Why do so many bands now use a keyboard player for bass?

[Stick_Player]

Learn to play keyboard bass. Get a keyboard controller, some bass samples or synth, augment your value.

Pick up some bass pedals - Moog Taurus.

Get more gigs.

Add a Double Bass, too.

You'll work constantly.

 

[obimark]

If it is part of the bands sound like Depeche Mode, fine- couldn't imagine any of their songs with 'real" bass guitar.
But as for the Doors, it became part of their sound (live for sure) but as many have said real electric bass was a big part of every album except the first. I am pretty sure the first Doors album only had two songs with real bass guitar, the rest was Ray's left hand.

 

[Emilym80]

I don't know if that is the case, but, if it is, it's probably due to the popularity of electronic music at the moment. Given that the trend for a majority of popular music is club-oriented dance music (and not disco), it makes sense that there would be more prevalent keyboard bass at the moment. Hopefully it'll go out of fashion with the rest of that kind of music...
That said, I think some songs are better off without it.

Like that, for instance. Sorry, I got a bit sidetracked

 

[BboogieXVII]

I don't know if that is the case, but, if it is, it's probably due to the popularity of electronic music at the moment. Given that the trend for a majority of popular music is club-oriented dance music (and not disco), it makes sense that there would be more prevalent keyboard bass at the moment. Hopefully it'll go out of fashion with the rest of that kind of music...
That said, I think some songs are better off without it.

Like that, for instance. Sorry, I got a bit sidetracked

That song was great, no bass guitar, no problem.

 

[LordRyan]

On The Doors first album there was Fender Rhodes Piano Bass on every song. On some of the songs Bass guitar was overdubbed on top of Ray's keyboard Bass. The Bass Guitarist on most, if not all, of these songs was Larry Knechtel who was also a first-call studio Piano/Organ/Harpsichord player who can be heard on hit recordings by The Beach Boys and Simon and Garfunkel among many others.

After the first album The Doors almost always had a Bass guitarist record with them in the studio. "When the Music's Over" and possibly "Indian Summer" are the only later recordings to use the Fender Rhodes Piano Bass.

In the case of Steppenwolf they started using sequenced Bass in the 80's when that sort of thing was fashionable. For whatever reason they have continued with it to this day.

 

[BawanaRik]

Organ trios? There was a reason Cream was a three piece band.

Not only is it easier to schedule practice but there's a three way cut on the pay.

 

[BawanaRik]

I believe Lonny Mack was playing bass on some Doors songs.

On The Doors first album there was Fender Rhodes Piano Bass on every song. On some of the songs Bass guitar was overdubbed on top of Ray's keyboard Bass. The Bass Guitarist on most, if not all, of these songs was Larry Knectel who was also a first-call studio Piano/Organ/Harpsichord player who can be heard on hit recordings by The Beach Boys and Simon and Garfunkel among many others.

After the first album The Doors almost always had a Bass guitarist record with them in the studio. "When the Music's Over" and possibly "Indian Summer" are the only later recordings to use the Fender Rhodes Piano Bass.

In the case of Steppenwolf they started using sequenced Bass in the 80's when that sort of thing was fashionable. For whatever reason they have continued with it to this day.

 

[LordRyan]

Lonnie Mack played Bass on "Roadhouse Blues" and "Maggie M'Gill" from Morrison Hotel. He may have also played the guitar solo on Roadhouse.

Doug Lubahn played on three Doors albums and has a book out about his time playing with The Doors. He was a member of TB several years ago.

Other Doors Bassists include Harvey Brooks, Jerry Scheff, Ray Neopolitan, Kerry Magness, and Leroy Vinnegar.

 

[NWB]

I actually see a lot of sampled bass through laptops more than I do keyboards.

This is something to consider. With the quality of bass samples available now, a band with an iPad could readily replace the bass player and the audience would likely be none the wiser. For a typical bar band, the visual effect of having no bass player would be much less than the effect of a missing drummer.

The bass samples available now are far better than those of the 80s.

 

[Clef_de_fa]

I piano/keys/organ can play two melody at once and cover 4 voices all at one ... so yeah ... why have a bass player that will only play roots when your piano player has more creativity ???

 

[JimmyM]

In the case of Steppenwolf they started using sequenced Bass in the 80's when that sort of thing was fashionable. For whatever reason they have continued with it to this day.

Actually, in 2009, they added back a bass player to the band.

 

[White Beard]

I've read this thread from the start and I still don't get the big deal. "Real" bass sound? Do you mean the electro-magnetic signal that gets processed through the electronic device that amplifies the signal into audible tones? Fifty years ago "real" bass players were complaining about those fake bass guitars, and fifty years before that tuba players were complaining about double bassists taking their jazz gigs, and two hundred years before that 32' pipe organ makers were bitching about their own livlihood being taken away.

Don't pretend that you guys didn''t see that Rush documentary on VH1 with Geddy behind a bank of synthesizers. That synth sound was what he wanted to hear, and that little Steinberger was, for all intents and purposes, a fashion choice.

It's about the sound that the performer wants the audience to hear... Or, maybe that keyboard bassist is the artist's friend that needs a job to payback the $60.00 Canadian s/he borrowed six months ago.

 

[KevInDaBassment]

If people want to go indulge in fake, synthesized sounds then that's great...there will still be a market for the real thing no matter what.

 

[NWB]

If people want to go indulge in fake, synthesized sounds then that's great...there will still be a market for the real thing no matter what.

The problem is that the fake is sounding so incredibly close to the real thing now. Samplers and sequencers can replicate bass parts so closely that most people would be hard-pressed to tell the difference. Cheesy 80's keyboard bass is far in the past.

I agree that there is a market for the real thing, especially in jazz/fusion where the bass role is more dynamic. However, I also see the possibility of a shrinking role for bass players in a lot of music genres as samples become more widespread. Now do I like that idea? Not in the least!

 

[NWB]

Don't pretend that you guys didn''t see that Rush documentary on VH1 with Geddy behind a bank of synthesizers. That synth sound was what he wanted to hear, and that little Steinberger was, for all intents and purposes, a fashion choice.

Probably not a good example since Geddy has gone nearly full suit back to the bass guitar. Synth is really backseat in Rush these days. Not to say that you don't make some very good points though.

 

[AltGrendel]

Darn...can't hear the link here.

BTW, The Doors used a Fender Piano Bass...mostly Live. Every album (except maybe the debut) had "real" bassists augmenting their sound.

That was Ray Manzarek playing bass.

 

[JimmyM]

Nope, it was a series of studio bassists on Doors sessions...Carol Kaye, Harvey Brooks, Doug Lubahn (who was offered perm member status but turned it down to pursue his "jazz" group that went nowhere), Jerry Scheff...

But live, Ray played a Fender Piano Bass, which is really nothing more than the lowest batch of notes on a Rhodes in a smaller package.

 

[mcm]

I can promise u no synth/computer could mimic my sound, unless it contains a bunch of clicking, a few bad notes, Fret noise, and exudes a nasty attitude.

 

[White Beard]

Probably not a good example since Geddy has gone nearly full suit back to the bass guitar. Synth is really backseat in Rush these days. Not to say that you don't make some very good points though.

My point was at that time, that's what Geddy wanted. He wanted to play the orchestra, not the bass, and he didn't really care that it sounded "fake," because, it was exactly the sound he wanted. He didn't take some principled stance against "fake" music and only a "real" bass sound from an elctric bass guitar will suffice. If he had a song that cried out for synth bass today, I guarantee you he'd do it.

 

[White Beard]

Also, theaters have been replacing musicians with Wurlitzer organs for a hundred years. If all these principled bassists are so enraged by synth bass, they need to stand up for the string sections, clarinets, flutes, F horns, trumpets, trombones, euphoniums, oboes, English horns, bassoons, timpani, so forth on and on every instrument you can think of. Make your keyboardist play only "real" pianos (spinet, upright, baby grand, grand, etc.) and if you want horn hits on any song, you need to go out and hire a "real" horn section, not a "fake" keyboard patch.

I realize that I'm kinda' being an A-hole with my tone, but it's a very big hole in the arguements of a lot of the people on the anti-"fake" side of the issue. It's like people complaining about CG Jabba because puppet Jabba is "real." Did 1997 CG Jabba look like poop? Yes. Is it more fake than a puppet? No. But, CG Jabba was exactly the look that Lucas wanted. Very few people are complaining about the sound of the synth bass, most people are stuck on this bizarre concept of "real" bass players vs. "fake" bass players. Historically, keyboards were the original bass, so really bass players are the "fake" ones.