Bass-less "bands"...

[Kim]

What is going on with all this hate for bass players?

The last few years I've noticed a disturbing trend of these "bands" (which I'll use that term very loosely in this discussion) without a bassist.   :o
Usually there's just two members in these bands; a guitarist/vocalist and a drummer.  No bassist!  Then there's a local band near me with 3 members: a guitarist, a drummer, and a vocalist.....NO bassist there either.  And I'm seeing this 2-person band happen more and more as I go along.     It's bullshit in my opinion. 

Here's two reasons of why I think that's happening:
1.  Guitars are tuning way waaay too low.  Any random discussion about tunings in a Doom/Sludge/Psychedelic/Stoner style genre groups brings up the "I tune low in Drop F and use ___ strings..."   Well there ya go.  Drop F?  f**king F?  WTF!!! No wonder there's no room for a bass now.  The guitarist is tuning to Black Hole depths and splitting their signal between a guitar amp/cabs and a bass amp/cabs using a pedalboard the size of a picnic table....

2.  There actually IS a lack of bass players out there.  Ever see a few different local bands share the same bassist?  (Or even drummers for that matter..)  The joke goes that if a drummer or bassist is injured and can't play, 3-4 bands are now out of commission.  It would be pretty damn funny if it weren't actually true.  Everybody and their brother or sister plays guitar.  You can get a replacement to fill in this very night for an injured guitarist within 3 phone calls.  You'll wait months for another bassist....IF there's even one around who's not already too busy playing in 3 other bands.

Gah, I don't have any interest anymore in any heavy "band" that doesn't have a bassist.  Stop being idiots and tuning so damn low.  It was cool for about 15 minutes now everything (like a lot of other genres) is starting to sound exactly the same as all the rest of its peers with absolutely nothing to set themselves apart from the rest.  Any tuning below a Standard B tuned 7 string guitar is an arrow through the chest of a bassist.  Some will argue that anything lower than Standard E tuning is ridiculous and unnecessary, but B is where I personally will draw the line as it's a "low" tuning that IMO still (barely) allows a bass player to still play and augment the sound with some definition.

If I could go back in Time knowing then what I know now......I'd be a drummer or bassist now and pleased to know that I could go wherever I wanted with those options.

[MarshallJMP]

Yeah we opened for doom/stoner band a few months ago. Same deal no bass player, guitar tuned really low. I thought this is interesting because it looked original. Now it seems it's not  ::) . Maybe they avoid the problem of finding a bass player this way ? It's a fact that bass players are running thin these days. We also had a hell of a time finding one. He has to drive almost 200 km to come to rehearsal.

But you are right some of the drop tunings are getting ridicules, not a big fan either. Also soundwise a lot of metal bands sound the same which is a shame. Back in the day you could easely hear the difference between maiden, priest, saxon etc. They all had their original sound. Now they all have the same sound.

Kim, maybe we are getting old hahahahaha.

[Soloist]

I hear ya on the drop tunings. I have some axes tuned 1/2 step down, some a whole step but no more than that. It has gotten way out of hand. They must be searching for the elusive "brown note" :poop:. Hahaha.

[Rusty]

Didn't Blackie Lawless from W.A.S.P. once call the bass guitar 'The Tool of Ignorance'  ?

:))   No offence bass players.

[vansinn]

Methinks this is over-dramatized..  It's a relatively low market for bass-less bands.
The music(k) scene always fluctuates, styles come and go.
When The Powers That Be looses interest in supporting certain styles intended for driving certain defined types of youth in wanted directions, because of change in their objectives, most of this stoner/death/crap lack-of-real-metal will mostly fade away.
Same goes for certain types of pop.

MK Ultra/Monach just isn't that sexy anymore.
The world is awakening.

If you think the above is bordering on being wacky, you haven't realized that music is considered a weapon, and that many rough styles - plus much crap pop shit - was designed for the purpose of influencing the mind.
Nicely coupled with alcohol and drugs..

[Zilthy]

The Doors did not have a bassist.  *shrug*

[MarshallJMP]

The Doors did not have a bassist.  *shrug*

Touché  ;D

[Peter H. Boer]

Gents,

As a bass player I can, obviously, not refrain from putting in my 2 cents.

For the drop tuning guitars:
I like them a lot, if it includes also a bassplayer.
Low tuned guitars are fun, but do not provide a fundament on which to build a good sound, the physics simply do not allow for that.
Compare Animals as Leaders (no bass) with bands like TesseracT (amazing bassplayer) or Jinjer (also amazing bassplayer) for instnce
Virtuoso guitarist deserve a solid bassplayer to make them shine.

The doors had a bassplayer, but in the form of the Keyboardist's lefthand. It is efffective to provide a fundament, but does lack a bassist feel.
On the other hand if a bassplayer plays keyboard bass it instantly becomes more effective (Rush, Saga) due to the 'feel'
So far I've found only 1 exception to that rule https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocpi_saZQak Johansson/Johansson/Holdsworth

As for the shortage of bassplayers:
Certainly a part, I've always had plenty of work. Only now it's slowing down, but more since I'm slowing down and being more selective.

Bring back and keep up the Low end (not meaning low quality, but quality Low)

[vansinn]

Hehe.. talking about low-end, just switch from guitar to the almost 40" Quake bass, tune low, as in sub-C, and go out and blast dem low-tuning axe players to Kingdom Come ;)

What about Lenny, BTW..  Did he play bass or long-scale baritone powerchords on his Rickenbacker into a couple Marchalls with distortion..
I sometime played ultra long scale baritone with distortion on my 7-string 35" Wolf bass - but at least that was going low on.. a bass ;)

What I mean is, if low-tuners bothers you, start playing massive low bass, and get an extra income..

[Dante]

There are quite a few bands with just bass/drums too (ie. 21 Pilots and Royal Blood) - NO GUITAR! AH!!! WTH??!?

[Zilthy]

I have a new plan now.

Step 1). Post ad:  "Female bassist from Minneapolis"
Step 2). Profit

[Peter H. Boer]

I have a new plan now.

Step 1). Post ad:  "Female bassist from Minneapolis"
Step 2). Profit

8) O0

[vansinn]

I knew I shoulda kept my 7-string Wolf bass and MB-1..

Ad:
Hybrid deep bass / long-scale baritone player of Thor lineage.
Will travel for distortion. Payment in Bitcoin, Food and Sex.
Score ;)

[Kim]

Well, I don't have the problem with moderately low tunings.....I have the problem with the ultra-low tuning taking the place of an actual bassist.   My band is in B Standard so that a 5 string bass can still do its part.   :banana-skipping-rope-smiley-e

[vansinn]

There once was a dude on sevenstring.org tuning bass to 16 Hz, so, at least someone cares about the bass ;)