Progression in the instrument

[YouMa]

I Have watched a lot of music videos of new stuff lately and recently watched Animals as leaders. Do you think bass and guitar as instruments are starting to merge? I have to admit being a guitarist and a bass player into more of the experimental side of things it seems a nice solution.More strings? Lol.

[musicbassman]

I'm a big fan of AAL but I couldn't imagine where a bass could possibly fit into their sound -  Javier Reyes has it all sewn up. He's covering both guitar and bass and is just as much a monster player as Tosin Abasi.

I personally have no desire to play that sort of music, but I find it fascinating and a bit mind boggling to listen to.  Djent is the 21st century version of prog rock. - Can you imagine going back in time and playing some AAL material to a prog rock band in the 70's ? - they'd think they were listening to rock music from another planet.   😲

 

 

[BigRedX]

Plenty of bass there, it's just not being played on a "traditional" bass guitar. No different really from any other band that doesn't have a player with a bass guitar.

[Graham]

8 string guitars are negating the need for bass players in some bands, Ihshan for example has a keys player and 8 strings, which I do think is a shame as it makes it hard to play material from his first two albums live, and the fretless playing on the second record brought a lot of textures that were absent later.

Then in the opposite direction is a band like Bell Witch, where there's no guitar, just seven string bass and drums

[gjones]

They leave a lot of space in their arrangements.

I like that.

[BigRedX]

IMO it's only tradition that dictates the need to have both a guitarist and bassist in a band. After all it's perfectly acceptable to not have a keyboard player (or brass etc.) so what is so different about not having a guitarist or bassist?

My first band didn't have bass on a lot of our early songs (including one that was on our first vinyl release and played on national radio) although that was partly because we didn't own a bass guitar and weren't always able to borrow one when we recorded, and partly because we thought that, for may of our songs, the rhythm guitar parts filled the arrangement out better.

One of my current bands has no guitarist. The musical parts are handled by our synth player and myself playing bass VI both alternating between melodies and bass lines as the songs dictate.

[Dan Dare]

On 19/08/2020 at 22:40, YouMa said:

Do you think bass and guitar as instruments are starting to merge?

No. There are bands - examples listed above - who don't have a traditional line-up. They do tend to be fringe (nothing wrong with that - it's where most of the interesting stuff is to be found). Buts as a general rule of thumb and in the mainstream, they will continue to be separate.

[Skybone]

Might just be because I play bass, but I always find that bands that don't have a bass player are missing "something", no matter how good they and their songs are (likewise, I also find that bands like The Royal Blood & Clatter are missing "something").

Except maybe The Doors, but they did use a session bass player on some of their studio albums.

 

[BassTractor]

1 hour ago, Skybone said:

Might just be because I play bass,

Nah. Me too, and I'm an organ player by birth.
That said, whilst, like you, I often miss "something", this doesn't go for a singer accompanied by just an acoustic guitar. So I guess it's all about what we're used to. And that's from someone who loves bass, and loves the 32ft and 16ft stops on the organ (normally played on the pedals, and sounding two and one octaves below the 'regular' 8ft).

BTW, I can't abide women's choirs most of the time, but can always abide men's choirs.

[Dan Dare]

4 hours ago, BassTractor said:

BTW, I can't abide women's choirs most of the time, but can always abide men's choirs.

I'm the same. I think it's something to do with the clash caused by the wide vibrato so many women seem to employ. Perhaps it's because a lot of choral singers tend to be of a certain age. Anything other than very slight vibrato is a big no-no in choral singing (imho, obviously), where many voices sing unison parts. Men don't seem so afflicted by the desire to go wibble wobble with their voices. 

[DaveFry]

I was a trifle confused by this first video until I researched and found the second :

 

 

Charlie Hunter plays a seven-string with separate pickups for the lower three and higher four strings .
He used to busk on guitar and upright bass .