Your guitarist is a better bass player than you!

[Al Krow]

Been chatting to a couple of BC mates and it turns out all three of us either still are or previously have been in bands where the guitarist was the better bass player.

Any of you been in a similar set up and, if so, how did that work out?

In my case, I'd only been playing bass for a couple of years and had just started a 50s/60s rock n roll band. The guitarist was a seriously good musician and with respect to my current and previous crews, the best guitarist I've worked with. In the end he had a major crush on the singer who didn't feel the same way and ended up leaving. I did occasionally find it annoying at rehearsals when he picked up my bass without asking!

Edited May 9, 2021 by Al Krow

[Nail Soup]

Luckily not, I'm not a great musician but I've always been in bands with similar level musicians... and normally each was the expert on their own thing.

If it did happen I guess I'd find a way to suck it up or rationalise it.......

...... like, it's being right for the job...... for example there was a doc about the Boomtown Rats. They said that the drummer was a much better singer than Bob Geldof, but Bob was the right guy to front the band. Geldof said that was why the Rat's songs were 'laden with backing vocals'!

 

[AndyTravis]

In my first band...the guitarist started off “better” than me. I’d only taken up the bass to join the band.

He had a really strong ear and could translate what he’d heard to the fingerboard really quickly.

Hated him for it.

Turns out he’d just been playing longer and I caught up quickly.

Since then, I’ve been more likely to be a better guitarist than some of the guitarists I’ve worked with.

Andy my current guitarist is a bass player too. He’s a better Guitarist than me and I’m a better bass player than him...so that’s working well 😂

Edited October 3, 2020 by AndyTravis

[Al Krow]

2 minutes ago, AndyTravis said:

Andy my current guitarist is a bass player too. He’s a better Guitarist than me and I’m a better bass player than him...so that’s working well 😂

"Yeh that Andy was just great!" Almost impossible for anyone to get upset...😁

[bassfan]

I’m cr8p, the drummer carries me, so he points out regularly. 😂

My current guitarist teaches guitar and bass and has a music degree, he’s very good, he not over bearing and very patient. He’ll run old sausage fingers here through any tricky bits in new songs. I get by. 

Edited October 3, 2020 by bassfan

[AndyTravis]

Just now, Al Krow said:

"Yeh that Andy was just great!" Almost impossible for anyone to get upset...😁

The drummer is going to change his name to Andy too and we’re only auditioning singers called Andy (or willing to change their name).

Also only auditioning singers the guitarist can’t fall in love with.

[Al Krow]

Just now, AndyTravis said:

The drummer is going to change his name to Andy too and we’re only auditioning singers called Andy (or willing to change their name).

Also only auditioning singers the guitarist can’t fall in love with.

The Ugly Andys?

[Al Krow]

1 minute ago, bassfan said:

I’m cr8p, the drummer carries me, so he points out regularly. 😂

My current guitarist teaches guitar and bass and has a music degree, he’s very good, he not over bearing and very patient. He’ll tub old sausage fingers here through any tricky bits in new songs. I get by. 

Yeah bollox to the first bit, I've heard your set up and frankly the bit I liked most was the bass!

Second bit I get: my OP guitarist had turned pro and he was also barely out of college. Almost like rock n roll should be!

[AndyTravis]

1 minute ago, Al Krow said:

The Ugly Andys?

It says a lot when I’m the best looking guy in the band.

Even my mum says I’m a dog.

[Lozz196]

More by luck than anything, no, never been in a band with a guitarist that was better than me on bass. Sure most could play the instrument but what they all fell down on was both knowing what to play/what not to play (I’m the same in guitar I should add) and timing, very loose in all cases - take away a guitarists overdrive and it exposes timing issues.

[DaytonaRik]

21 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

 ...and timing, very loose in all cases - take away a guitarists overdrive and it exposes timing issues.

Funnily enough one of the guitarists in our band has been asked to be the bass dep standby for another band (they're mates...why you'd not just get a bass player in is beyond me but hey!) so borrowed one of my spares to learn tracks on - his respect for the bass player has grown exponentially!  As you said - timing deficiencies are shown up massively.  As a former guitarist who became a bass player I had to overcome the same problem - now I'm comfortable with both, but probably a better bass player that I am a guitarist, but also a better guitarist because of my bass playing.

As to the original question - no, I've always played in bands where the bass players and guitarists had a good knowledge and appreciation of each others instrument to the extent that they were proficient on either, but more an expert in their own field.

[gjones]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

In the end he had a major crush on the singer who didn't feel the same way and ended up leaving.!

 

His hair might have been the thing that put her off He should have got a haircut and asked her out again 

[Happy Jack]

4 minutes ago, gjones said:

His hair might have been the thing that put her off He should have got a haircut and asked her out again 

Nah. It was that solo on Tainted Love. Kinell mate, what was that all about?

 

[Hobbayne]

Oddly enough, Its the opposite with me.

Both our guitarists are always asking me for help in working out the chords and licks etc.

And none of them play bass so my job is safe at the moment.

[MartinB]

A better bass player? You mean like:

"The guitarist writes all the bass parts, and they're perfect for the song/arrangement/genre - nothing needs to be added or taken away. They can play those bass parts perfectly, but I cannot."

Nope. Hasn't happened to me.

I'm sure your ex-guitarist doesn't really deserve to be piled on by internet strangers... but let's just say that he doesn't come across well in that video! 😆

Edited October 8, 2020 by MartinB
typo

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

Been chatting to a couple of BC mates and it turns out all three of us either still are or previously have been in bands where the guitarist was the better bass player.

Any of you been in a similar set up and, if so, how did that work out?

I have but many many years ago, when I wasn't really very good (I was a keyboard playing playing bass as noone else would) and I hadn't been playing for a while.

But not in the last 20 years. I have been in a couple of groups where I was a better guitarist than the guitarist though and been a keyboard player in a group where the guitarist was a better keyboard player than me. But I think I hold the bass together nicely now!

[dave_bass5]

Yes, but a clarification. 

My guitarist isnt as good at playing bass as i am, but as he is a good guitarist he knows his way around chords and stuff, so technically a better musician. Doesn't really show at gigs though, as he plays in a very messy way. 

My bass player is a better bass player than me, and he also plays guitar almost as good as my guitarist. In fact he was our guitarist before he left a couple of years ago. Now he is back on bass, which is his primary instrument anyway. 

Where i win is i can remember all the songs and how they go. No faffing around on strange trying to remember chords, what OD to use etc. Just stand there waiting for the next song and getting on with it. I guess thats for another thread though. 

Ironically the guitarist is also a better piano player than me, apparently. He has a grade 5 or something like that, which is a bit more intimidating as I’m still very rough. 

Don’t you just hate some people lol. 

[Mudpup]

Our guitarist is on a different planet to me abilitywise - he's bordering on a prodigy i think whilst i am sort of ok and luckily have a great drummer which tightens up the back end of the band. He can literally hear a song once and then nail it effortlessly without breaking sweat. He's had a noodle on my gear and although he's technically superb he still sounds like a guitar player playing bass rather than a bass player according to the rest of the gang. He's incapable of sitting in the pocket and doing what the song needs on bass because he can't help throwing noodles in 😂

[JapanAxe]

In one of my regular bands I am at about the same playing level as the lead guitarist, and I know all the guitar parts. The advantage of that is that when he can’t make a gig, I move onto guitar and we get a dep bass player - easier to find, and less ‘exposed’ if he drops a clanger.

In the other band the lead guitarist is a good way ahead of me in technical ability, which means I have to work very hard to fill his shoes (but have only had to do so once).

 I haven’t heard either of them play bass, so can’t comment on that aspect.

Edited October 3, 2020 by JapanAxe

[lownote]

Guitarists and keys.  The worst is when they're really nice about saying they'll stay off your turf.  As if playing at least as well as you is something they just do and are quite happy not to do, stuff that you've taken days or weeks to learn and regard as a major achievement and lapel rub. Reminds me of the physicist Murrary Gell-Mann.  When a colleague excitedly brought him a major new discovery, Gell-Mann would p*** on his firework by half opening a desk drawer to glance at notes he'd obviously written long ago, and say: "Yes, you are quite correct."   

Edited October 3, 2020 by lownote12

[Al Krow]

7 minutes ago, Mudpup said:

Our guitarist is on a different planet to me abilitywise - he's bordering on a prodigy i think whilst i am sort of ok and luckily have a great drummer which tightens up the back end of the band. He can literally hear a song once and then nail it effortlessly without breaking sweat. He's had a noodle on my gear and although he's technically superb he still sounds like a guitar player playing bass rather than a bass player according to the rest of the gang. He's incapable of sitting in the pocket and doing what the song needs on bass because he can't help throwing noodles in 😂

Yeah - sitting in the pocket; it really is what being the rhythm section is all about, isn't it?

This guy came to audition for a function gig where we needed a dep. I really thought he was going to be amazing, but he just couldn't handle "playing with" other band members well at all. The best bedroom guitarist I've not had the pleasure to gig with!

Having said that he's probably made more from YT than he would ever with us...

 

[chris_b]

I have regularly played with musicians who I considered/knew were better than me.  Being inspired by the guys you're playing with is the fun part of a gig.

That doesn't intimidate me, but taking notice and raising your game, trying to climb on their shoulders, is what makes you a better player.

[lownote]

2 hours ago, Al Krow said:

Been chatting to a couple of BC mates and it turns out all three of us either still are or previously have been in bands where the guitarist was the better bass player.

Any of you been in a similar set up and, if so, how did that work out?

In my case, I'd only been playing bass for a couple of years and had just started a 50s/60s rock n roll band. The guitarist was a seriously good musician and with respect to my current and previous crews, the best guitarist I've worked with. In the end he had a major crush on the singer who didn't feel the same way and ended up leaving. I did occasionally find it annoying at rehearsals when he picked up my bass without asking!

 

I think I share the guitarist's inappropriate interest in the vocalist. Damn, and I thought I was past that sort of thing.

[dave_bass5]

17 minutes ago, chris_b said:

I have regularly played with musicians who I considered/knew were better than me.  Being inspired by the guys you're playing with is the fun part of a gig.

That doesn't intimidate me, but taking notice and raising your game, trying to climb on their shoulders, is what makes you a better player.

Totally agree. I used to dep with a band where i was the weakest link (although i could keep up). I loved playing with those guys. Whenever I’d go back to my own band they knew I’d been playing with the others as i was playing better.

Edited October 3, 2020 by dave_bass5
Typo

[Al Krow]

Just now, dave_bass5 said:

Totally agree. I sued to dep with a band... 

Mate, you've gotta stop taking legal action at the drop of a hat... 😁