Two bassists in a band?

[The_Phoenician]

The Talking Heads used two bassists for a while, and they sounded cool.

 

[Dojix]

There was a supergroup called Freebass that had three bassists, from The Smiths, Joy Division, and The Stone Roses, they were really good. Using various tuning, string gauges, and effects, one played low, one mid, and one high notes.

 

[Smit_Dogg]

There was a supergroup called Freebass that had three bassists, from The Smiths, Joy Division, and The Stone Roses, they were really good. Using various tuning, string gauges, and effects, one played low, one mid, and one high notes.

I was just going to post up about Freebass but you beat me to it!

 

[Jughead6]

I doubled with another bassist in our band for a while. He'd play the basic riffs and I tried to do some fancy stuff over the top, higher up the register. It only ever worked in practice and we never tried it live. We quit doing it when we blew up one of our FOH speakers. Too much bass!

 

[Dana R Gregory]

Checkout the Cure playing Primary. Two basses and a drummer. It works very well.

 

[McFarlin]

Kendrick Lamar does live stuff with two bassists (and guitar, keys...). Stephen Bruner (Thundercat), and the other I don't know. Thundercat seemed to do a lot more melodic stuff and chording.

There was a band in Austin in the late 90s/early 00s called Oh, Beast! that did it successfully. Kind of a proggy noise rock/Jesus Lizard deal if I remember correctly. I think there was another band here around then with five bassists and two drummers called something like 500 Story Drop...never saw them.

Several times in the last ten years it has come-up while talking with other bassists around here, but I was either not into the proposed genre or sensed it would end up more of a pissing contest than a good show.

 

[TheCrimsonKing]

Do this.

 

[shinybeast]

The Dirtbombs rocked a two-bassist (and two drummer) lineup for a while.

 

[zontar]

I have heard of it being done in the studio as well--especially if one is upright or electric fretless.

 

[davkane]

check out Neds Atomic Dustbin. One Bass players plays chords and riffs mainly above the 12th fret, the other plays fairly standard bass lines.

 

[ole Jason]

Do this.

lol Man... I'm a pretty big fan of Alex Webster and Victor Wooten but that was bad. Not sure what Bailey was even trying to do. Kinda funny to see those guy SO out of their element though. Gives a mortal like me hope.

 

[April Fools]

Hello, just discovering the thread and yes, we are also a two bass band ;-). - no guitar -

 

[Lobster11]

Get him to play a VI and you can do stuff like this:

 

[40Hz]

One of my old bands had a "high bass" and a "low bass" line in several of our songs. It works just fine. You just need to ve careful not to step on each others toes. A good arrangement and a littke rehearsal is all it takes.

I personally think it sounds pretty cool.

 

[Blaargh]

Why don't you just get him to buy an octave pedal? Seems like the obvious solution here.