Members KeysBear Posted October 3, 2005 Members Share Posted October 3, 2005 After many months of revolving bass player woes we finally got caught without one for a gig two weeks ago. Being a keyboard player and having no sense at all I volunteered to try to cover the bass lines. It was a night of sheer terror for me but the band was actually tighter than ever. At the end of the night the guys were thrilled as in more money for each of us so now it looks like I'm stuck with it, sore left forearm and all. We do a lot of Doors material so I guess we're finally authentic. I've now got three bass gigs under my belt and it's actually becoming kind of fun. Any other bands using keys bass? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GWS5987 Posted October 3, 2005 Members Share Posted October 3, 2005 Hello KeysBear, That's how our little 3 piece works. I couldn't do without that keyboard fill now. We have base players that come and hear hime sing (he's the best bar room singer I've ever heard) play killer base and comp/vamp with his right hand, and they go burn their instrument. George Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Fendercaster Posted October 3, 2005 Members Share Posted October 3, 2005 We're in the same situation. Our bass player had to leave due to health reasons, so we brought in a keyboard player who doubles on hand and pedal bass. He's a very good vocalist, and how he manages to sing, play bass with his foot and have two things going on the keys, I'll never know! It is nice, financially, to go with three pieces rather than four. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members KeysBear Posted October 3, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 3, 2005 We went from five pieces to four. I was wondering if the pedal bass would be mentioned. I'm not sure that would help much for me since the bass lines are fast and intricate on much of our material. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Terry Allan Hall Posted October 3, 2005 Members Share Posted October 3, 2005 Originally posted by KeysBear We went from five pieces to four. I was wondering if the pedal bass would be mentioned. I'm not sure that would help much for me since the bass lines are fast and intricate on much of our material. For several years I played solo gigs w/ a digital drum machine and a Moog Taurus pedal bass, and they definitely require a "simplify" approach to bass lines (mostly root-5th type stuff and simple runs from chord to chord), so I'm thinking a key bass would be a much better option if you want more interesting bass lines happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fastplant Posted October 3, 2005 Members Share Posted October 3, 2005 I play bass in my band, and we have a few tunes where I lead sing, and only lead sing. Mostly so that I can get out into the crowd and such. Our keyboardist covers the bass on those tunes. He used a Korg Triton and it happens to have a bass tone that sounds alot like mine, so there is no noticeable change in sound. In fact, we have one medly where it starts out with him on the keys doing bass and then I grab my bass about halfway through and you can hardly notice the change over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Dave Martin Posted October 3, 2005 Members Share Posted October 3, 2005 Originally posted by fastplant He used a Korg Triton and it happens to have a bass tone that sounds alot like mine, so there is no noticeable change in sound. In fact, we have one medly where it starts out with him on the keys doing bass and then I grab my bass about halfway through and you can hardly notice the change over. Does that not strike you as a little frightening? That your bass tone on stage is no better than a kayboard? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fastplant Posted October 3, 2005 Members Share Posted October 3, 2005 Originally posted by Dave Martin Does that not strike you as a little frightening? That your bass tone on stage is no better than a kayboard? Well, it's a $4,500 keyboard, so no. But it did take a good amount of tweaking to get the tone right. It wasn't a simple preset on the keyboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Matter-Eater Lad Posted October 3, 2005 Members Share Posted October 3, 2005 I think The Doors did that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tucktronix Posted October 3, 2005 Members Share Posted October 3, 2005 I've played a few gigs where I was playing left-hand bass. There are a few tunes that I play with the R&B band that I double the bass lines with the bass player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrcpro Posted October 3, 2005 Members Share Posted October 3, 2005 My first real gig playing key bass was on a New Year's Eve 20 years ago when the bass player was arrested doin' a line in his car. It was a present from the female singer, and he took it outside instead of in the band room because he didn't want to share. Anyway, I plugged one of my synths into his bass amp and we finished the night...the whole place was so wasted nobody even noticed. While we looked for a bass player I filled in playing key bass. No one seemed right, and eventually the job was permanently dumped in my lap. When the bass player got out of jail, we brought him back into the band...on guitar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members KeysBear Posted October 4, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 4, 2005 One of our guitarists has loaned me a 400 watt bass amp head and bottom which contributes a lot to the fullness of the sound. I dedicated a Roland JV1010 synth rack module to use for bass that I control with an old Yamaha SY-35 keyboard. I'm using fingered bass and Precision bass patches (plus a Rhodes bass patch for some of the Doors matieral) that sound so good I've had a few people come up and say they didn't realize the bassist was gone until they got closer to the stage and saw what I was doing. BTW, if I may rant for a moment, this is good payback for the bass players who have refused to commit to our band and think they can make more money floating with several bands. We've had to use three different bass players to cover our gigs for the past year. We work sometimes eight times a month with never less than four gigs a month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members moogerfooger Posted October 4, 2005 Members Share Posted October 4, 2005 I too had the job dumped in my lap. The bass player for our 4pc band bought a "show dog" and we were forced to either cancell jobs or play with out him while he was off showing his dog -- he abruptly quit when he was confronted over his inability to make shows. that was 3 years ago. I can't say I'll never play with a bass player again but it sure does simplify matters. Plus I'm a bit of a control freek so it suites me just fine to be the lead singer/ keyboardist/ bassist/ sound man. My live rig consisted of a TS 12 / triton / and trinity rack--the tr rack was the primary bass sound. I have pared it down now to just the triton now. I have had many bass players come up and ask how we get that fat sound in the room with no bass player or bass amp. Actually it's easier for me to mix with no bass stage sound to compete with. what I hear throught the phones is pretty much what's comming out the fronts. I use two bass sounds from the triton comming out outputs 3 & 4 mono. I put my piano sound in the L/R , and the organ and brass sounds etc in 1 & 2 stereo with a CV pedal. I try not to get too fancy , and use the same bass sounds on all my combi's. I always admired people who had great left hands. Never thought I could pull it off --- I guess necessity IS the mother of invention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrcpro Posted October 4, 2005 Members Share Posted October 4, 2005 Originally posted by KeysBear One of our guitarists has loaned me a 400 watt bass amp head and bottom which contributes a lot to the fullness of the sound. I dedicated a Roland JV1010 synth rack module to use for bass that I control with an old Yamaha SY-35 keyboard. I'm using fingered bass and Precision bass patches (plus a Rhodes bass patch for some of the Doors matieral) that sound so good I've had a few people come up and say they didn't realize the bassist was gone until they got closer to the stage and saw what I was doing. Yeah...running a sampled bass through it's own bass amp really helps in the realism. Right now I'm using the Pick Bass patch on a JV1080...through an amp it sounds great. I also have a variation of this patch substituting the E. Bass wave for the Precision wave which I like even better...but it only comes to life when run through a bass amp. I think you can pull this off on a JV1010 with the editing software...all you have to do is swap the wave in WG. There is no preset like this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members KeysBear Posted October 4, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 4, 2005 Originally posted by mrcpro Yeah...running a sampled bass through it's own bass amp really helps in the realism.Right now I'm using the Pick Bass patch on a JV1080...through an amp it sounds great. I also have a variation of this patch substituting the E. Bass wave for the Precision wave which I like even better...but it only comes to life when run through a bass amp. I think you can pull this off on a JV1010 with the editing software...all you have to do is swap the wave in WG. There is no preset like this. The Precision bass patch I'm using is on the Session card (Rock P Bass) that's built into the JV1010. To me it's a winner. I also like using the fingered bass patch (preset bank B-13) because it is forgiving with dynamics and doesn't punch through where it shouldn't. I just printed your Pick Bass variation and will try it out on Soundiver later. Thanks. BTW, I didn't mention the joy of now hauling three keyboards instead of two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members mrcpro Posted October 4, 2005 Members Share Posted October 4, 2005 You can also substitute the E. Bass wave (A-129) in your Rock P Bass1 patch. In this patch you'll need to turn the lowpass filter on though...in TVF turn filter type from "OFF" to "LPF". Don't pass judgement on this mod until you run it through your bass amp though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members KeysBear Posted October 4, 2005 Author Members Share Posted October 4, 2005 thanks mrcpro,I printed your last tip too. I forgot to mention that I had to drop the patches an octave and save them in the user bank to work with the SY-35 controller. I also saved them again dropped 14 steps for when we play to drop D guitar tuning since the midi out on the SY-35 doesn't transpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Jazzguru Posted October 4, 2005 Members Share Posted October 4, 2005 Hi all Our group went thru a few bass players and then we thought we had a good one. We started getting some gigs and he said we now will have to change our style and what we play. (We are a jazz group) He said we have to play more upbeat and new tunes. Neesless to say we no and did not do it and one night after making a demo he packed up and left - not a word or anything. Guess we hurt his little feelings.Anyway we have been doing ok with the keyboard player doing the bass on some songs and with an octave pedal i (the guitar player) do a few on other songs.We have not looked for a bass player in over a year and we play out about once a month. Never heard any comments except from bass players who want to join us. Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members centuryhouse Posted October 4, 2005 Members Share Posted October 4, 2005 That's awesome! Given the shortage of bassists around here, someone like that would be prized. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members triton76 Posted October 4, 2005 Members Share Posted October 4, 2005 I played keyboard with a gtrst and drummer. We tried a few different bass players but none stuck. I ended up doing it all left handed on a Roland XP30 using similar sounds to the ones listed above (a pick bass preset edited to taste). Bass on the left organ on the right. The aftertouch brought in the rotary effect on the organ had no effect on the bass (turned it off cuz it used to cause vibrato). Also used a volume pedal for the organ sound. I got a lot better in that group though we never gigged cuz the drummer moved away for a new job. It sounded better went I focused more on a good groovin bass line (instead of root/ 5th/ octave) and played the simpler stuff on the organ side. I was the keyboard player but being a good bass player was more important to the songs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lee Flier Posted October 4, 2005 Members Share Posted October 4, 2005 Back in L.A. there was this band I used to go check out whenever I had a night off, cuz they RULED. They didn't have a bass player because they had this crazy B3 player who played bass foot pedals. The guy was INSANE... I mean you really couldn't tell it wasn't a bass player and he played like a mofo. One of my favorite live bands ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.