rock band without bass

[carrejans]

Hi,

I'm playing rhythm guitar in a powerfull rockband, with a lot of riff-driven songs. (www.facebook.com/ambassadorsofnowhere)
Our bass player is going to leave us; and we were now considering playing without a bass player.
But as we are playing powerfull music, I'm afraid we will loose a lot of that power on stage.

I was thinking of splitting my signal in two. One directing to my guitar amp, via my pedalboard. (like normal)
The other signal directing to a bass amp. In front of that amp, I want to use a low pass filter, and maybe even an octave-down effect.

- Does anyone have any experience with this?
- Any suggestions on that low pass filter?

Thank you!


examples of our music:
https://soundcloud.com/ambassadorsofnowhere/watchthewatchmen
https://soundcloud.com/ambassadorsofnowhere/mr-dictator-home-recording

[meffcio]

Can't listen to the samples right now, but I think you chould consider tuning the guitars lower. If I recall correctly bass guitars in some (most/all?) of the bands that play low-tuned songs are tuned in the same octave as normal guitars.

[kimelopidaer]

Hi.
I think you should try what you just suggested about splitting the signal into a regular guitar amp and a bass amp.
If you have some octave down effects and an equalizer you could create something to fill in that missing low end.
Alot of those octave down effects are monophonic right, so check out the few that allow you play chords and produce a non glitch octave.

K

[Mark Hammer]

A local band here has two guitar players and a drummer.  One of them tends to use baritone guitars on tunes, for a thicker sound.

But it strikes me that, whether you use normal or other tuning, you'd want a fairly clean amp for the bigger bottom.  There doesn't necessarily have to be an active splitter of any kind.  I used to play through my tweed Princeton for mids and distortion and a larger Valco for low end.  It was a simple matter to just turn down the treble on the Valco.

[gcme93]

Alot of those octave down effects are monophonic right, so check out the few that allow you play chords and produce a non glitch octave.

+1 on making sure it's polyphonic (it needs to be digital not analogue)

BUT I think that having your part played in two different octaves would be a lot mess, especially with the chords. I can imagine it getting very muddy and horrible with that much going on in the bass region. Maybe get one of these bad boys?

https://www.google.com/search?q=baritone+guitar&hl=en&safe=off&sa=X&biw=1422&bih=754&tbm=shop

Baritone guitars sit in the lower end (not quite bass), give a kick but just about avoid it being too cluttered. They also look awesome

EDIT: Mark's just said a very similar thing as I was typing...

[wavley]

Local H anyone?

Flat Duo Jets

Sleater-Kinney

Candy Bars

The list goes on and on of great bands with no bass player that are still powerful, you just have to get creative.

Or you could just reallocate a bass player from one of the bands that has more than one like Hotel X or Dos

[GGBB]

You can easily play bass riffs on a guitar and if you use an octave down effect you'll be in the ballpark, especially if you're adding fuzz/distortion.  But I don't think a guitar is going to have the same dynamics and punch, and if you're playing bass riffs on the guitar, why not just use a bass in the first place.  If you just want some lower frequency along with the guitar parts, then the other suggestions should work reasonably well.  Before I had a bass I used a bass synthesizer VST plugin for guitar to lay down bass tracks in Cubase.  It was reasonably decent but was more like a synth bass sound than a real bass, but it worked for the style of music.  I think it really depends on the sound you are after whether or not it will work for you.  From the sound of your samples, I'm not sure.

[digi2t]

FWIW, I run my rig in stereo, and I can run a different signal on either side. For example, I can use my GR-50 (or GNX-3) on the left or right side on a bass patch, and it sounds pretty heavy mixed in. The GNX-3 has some really good bass patches, they track fairly well. As Mark mentioned, clean amp is desirable, that`s why I power the whole thing with a QSC 1450.

It`s not the cheapest way to go, but I find that I get pretty good results.

BTW, we`re just guitar and keyboards. Drumming is taken care of by the computer. In studio, computer also handles the bass. Like Waverly says, you need to get creative.

[Strat68okc]

I guess you could go with the octave split and all but... that bassist ain't playing exactly what your 2 guitars are.  You'll lose a bit of orchestration. I like the sound. I just listened to those three songs, and the bass ain't the same as the guitar. Or, maybe I'm wrong. I'd just find another bassist. Or, someone who wants to play bass really bad and teach em. Third option, find a keyboardist. Then you could pull a Doors...

[EATyourGuitar]

baritone guitar into a orange thunderverb 200

from orange
"A full three-inch 'Dual Snake 8′ transformer ensures that the bottom end is kept fast and tight and the upper mids and top end are kept sweet and musical at any volume. The Extended Tonal Range enables this revolutionary amplifier also to be used as a bass head."

maybe a combination of speaker sizes in two cabs one head. like a 4x10 bass cab and a 1x15 bass cab. or just a bassman 410 even.

[Jdansti]

I just checked out your web page. Teach Mathias how to play bass. 

[kodiakklub]

ive recently been playing/experimenting through a bass head that does 2 ohm out with 2 @ 1/4" out jacks going to a 4x10 ampeg half stack and a 4x12 marshall half stack. sounds gigantic and loud. if you are able to lug 2 half stacks around, this is the way to go.

[J0K3RX]

Use drum triggers to trigger pre-programmed bass lines... let the drummer do all the work since the bass lines should follow a lot of what he is doing. Or if you are good on your feet you could use a Moog - Taurus bass pedal, those sound monstrous!!! Baritones are nice but not really gonna give you that bass @ss kickin that a real bass would...

[timd]

Local H anyone?

Flat Duo Jets

Sleater-Kinney

Candy Bars

The list goes on and on of great bands with no bass player that are still powerful, you just have to get creative.

Or you could just reallocate a bass player from one of the bands that has more than one like Hotel X or Dos

Damn! I was thinking Local H from the second I read this post! Good one.

[timd]

Saw Scott rocking a DOD pedal in that video (phaser maybe?)

[deadastronaut]

get a new bass player...a bass player that plays exactly what the guitar is playing should be sacked....

it would get tiresome very quickly imo...just my 2p.

[timd]

I agree - I like my bass players to be dynamic and I love a bouncing baseline.

[tca]

- Any suggestions on that low pass filter?

For a low pass check this Steiner filter, you can go low, very low with it!
http://www.diystompboxes.com/smfforum/index.php?topic=101255.0

Cheers.

[Electron Tornado]

Cool idea by Local H.

There is a 3 piece band from Savannah, Georgia called The Cusses that seems to be able to get a full sound without a bass player. I doubt there is a video of the guitar player's rig, but from photos and seeing them live it looks like he may be using an EH POG.

[thelonious]

The Local H extra pickup idea is great. Another take on the idea is the guitar-bass hybrid (gase) Aron Sanchez plays in Buke and Gase. It's 4 guitar strings and 2 bass strings. You wouldn't need to worry about octave-down tracking then. Of course, you'd have to make or modify your own instrument.

Seems to me that physical separation of the two cabs (as Local H does) would be very important.