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Bands that can't find bassists


charic

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I see a funny ol' phenomena on social media of bands saying that bassists are a rare breed and we're hard to find.  Now... it may be because I'm a bassist myself but the one member of the band I never seem to struggle to find is a bassist.  To the point where I usually end up on keyboard myself even on the times I fancy taking on the bass role.

Now, without naming any names.  A particular band I've been following for a while has been really struggling to find a bassist, I always kinda wondered why as they generally get good shows and the material isn't overly complex.  Now, I've just witnessed a particularly interesting rant on social media as another bassist seems to not have worked out for them.  Stating that bassists are over-defensive, frustrated guitarists and that guitarists generally make better bassists than guitarists (also going as far as to say that if you're thinking of learning bass, you should learn from a guitarist).

I think... just maybe... that I've worked out why they struggle to get one!

However, I also wonder.  Are bassists actually rare?  I usually struggle to find drummers/vocalists by comparison!

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It does sound like that band need to be honest with themselves and any potential applicants that what they want is a guitarist playing root notes an octave below the guitar.

nothing inherently wrong with that, if it's what they think will suit their music, but they need to stop kidding themselves they want a "bassist".

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This is part of the blurb about me on my bands website, 

Being a "dyed in the wool" bass player, rather than a guitarist covering the bassist role, Al was an obvious choice....... 

That was written by a guitarist as well so some do understand our role. 

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I would say it also depends on the genre of music, and expectations of the band. I have seen a lot of rants from metal bands where clearly guitar players are frustrated that they can’t find someone who can come in and just double guitar parts on bass for trash metal at 200bpm...

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9 minutes ago, Drax said:

Good drummers and keys players usually the rarest in my experience - I’d always assumed partly down to unwieldy gear 

When I'm out as a keys player it's great!  A couple of cables, keyboard and a stand!  What is there to complain about?!

Maybe more of an issue for players who don't have a one-size fits all keyboard!

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10 minutes ago, charic said:

When I'm out as a keys player it's great!  A couple of cables, keyboard and a stand!  What is there to complain about?!

Maybe more of an issue for players who don't have a one-size fits all keyboard!

Yeah fair point! Definitely less keys players out there than guitar / bass though 

There’s always this 

 

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Good musicians with good social skills seem to be in the minority. Not every talented player is able to work with others and, sometimes, players with poor social skills wonder why their band always seems to have certain vacancies.

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There's a difference here imho between "finding" and "keeping". There are clearly bands which can find bass players (or whatever) but not keep them. That could be for any number of reasons, not suggesting blame anywhere in particular, maybe just personalities don't work out. Although if a specific band has a high turnover there may well be a specific reason. 

ps much as @ezbass just said at the same time 🙂 

Edited by josie
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1 hour ago, Crawford13 said:

I would say it also depends on the genre of music, and expectations of the band. I have seen a lot of rants from metal bands where clearly guitar players are frustrated that they can’t find someone who can come in and just double guitar parts on bass for trash metal at 200bpm...

This. I could not find a guitar player in 2 years, for a math/noise band. Go figure.

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1 hour ago, josie said:

There's a difference here imho between "finding" and "keeping". There are clearly bands which can find bass players (or whatever) but not keep them. That could be for any number of reasons, not suggesting blame anywhere in particular, maybe just personalities don't work out. Although if a specific band has a high turnover there may well be a specific reason. 

ps much as @ezbass just said at the same time 🙂 

Spot on, Josie. A band I was in years ago, well the band leader has probably worked with every musician in London/SE England, no-one ever seems to be willing to stick around that long, although he is a good song-writer and musician. Sometimes it is the individuals themselves that is the problem.

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2 hours ago, Crawford13 said:

I would say it also depends on the genre of music, and expectations of the band. I have seen a lot of rants from metal bands where clearly guitar players are frustrated that they can’t find someone who can come in and just double guitar parts on bass for trash metal at 200bpm...

funnily enough...I depped for an extreme metal band for a couple of gigs last weekend.  Went fine, excellently actually, but they're mates anyway, and couldn't have been nicer to me personally.

However, their need for an emergency bass player follows them having had a guitarist playing bass, very badly, about two years ago - they figured that anybody who can play reasonable guitar can play OK bass.  He was so bad that he wasn't allowed to play on their album, and eventually got sacked.  They finally appreciated what a bass player actually brings to the band, which they had taken for granted previously, but only spotted when it wasn't there.

So they find a really good bass player and they immediately see/hear the difference...but never quite get round to announcing that he's actually in the band, keep using old photos with the sacked bassist, and surprisingly enough he gets fed up and jacks it in. 

So now they've learned both important lessons - get someone who can actually play bass properly, and treat them well enough so that they don't get fed up and leave.

Third time's the charm...

Edited by Monkey Steve
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Once upon a time I struggled to find a bassist that could play afro-cuban lines. There have always been plenty of bassists in this part of the world, along with saxophone players and vocalists. Keyboard and trumpet are the rarities, though my current struggle is to find female musicians at all.

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