Not enough credit to the bass...
 

does anyone else think the bass should be cranked up a bit? and maybe the shrill felling of the guitar down? in my opinion theres too many guitarists and not enough bassists in the world. im not trying to put anyone down or bother them i just find that this is a good topic.

in a vague sense, i almost agree with part of what you said.

i do like the bass to have a noticeable presence alot of the time.
i also feel that there are less good bass players than good guitarists. that's kind of a proxy thing though, because everybody and their brother plays guitar. when i used to have a band i played rythim guitar for the first 2 sets, and bass for the last 2. that's because by that time the bass player was drunk enough to start screwin up, and the other guitarist was better than me. i wasn't much of a bassist but i could stay in key and keep time.

I'm sure Mr Dave will pop in here at some point to note I've said exactly what he was expecting me to say, but here it is anyway:

A musician should ALWAYS be mixed, respected, and judged based on their personal skill, style, and talents within the group or situation. I wouldn't listen to Steve Vai to hear the bass sound, and I wouldn't listen to Billy Sheehan to hear the keyboard parts.

Bassists tend to get less respect, because in my experience, there are very few good bass players, and a lot of mediocre ones that like being pushed to the back where their mistakes aren't so noticable.

On the other hand, there are just as many bad guitar players, proportionally, except the good ones can be found more easily due to sheer numbers, so of course they're more up front in most situations.

Well a recording engineer's goal is to mix with the goal of achieving a cohesive sonorous balance between all the instruments. Since the Bass is really an integral part of the rhythm section it should be mixed to sound cohesive with the drums in a recording. There are obviously exceptions to that rule, but by and large most professional recording and mastering engineers know what they're doing.

are we really this predictable? :p:


as for the OP and their desire for more low-end attention.... how many bass specific threads do we already have on this site? this is like the 5th active 'bass' thread going. 3rd in this subforum alone, while the other 2 are still quite active.

not enough credit? or just listening to too much poorly produced garbage?

the best comment i've heard about playing bass is that it's one of those things you should feel more than you should hear (especially in pop / rock music). it's always there, hidden in the mix, kicking your butt and making it move. THAT is what a good bass player does, they move people.

yet how can you kick butt if you cant hear it

Get better speakers.

I agree. *goes back to listening to his Mordaunt Short Mezzo 2s*

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Now playing on Winamp: Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force - Faster Than The Speed Of Light
via FoxyTunes

The bass definitely deserves more credit but I'll tell you why it doesn't receive it. There are a lot of amazing bassists out there who really utilize the instrument, BUT there are A LOT of bassists out there who stick with just very simple, 'background' bass lines that just fall back behind all the other instruments.

Guitars are louder because they are typically playing the melody, and get a wider range of sounds.

ever listen to funk?

it's not always about kicking butt though. what i said was not about not being heard but about not being noticed directly, tapping into the collective subconscious of your crowd and making them move to YOUR groove hahaha. it's like walking into a room with a loud fan running all the time and then turning it off after a few hours. you most definitely hear it, but you don't notice it.

yeah, i agree to an extent, but it's not always because the player is unskilled or lazy, it's because the bass, like mr. dave said, is meant to keep the groove and support. there's many times a bassist can break out and make a song their own, but the way i see it, their primary goal is to keep the song going.

like i play bass for my band, and i understand that my place is to provide the bridge between guitar and drums. even so, i like to add my own touches of musicality into the mix. not to toot my own horn, but some of the songs we do would seem incomplete without me.

still (it sucks to say this, believe me), for the most part, bass isn't meant to be a lead instrument.

not necesarrily true considering 11 string basses and other messed up stuff

Bass players who get 11 string basses made, are making music for bass players to listen to.

Throw most of them into a normal band situation, and they'll either tone it down, or they'll ****ing ruin everything by going off on one showcasing themselves at the expense of the music.

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Now playing on Winamp: Yoko Kanno - Cecil's Garden
via FoxyTunes

Just like most guitarists you listen to are making music just for guitarists?

In which case, they're obviously doing it right, since I'm a guitarist, and I'm listening to it.


















Alongside all of the other hundreds of artists that I listen to who frequently have nothing whatsoever to do with guitars and who I still thoroughly enjoy.

I just got new earphones, and damn they're amazing.

I can actually hear the bass in AC/DC songs. o_O

There's certainly greater diversity for bassists, there's a lot more genres that require bassists than genres that require guitarists.

Amen to that. The one thing that I do agree with the OP about is that modern music has become overly guitar-centric as a primary melodic instrument. I'm not knocking the guitar or the musicians who play it, but a little more diversity than ther is already in rock based genres would be nice. What was the last rock band that did well with the piano front and center, Ben Folds Five?

Yeah, there's not enough rock bands these days that try to expand beyond the traditional guitar/bass/drums lineup.

d00d, Like all the sweet hardcore bands have keyboards now bro.

guitarists do play the melody and they need to be kinda loud yeah but bass is awesome! there needs to be more bassists and they need to be louder too.

Im in a band with my brother which is just bass guitar and drums. It is completely just, different music. I have trouble explaining to people what it is.

We have a song, ten minutes long, that starts off with this simple funky bass riff, by the end we are having a 3 minutes post-rock to finish things off. Throughout the middle thier is funk, jazz and just some simple straight forward rock riffs. Bass simply can produce melody along with rhythm. It all matters the way it is played and how it is played.

Bass!

I suspect that most of the bass players have left the planet ... and who can blame them?

Well, i do get down with some good bass...

I have recently become quite obsessed with bass. I've never really noticed its real diversity (and awesomeness) until now. I so badly want to learn to play some bass and am quite jealous of the numerous members on here who play!

hit your local pawn shop with $200 in your pocket and walk out with whatever looks coolest to you. if you've been able to teach yourself anything guitar you'll most definitely be able to teach yourself some bass basics. once you start having more questions, we'll have answers ;)

what mr dave said

I am so going to do it. Look forward to future threads from me re: learning bass & techniques!

one of them better include pics of the new bass :thumb:

Keane? Muse?