Two Bassists in a band

[LiptonJigglers]

Take a walk on the wild side by Lou Reed is a classic 2 bass song..

 

[Wood and Wire]

Take a walk on the wild side by Lou Reed is a classic 2 bass song..

Yep.

Under My Thumb, by the Rolling Stones too.

That whole era had big records, by major artists (Beach Boys, Beatles, Stones) featuring two basses, with people specialising in Fuzz Bass, Tic-Tac Bass, and Electric Bass as an augmentation to Upright Bass.

 

[heatheroo1]

2 bass players in a band doubles the number of folks for load in/out at gigs.

 

[Chris cook]

I am just throwing this out there out of curiosity. Some bands have two drummers like the Grateful Dead all the way to Lawrence Welk and other groups in between. Does anyone know of bands that had two bassist? Would it work? Thanks

He// yea !!
There's no reason 2 Bassists wouldn't work
I'm talkin 2 bass players only , no guitars needed
Guitar players I know just don't get it , unfortunately I'm sure alot of bass players would have a hard time without a guitar player. in the band
NOT me !
8 string bass for the rhythm , etc .
4 , 5 , or 6 string lead bass player.
I'm shocked it hasn't ( to my knowledge anyway ) happened yet .
It needs to be done , and done nothing short of great
I've been playing , my own Heavy , progressive metal instrumental ideas for years . I record at least
2 , 3 , completely separate bass lines , if that's what ya wanna call them ,
B an innovator : )
Take a listen to " a tower in the sky " ( It's all bass)
By Billy Sheehan,




: )

(

 

[kineticdg]

I don't remember if it's been mentioned in this thread, but hell yes- it can work. One of my favorite songs from The Cure, Primary:

 

[Chris cook]

2 bass players in a band doubles the number of folks for load in/out at gigs.

Our own rigs yea
Not 2 Bass players in a band
2 Bass players only , 3 even , 1 drummer , some analog and digital synths . We'll all do vocals , when needed anyway.
No guitar player/players
We'll hire them for , you guessed it --- lol

 

[pklima]

The Creatures (Siouxsie without Banshees) also did a tour with two bassists on quite a few songs. Looked that up out of nostalgia, found nice live video.

 

[BeMoreFrench]

Proof that there's not 1 role for bassist

The Cure if you count the Fender Bass VI as a bass, they use it as melodic lead instrument mainly. The song Primary is just two basses and drums.


This is cheating as it's actually two bands playing together, but Casiopea and T-SQUARE made it work live with two bassists.

Maaan ! I loved that tv show when I was a kid ! there was nothing better in the early 80's than l'Echo Des Bananes on french tv, and it was the only day, saturday for instance, my parents would allow me to go to bed late hahaha

 

[Wood and Wire]

He// yea !!
There's no reason 2 Bassists wouldn't work
I'm talkin 2 bass players only , no guitars needed
Guitar players I know just don't get it , unfortunately I'm sure alot of bass players would have a hard time without a guitar player. in the band
NOT me !
8 string bass for the rhythm , etc .
4 , 5 , or 6 string lead bass player.
I'm shocked it hasn't ( to my knowledge anyway ) happened yet .
It needs to be done , and done nothing short of great
I've been playing , my own Heavy , progressive metal instrumental ideas for years . I record at least
2 , 3 , completely separate bass lines , if that's what ya wanna call them ,
B an innovator : )
Take a listen to " a tower in the sky " ( It's all bass)
By Billy Sheehan,




: )

(

The first three Cop Shoot Cop albums featured no guitar at all, just 2 basses and sampler (maybe the first record "Faximile Head Kick" was 1 bass and 2 samplers, I can't remember) and a standing drummer playing a kit partly comprised of scrap metal.

 

[micguy]

2 bass players in a band doubles the number of folks for load in/out at gigs.

2 bassists makes it easier to fire the drummer; you have a built in majority in the room.

 

[Gerardo Velasco]

Molotov.

 

[Nedmundo]

When I was in college in the 1980s, a student rock band had two bassists, and they were great. I believe the band was called "Dolores," but I'm not sure. That's the first time I saw this approach, and it was very cool.

I'm sure it's been mentioned above, but King Crimson's "dueling power trio" format in the 1990s effectively used two bassists--and was incredibly awesome. Their Philly gig on the Thrak tour was among the best shows I've ever seen.

 

[Chris cook]

When I was in college in the 1980s, a student rock band had two bassists, and they were great. I believe the band was called "Dolores," but I'm not sure. That's the first time I saw this approach, and it was very cool.

I'm sure it's been mentioned above, but King Crimson's "dueling power trio" format in the 1990s effectively used two bassists--and was incredibly awesome. Their Philly gig on the Thrak tour was among the best shows I've ever seen.

Kool

 

[Mosthigh]

They've been mentioned here, but Dumpstaphunk with guitarist/bassist Tony Hall (who also plays guitar with The Funky Meters) and bassist Nick Daniels who go on a head-to-head bass 'duel'. Tony uses an Eden WT800 and two 4x10 cabs, while Daniels has a GK head and two SWR 4x10. Similar, but different.

 

[Michedelic]

The Creatures (Siouxsie without Banshees) also did a tour with two bassists on quite a few songs. Looked that up out of nostalgia, found nice live video.

To be fair, Banshees drummer Budgie was the other principal in that project.

 

[pklima]

Don't think this has been posted yet... Shakira with ABG and DB on a surprisingly trippy version of "Estoy Aqui". I've covered lots of songs from her pre-blonde days, but somehow never got around to this one, which really is one of her best.

 

[zombywoof5050]

Frank Zappa had two bassists for a short time, or maybe it was just for the 1978 SNL gig, but they were Patrick O’Hearn and Arthur Barrow.

 

[thewildest]

This is one of the best threads in a long time. Long live Talkbass.
Was going to bring the phenomenal Mexican band Molotov but a couple of friends here did it earlier. Dame todo el power!!!

 

[DJ Bebop]

Frank Zappa had two bassists for a short time, or maybe it was just for the 1978 SNL gig, but they were Patrick O’Hearn and Arthur Barrow.

 

[DJ Bebop]

Frank Zappa had two bassists for a short time, or maybe it was just for the 1978 SNL gig, but they were Patrick O’Hearn and Arthur Barrow.

I remember this tour after Tom Flowler broke his arm...

Your parts are tightly arranged, yet back around 1974 or '75 your bass player on your tour had someone pointing the notes out for him onstage. Why?

Our regular bass player, Tom Fowler, had broken his arm, and that was the only way we could have finished the tour. And that's why we have a rule in the band now: "No sports for the musicioans." There had been a game of touch football between the members of the crew and some of the guys in the band, and after that game -- with ten shows left to play on the tour -- I heard a knock on my door, and here comes Tom Fowler with his arm in a cast. He'd just been tagged the wrong way, and it broke his arm. Now, what was I going to do? We had a show with really comlicated bass parts, and here is our bass player with a broken arm. How do you get somebody out of nowhere to play the shows? You can't. We tried two or three guys, and they wouldn't hack it. Finally, we wound up with one guy that was willing to stand there and have Tom point to the notes. We had all the 12 names of the pitches strung out on little cards on the stage, and Tom would stand there with a pointer and point to those note names as fast as he could, in order to help the bass player. But still, the audience is the one that loses out because they don't get to hear the music played the right way. And it's all because of sports. So, I try to discourage the guys from any kind of competitive sport activities while we 're out on the road. I don't like to see them go skiing or anything like that.

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