Using more than one Bass on a Record

[And I]

I'm all about "if the song calls for it." My drummer switched out his snare for one of mine for one track because it needed brushwork, and mine had a fresher coated head.

I just don't get all the "THAT'S CRAZY TALK" responses -- it really makes sense to suggest keeping the same bass, and some people are up in arms about it.

I agree, it's not crazy, just not as cut and dry as this keyboard player made it out to be.

 

[dkelley]

At the moment, this is the only post in here that makes any real sense.

Really? Not one of anyone else's contributions or opinions makes any real sense to you?

 

[dkelley]

leave it to TB to always remind me how many of you have sticks up your butts. If you're changing basses that often for songs you're a liability to the sound and continuity of the band. honestly I bet most of your are the same ones that post threads complaining about sound guys. gee i wonder why.

i use one bass, nail it in 1 take, the sound guys and recording guys love me, and the bass tone is great. I obviously must be doing something wrong.

the egos here are so fragile its hilarious.

"creative" is being thrown around a lot. We're bass players, if we were creative we would have chose guitar.

Leave it to talk bass to have one guy who doesn't know most of us or our backgrounds to assume we have a stick up our group butt and you are the only one who has any experience, and therefore is correct.

Of course.

He DID say that the guitarist too shouldn't change guitars through the album. Man, as a guitarist I don't even play the same guitar for the entire song live, let alone across the entire album.

On bass, when I was hired to play, I played on one axe once we got the right sound, unless I had to play fretless sometimes and fretted other times, or needed an ERB for something specific.

For my own bands, which is the case of the OP's situation, where it's being produced by US, I play whatever I want whenever I want.

But I guess I'm a liability to the sound. Funny - nobody ever told me that in the 38 years I've played bass.

 

[Standalone]

For my own bands, which is the case of the OP's situation, where it's being produced by US, I play whatever I want whenever I want.

But I guess I'm a liability to the sound. Funny - nobody ever told me that in the 38 years I've played bass.

I can't imagine bringing an "I DO WHATEVER THE HECK I WANT WHENEVER I WANT" attitude to my band.

I mean, my band totally respects and appreciates my choices and creative input. But that respect goes both ways.

Many of the responses in this thread, like this sarcastic one, continue to show evidence that maybe y'all aren't returning that respect to bandmates.

 

[dkelley]

I can't imagine bringing an "I DO WHATEVER THE HECK I WANT WHENEVER I WANT" attitude to my band.

I mean, my band totally respects and appreciates my choices and creative input. But that respect goes both ways.

Many of the responses in this thread, like this sarcastic one, continue to show evidence that maybe y'all aren't returning that respect to bandmates.

Well. Very nice to meet you too! I'm happy that you're so much more respectful of your bandmates by playing only one bass than I am when I play 2 or 3.

Always good to be put in my place by a total stranger. Aaaand, a happy morning to you too, sir!

 

[Standalone]

Well. Very nice to meet you too! I'm happy that you're so much more respectful of your bandmates by playing only one bass than I am when I play 2 or 3.

Always good to be put in my place by a total stranger. Aaaand, a happy morning to you too, sir!

Nowhere in my response to your post do I mention anything about how many basses you play. Your sarcasm probably has more to do with how you may be perceived by bandmates rather than how many basses you own or play.

I mean, not that I expect an "I do whatever I want" type of person to change their mind based on being called out, but my post is probably more for the benefit of other folks reading this thread, not -- obviously -- for you.

 

[dkelley]

Nowhere in my response to your post do I mention anything about how many basses you play. Your sarcasm probably has more to do with how you may be perceived by bandmates rather than how many basses you own or play.

I mean, not that I expect an "I do whatever I want" type of person to change their mind based on being called out, but my post is probably more for the benefit of other folks reading this thread, not -- obviously -- for you.

True, wrong guy, sorry! I made a wrong assumption that you were this guy:

"leave it to TB to always remind me how many of you have sticks up your butts. If you're changing basses that often for songs you're a liability to the sound and continuity of the band. honestly I bet most of your are the same ones that post threads complaining about sound guys. gee i wonder why...."

Sorry about that!

HOWEVER, what you DID write in your post is exactly the same sort of derogatory generalization, and the topic I was replying to was about playing more than one bass in a gig or in a recording session... which you really should be aware of since you can read the post I was replying to directly quoted in the one you replied to originally of mine.

You said : "Many of the responses in this thread, like this sarcastic one, continue to show evidence that maybe y'all aren't returning that respect to bandmates."

That's quite an assumption about "us all", which in context of the post you replied to was regarding playing more than one bass in a gig, not returning that respect to bandmates. I was sarcastic because the original guy I was quoting and replying to was being really arrogant and putting all talkbass members into a group that he dislikes.

In your case, I wasn't talking to you in the original reply, so you really had nothing to do with my response which was directly to him about his own arrogant behavior. So I do apologize that I thought you were the same person, and my own sarcasm was only related to how he mishandled his original contribution to this thread, so I continued as it would have been very different had it actually been him replying to my response to him.

However, you still were responding to a comment-reply where you also group "y'all" bassists here together (who play more than one bass in a gig, which was the specific point I was replying to originally had you read what I was replying to). And you said that group are maybe not returning that respect to bandmates.

So I stand by my point, in other words I'm staying on topic in the comment thread I was involved in... which is that it's pretty high handed to group together a bunch of talkbass members as being disrespectful to bandmates because we choose to play more than one bass in a gig or in a recording session. This was the point you were replying to.

 

[Standalone]

True, wrong guy, sorry! I made a wrong assumption that you were this guy:

"leave it to TB to always remind me how many of you have sticks up your butts. If you're changing basses that often for songs you're a liability to the sound and continuity of the band. honestly I bet most of your are the same ones that post threads complaining about sound guys. gee i wonder why...."

Sorry about that!

HOWEVER, what you DID write in your post is exactly the same sort of derogatory generalization, and the topic I was replying to was about playing more than one bass in a gig or in a recording session... which you really should be aware of since you can read the post I was replying to directly quoted in the one you replied to originally of mine.

You said : "Many of the responses in this thread, like this sarcastic one, continue to show evidence that maybe y'all aren't returning that respect to bandmates."

That's quite an assumption about "us all", which in context of the post you replied to was regarding playing more than one bass in a gig, not returning that respect to bandmates. I was sarcastic because the original guy I was quoting and replying to was being really arrogant and putting all talkbass members into a group that he dislikes.

In your case, I wasn't talking to you in the original reply, so you really had nothing to do with my response which was directly to him about his own arrogant behavior. So I do apologize that I thought you were the same person, and my own sarcasm was only related to how he mishandled his original contribution to this thread, so I continued as it would have been very different had it actually been him replying to my response to him.

However, you still were responding to a comment-reply where you also group "y'all" bassists here together (who play more than one bass in a gig, which was the specific point I was replying to originally had you read what I was replying to). And you said that group are maybe not returning that respect to bandmates.

So I stand by my point, in other words I'm staying on topic in the comment thread I was involved in... which is that it's pretty high handed to group together a bunch of talkbass members as being disrespectful to bandmates because we choose to play more than one bass in a gig or in a recording session. This was the point you were replying to.

Ah, I'm glad that it was a miscommunication. I do kind of agree with the other poster's take though.

I like a good debate and discussion and even sarcasm, but the posts here that say the keyboardist's request is "trash" or whatever are off base, and the debate has been unnecessarily harsh.

I agree with both sides, it's just hard for me to not comment about the negativity that comes out of the woodwork in this thread. Play what the song calls for, but also consider what other bandmates have to say. There really is something to be said for keeping the same bass through a session. No one said it's an "always" thing.

I'm glad that

 

[dkelley]

Ah, I'm glad that it was a miscommunication. I do kind of agree with the other poster's take though.

I like a good debate and discussion and even sarcasm, but the posts here that say the keyboardist's request is "trash" or whatever are off base, and the debate has been unnecessarily harsh.

I agree with both sides, it's just hard for me to not comment about the negativity that comes out of the woodwork in this thread. Play what the song calls for, but also consider what other bandmates have to say. There really is something to be said for keeping the same bass through a session. No one said it's an "always" thing.

I'm glad that

awesome! haha, yea, ok, that all sounds more like the TB I know and love

Same here, by the way, which was exactly what my point was originally with the other guy....

cheers!

 

[hieronymous]

I was kind of surprised at how entrenched the positions were in this thread. But I guess that's the internet and also the way things seem to be going, not only in the US but in the world. I was disappointed by how few people asked for more details, everyone just jumped to provide their own experience, usually negating opposing points of view. But again, that seems to be the way of the world now. Sad to see people getting so angry. Oh well, it happens to me too!

 

[Dennis Lee]

Hello everybody,

we are going to start soon tracking our debut album. This is a self-produced album, and the keyboards player just told us that for guitars and bass we should strictly use the same gear for all the tracks, meaning if I use my Spector active bass on a track I cannot use fender precision on another as the bass and the guitars should have the same timbre all throughout. The same goes for amps. we can use different pickups configurations or EQing.

How true is that?

NOT TRUE!!!! Ask him if he is going to use one keyboard with one sound for the whole album. Recording is a creative process where just about anything just might work. The key is to use your imagination and try different stuff... equipment, basses, licks, note choices, and every other aspect of the music. To pre-determine that you are only going to use one bass or one anything is simply locking yourself in a closet and turning your mind and ears off! If that's the case, why bother?

 

[DwaynieAD]

Leave it to talk bass to have one guy who doesn't know most of us or our backgrounds to assume we have a stick up our group butt and you are the only one who has any experience, and therefore is correct.

Of course.

He DID say that the guitarist too shouldn't change guitars through the album. Man, as a guitarist I don't even play the same guitar for the entire song live, let alone across the entire album.

On bass, when I was hired to play, I played on one axe once we got the right sound, unless I had to play fretless sometimes and fretted other times, or needed an ERB for something specific.

For my own bands, which is the case of the OP's situation, where it's being produced by US, I play whatever I want whenever I want.

But I guess I'm a liability to the sound. Funny - nobody ever told me that in the 38 years I've played bass.

Kinda proving my fragile ego point there hoss.

 

[DwaynieAD]

just because you have no creativity, don't hold the rest of us to your low standards...

I was in agreement with you until you suggested that bass playing is not creative.



I think the problem with this thread is that there are two schools of thought in the studio -- one is to keep it simple and support the project and the process. That is my general approach. My creativity is in my hands, heart, and head - not my gear. The other school of thought is more about detail and variety and specifically planned and executed music. I love prog rock and other genres that are more about gilding the lily, but I don't subscribe to that so much. I appreciate it when it happens and is done right -- like the fancy kits and gear lists of prog bands -- but it's not my way.

The only thing I don't understand is why many posts here don't get that there are these two schools of thought, and cant respect the other side. I sure respect each! And I can suggest keeping the same axe throughout the session without denigrating those who make a different choice.

Yeah tb also has a huge problem with understanding hyperbole. Goes back to the fragile egos

 

[dkelley]

Kinda proving my fragile ego point there hoss.

Rather than getting caught into defending myself from your attacks on my ego, I will, for the first time here, block a member of TB. My ego is huge (this is NOT a good thing as a bassist, but it's served me very well as a solo classical violinist), and one of the least fragile of the musicians I've worked with. Enjoy being destructive to perfectly respected members of this forum. I have better things to do with my life.

 

[Standalone]

Yeah tb also has a huge problem with understanding hyperbole. Goes back to the fragile egos

I'm an English teacher with a doctorate -- it's possible but not likely that I misunderstood hyperbole or sarcasm. I'm pretty sure a direct (and double-down-repeated ) insult in a contentious thread (and well into it) is not meant as ironic hyperbole.

Playing one axe at a recording session is hardly a sign of a lack of creativity. Personally, my own experience in music and in writing is that limitations can and often do drive creativity. For instance, in formal poetry. Or playing a 4 string.

 

[NorthSoundAudio]

I play drums as well as bass. The best advice I ever got regarding drumming: Play the SONG, not the drums.

Thus, in the same vein: play the SONG, not the bass. Granted, this originally referred to the performance rather than the equipment, but I feel it holds true. If one song requires a 5-string, play it. If this other song would sound just awesome with your XYZ bass, do it.

But at the same time... Don't go crazy swapping out your instruments if it doesn't bring anything to the SONG.