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Two-Bass Attack!

Lo-E

Lo-E

Dec 19, 2009
8,472
14,418
58
Brooklyn, NY
#1
I stopped by a friend's rehearsal space last night to lend a fretless bass to someone who wanted to try it for a while. While I was there, they invited me to sit in and jam with them.

I've never played with another bassist before. Very interesting experience. There's a whole other level of things you need to pay attention to! That band jams a lot, so everybody was quite capable of thinking on their feet, but it was still a bit of a mind-bending experience.

We did manage to stay out of each others' way, for the most part and, at times, built some really cool harmony. It was a lot of fun.


**I'm not really sure which heading I should have posted this under.
 
#3
Both clean. Me on fretless and she on fretted. Nothing was planned out or discussed, but we're both good listeners, so we were able to weave around each other without much chaos. We'd trade off between upper and lower parts of the neck, so it ended up sounding like one really big, extended-range bass with four hands playing it. It was really fun.

I'm wondering if they'll invite me to do it again. I think they had fun, too. It would be a blast to try it at one of their gigs. ...or a trainwreck.
 
#5
It's a lot of fun. I tried to put together a two-bass band but we couldn't make the schedules work. At one point we had three bass players going at it! I suspect it was more fun for us than anyone who might have been listening, but it definitely makes you work differently.
 
#7
I've seen it done back in the 1980s with one bassist for the low end and the other using a Rick running through some effects for the upper register.
Worked out pretty well, no guitarist in the band but they had a pretty full sound.

 
#9
This was drums, 2 basses and 2 guitars. Amazingly, very little chaos.

I remember Ned's Atomic Dustbin (vaguely) and there's always Dos, but this is the first time I've participated in such bass-centric activities.
 
#10
Love the 80's

2 basses and another overdubbed

Awesome song
"Guitars? we don't need no stinkin' guitars"

The Cure - Primary

Simon+Gallup+Cure+Performs+Pantages+Theatre+l7mWKt_o-L6l.jpg
 
#11
mpdd said:
we play the one bass through a line6 guitar combo and the other bass through my mesa/orange rig, lot of fun, sometimes the drummer plays static on a third bass for even more noisy droning metal
Click to expand...

Is the bassist who plugs into the Line6 guitar rig playing guitar lines, or is he playing the same thing as the other bass? Do you work the parts out to stay out of each others' way, or just listen hard and let 'er rip?
 
#16
Once in a while we play a song with two bass players. We play at least an octave apart and different progressions. I think it sounds good when we play it and later when we play back a recording, NOT SO MUCH. It lacks focus and the combined timing seems a little (?) off, at best. Maybe some practice would help, or trying harder to be "exactly dead on" with the drummer. Just too messy for us to bother.
 

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