Very true. A lot of lead guitarists that I've seen live just play to show off, amp turned up too loud through the PA, playing rapid 32nd or sextuplet notes that totally disregard the rhythm of the song.

Personally I believe a band can't really groove much live without a bassist, but the absence of a guitarist makes little difference to peoples appreciation of the music. I suppose the arguament here is that neither guitar or bass is more important and neither is a lesser instrument, but that the bass is more important than many people think.