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Two Bassists in a band--thoughts?

#25
Ostie said:
Two drummers seems redundant but it worked for the Allman Bros and Grateful Dead.
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Exactly why the topic interests me. Also, two guitar players (rhythm and lead) has been the norm for rock bands for many years but in the South there were once two primo three guitar outfits, Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Outlaws.

In the mid 70s I lived in Tallahassee Fl and there was a band with two drummers and two piano (one electric and one acoustic) players named, oddly enough, Tallahassee Band. The drummers played in perfect unison and they had a really great sound.

Tight ensemble playing is something all these bands had in common. :)
 
#26
I play with another bassist all the time....my keyboardist! Thankfully the house sound man rolls the his low end off. Considering steel toe shoes, too many broken toes. A true love/hate relationship.
 
#27
2 bassists can be killer if the music is written around dual bassline counterpoint. Good examples are the album's Satanic Panic in the Attic and Hissing Fauna Are You the Destroyer? By of Montreal.

Really neat tone with that 4003 too played delicately with a pick.
 
#28
I play bass in a seniors ukulele group of about 50 people along with one other bass player. During rehearsal we have about 25 to 30 show up and both of us play. We both do our own bass arrangements, which usually is very much the same, sometimes we differ to a degree, but it still melds pretty well. Many times either I will conform to his arrangement, or he to mine. When we do gigs with a smaller group of 6 to 15, only one of us plays bass, the other plays uke if they can make the gig, and we trade off from gig to gig.
 
#30
Bassist4Eris said:
I was in a band years ago that had two bassists. The idea arose from the audition process. The band was started by the guitarist and the drummer, and one of the bassists they auditioned was super funky, but totally traditionalist: 4-string, flats, foam mute, strictly fingerstyle... you get the idea. The other guy was me, a six-string bassist with a pedalboard, stainless steel roundwounds, and a willingness to do anything to make any kind of sound out of the instrument. I have a feeling what happened was the drummer wanted me, and the guitarist wanted the other guy. In either event, they decided to try a band with both of us. The idea was to have the other guy play "bass bass", and I would play a role more like a guitar or keyboard. As the band evolved, those roles loosened up somewhat.

We never doubled each other. It seemed like a pointless thing to do. We found that it helped if only one bass was in the low register. The other player could play chords, melodies, textures, whatever. If we were both in the lower register, we would sort of dance around each other, interweaving both instruments into one intricate bass part. Using radically different tones from each other was a big help too. One thing is for sure: it really helped when he and I would meet separately from the rest of the band to work out our parts.

The interesting thing for me, from a creative standpoint, was this: I know my role in 99% of all musical situations. I play the bass line. But what if somebody's already doing that? What else can a bass guitar do? Thanks to four years in that band, I have a lot of answers to that question.
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I followed the exact trajectory. I was playing with a drummer many years ago. We never found a guitar player and I played a 6 string and sang. I wrote all the music and since we didn't have a guitar, I wrote the bass lines more like a guitar player-lots of chords and even some left hand bass/right hand tapped melody type stuff. I was approached by a guy who played guitar in an established band and he wanted me to bring what I was doing into their band as something to exist between their bass player and his guitar playing. As a bonus, I had to stay out of the way of the keyboard.
I was intrigued enough to give it a shot. I worked very hard writing for a while and came up with something that I was happy with and they all loved. It was unique and a lot of fun but not everyone "got" it. Some people were borderline hostile..."Two bass players?!?!! *** is that??? A band barely needs one bass player!"
 
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#34
I remember back in the 80's, someone gave me a copy of a copy of a copy of a demo tape by a band from Athens Georgia called the Group Trolls that had three or four bassists and a drummer. I probably played it until it broke and the last time I tried to look them up on Google, there was no trace of the band, still after 30+ years.
 
#37
With plenty of rehearsal and high quality bassists yeah it could work. But in local, hack bar bands - nah what would be the point.
As a bass player I already have enough competition for my frequencies with the kick drum or keyboard player who can't stay out of the low end, and a guitarist who sometimes has too much lows on his fricken geetar.
 
#38
Our church used to participate in a multi-church gospel sing ..... usually all the musicians ganged up and played for all singers if they were familiar with the music or capable of "jumping in and hanging on".
We did end up with another bass other than me ... he was the basic 1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5-1-5, etc.
so I we did both play.
I took the liberty to get creative since there wasn't a lead guitar, but a there were a couple of playing rhythm.
I dunno about anyone else, but I had a lot of fun!
The end result wasn't bad, I just made sure to let him have the roots and I wandered around.
I'm not a soloist by any means, but I can be creative.
 
#39
Passinwind said:
Add a few of my favorites:

Miles Davis
Willie Nelson
Talking Heads
Ornette Coleman
Pharoah Sanders
Sun Ra
Vic Wooten Band
Jack DeJohnette (upright + tuba)
Gary Burton
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And, adding to the lists, my personal favorite:
Ghost-Note, often featuring two bassists (not to mention two or three drummers + percussion..)

Now, not all bassists are created equal and most of us are definitely _not_ MonoNeon. So, I guess it is a good thing I have never assaulted my audience by playing along with another bassist...
 
#40
getrhythm said:
I think Frank Zappa did this for a short period. One bass fretless, the other fretted. He's always used more than one drummer.
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Yes, when Patrick O'Hearn was getting ready to leave the group, Frank brought in Arthur Barrow, and they both played in the group at the same time for awhile:

And yes, Frank usually had at least a drummer plus a percussionist in his bands, but he also did have 2 drummers (plus a percussionist) here:
 
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