Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: guitargod Apr 6 2007, 05:16 AM

a very harlow to all the guitarist from GMC, my question is is it possible for a band to be form without a bass guitar player,actually i form a band when i was serving the army..5 of us in total,3 guitarist,a drum n a vocal...my problem is that we three guitarist love guitar n nt the bass part,but we find it difficult to play songs from famous bands coz they normally dont have 3 guitarist n have bass,so would let to ask the instructors n everyone is it possible to still create beautiful music without the bass n what shld 3 guitarist do in their roles? are there any current bands in the scence now that has 3 guitarist?

Posted by: RIP Dime Apr 6 2007, 09:39 AM

Sure it's possible. But I'd de against it because I love the sound of a good bass player.

Posted by: MickeM Apr 6 2007, 09:56 AM

G3, but they have a bass too.

One or two guitars have to play in the low spectra or it will sound really crappy.

Seriously, I think you need to get a bass player. There are examples like White Stripes that make it without a bass.

It's a whole different thing.. guitars LISTEN to bass and drums. Bass and drums play TOGETHER and as I see it that's very very important for the rhythm to function.

We've had a bass player doing his own thing not cooperating with the drums, that's useless. Now we have a bass player that really communicates with the drummer and it's a completely different thing, that rocks man.

I think people lots of times mistake the bass for something less than a guitar, but moving from the guitar to the bass is a complete different thing, you're moving over to the rhythm section already. An untight guitarplayer you can live with but a bass player who's not tight... that has an impact.

We sometimes have problem getting two guitars sound good, I mean, what's the idea of having two guitars both strum a power G5 chord the same way. What's the idea of having three guitars strum the same chord? One guitar doing that is enough, that other guitar could pick a brighter G chord with another fingering and suddenly you got a more wide sound picture. For three guitars I guess it's possible but as soon as two or more are doing the same thing you should know they could be replaced by one guitar.
And for riffing, be sure to be very tight if two guitars are playing the same riff or it will sound wierd.

Anyway, good luck with your own G3, as said, without a bass my guess is that you will be less tight, it will sound "wrong" (or at least different) and you'd have to come up with different roles for each and everyone.

But the most important part I guess you're covering already, to have FUN!

Posted by: Andrew Cockburn Apr 6 2007, 02:10 PM

Yeah,

I pretty much agree with MikeM - Bass is an essential part of the rhythm section. The drum adds thump and power to the bass, the bass adds tone to the drum. In a good mix with good players they are often indistinguishable unless the bass is off on some funky trip. Without bass the sound would lack balance for most types of music.

I've been in bands with 2 guitarists, and there are often arguments over who plays what bit, and especially who gets the solo in each song. I can only imagine what it would be like with 3 guitarists - I don't think it would be a recipe for success.

However, there are no rules - you'll have to come up with something a little different if you want this to work, but that could be your edge and get you noticed - you will probably have to be very disciplined about who plays what, like in an orchestra. On the other hand if you all just jam it will probably be a mess, so I would suggest lots of planning for each song, and lots of critical listening ... good luck!

Posted by: Zee Deveel Apr 6 2007, 02:25 PM

Of course you can, you don't "have" to have anything. I doubt you'd make it work though. If you do try, make sure the 3rd guitar is doing something really awesome. Learn about harmonising guitar parts and maybe throw some Tom Morello / Radiohead shit in or something!

Posted by: Robin Apr 6 2007, 03:40 PM

A band without bass = impossible. that would have sounded so weak and boring, in my opinion.

Posted by: jeff Apr 6 2007, 04:05 PM

Actually, the Doors never had a bass player. (I'm not a big fan though) I suppose you could do it if you had a kick ass keyboard player.

It is possible but you need to have a bass player because if the drummer is not around you need to make fun of someone and the bass player is the natural next in line!

Posted by: Scott Gentzen Apr 6 2007, 04:07 PM

That's the cool thing about music...that you don't have to have anything. Do it the way you want to do it. It may turn into something interesting. Or it could turn into sh*t. Don't know til you try. No bass player doesn't necessary mean no bass and a hold in that part of the sound spectrum.

Local H doesn't have a bass player. The guitar player has a bass pickup in his guitar and I think that's routed separately to a bass cabinet.

Death From Above 1979 didn't have a bass player. I think they just filled out the guitar sound with EQ and other processing.

Gravity Kills didn't have a bass guitar player, rather they had a bass player that used a keyboard instead. I don't recall ever seeing anyone in a Depeche Mode show.

The White Stripes do it with a whammy pedal.

Those are just the bands that I can think of at the moment with no bass player that might be familiar to some folks. There are probably others.

For odd band configurations, I'm more a fan of two bass players. I've only ever seen that a couple times though.

Posted by: Robin Apr 6 2007, 04:25 PM

I'm listening to a Doors song now, there's a bass there, but I guess when playing live they didnt have a bass

Posted by: MickeM Apr 6 2007, 07:49 PM

The bass is played on the keaboard.

And all of the examples of bands lacking a bass player in this thread they have one thing in common, they do something to substitute it.


you got a point there!

Posted by: wheeler Apr 6 2007, 08:08 PM

This thread is full of excellent replies and insights, so I feel like I'm beating a dead horse....but: A - No, you won't be able to sound exactly like the bands you want to cover if they have a bass player and you don't. B - You could do some very cool original stuff with 3 guitars. Look into classical theory / counterpoint a little bit....three guitars playing harmonized leads, or a rhythm guitar and 2 playing harmonized leads, could sound super cool.

To get an idea....go through a I IV V chord progression....guitarist A plays the 1 of the chord, B plays the 3, and C plays the 5. Maybe have each person play in a different octave. Go through this progression twice...then the third time, let guitarist A play a lead when you get to the V....4th time, let B play a lead on the V.....5th time, C plays a lead on the V....could be cool.

Sorry everyone....I was just daydreaming about that in my head and it sounded fun....got a little carried away....

Posted by: radarlove1984 Apr 6 2007, 08:49 PM

Doesn't Lynyrd Skynyrd have 3 guitarists? It's been a while since I've seen the band in concert, but I'm pretty sure they do.

For some cool ideas, you might want to check out some of their clips.

Posted by: Robin Apr 6 2007, 10:11 PM

Huh I thought about that first, sounded like a string bass to me Ah well, I guess a band works without a bass, but what I thought of when he asked this question I thought, like, drums and guitars.
Its not always the bassist in our band can show up you know, but man when he get back its suuuuch a huuuuge difference.
But of course, if you have another type of "Bass" it will work, like those really deep blow instruments, dont remember the name.

Posted by: Bitey Apr 10 2007, 03:37 AM

Well you can not have a bass or a drum player and just play acoustic guitars and sing about sun shine and rainbows.