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Can a bass player get away with no guitar player?

Short answer: Yes (see video below.)

Long answer:

It is possible for a bass player to play most guitar parts on his own without any guitarist present, however there are a few drawbacks to this.

1. You need the right pedals to do it

This can get expensive real quick, and in addition you need the right pedals that suit your bass guitar’s pickup tone when distorted. For some basses, a fuzz pedal (like a Metal Muff) works just fine. For others, a bass overdrive is the only thing that works.

What’s required to get the right distorted tone is to test pedals first. And you may have to go through several before you find the right one.

For “power chord” 5ths, a pitch shifter or harmonizer gets the job done. Some pedals of this type are good, but many are awful.

An octave pedal to +12 semitone the sound helps out a lot for certain song parts.

2. You need to “dance” properly with your pedal board

Since there is no do-it-all pedal for playing like this, you have to do a dance, so to speak, as you will be going back and forth between pedals often.

3. You must “reengineer” your bass to sound mostly like a guitar

As you’ll see and hear from the video below, you can get a bass to sound mostly like a guitar would. It won’t be perfect, but to anyone you play in front of, they probably wouldn’t hear the difference.

And yes, playing with a pick here is pretty much required.

4. You must pick songs that are purposely simple

Again, in the video below, you’ll see the song choices are of the simpler type, and only for certain parts of the songs selected.

In the end…

Yes, you can get away with no guitar player. You just have to be creative about it, adjust your playing style to suit and have the right effects set up to get the sound correct. Or at least mostly correct. 🙂

Also, if you comment directly on the video, be sure to say that Best Bass Gear sent you!

11 thoughts on “Can a bass player get away with no guitar player?”

  1. I agree with some of this. The effects – absolutely! Gotta have a good variety of tones and sounds at your disposal otherwise it could get boring really fast. I don’t think you have to play with a pick though or sound like a guitar. Just gotta have a wide variety of tones and cover a large spectrum of highs and lows.

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  2. What an insane concept. You can use a bass in all sorts of contexts. If you have another chordal, instrument such as keyboards, thaey acn perform a similar role. A lot of jazz outfits have no guitar. Just because the bass is physically similar to the guitar (unless it’s an upright) doesn’t mean it needs its 6-string equivalent to be valid. more importsnt, is “do you need a drummer?” The issue of having/not having one is far more worth pondering.

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  3. I’ve seen this done and the guys who’ve worked all this out are damn impressive. There’s a lot of thought and planning (and trial and error) to pull this off. You basically wind up with a two man band (at least one has to be the singer also) and that’s a money maker. The least number of people you can have, the less ways you have to split the income, the easier it is to travel and the less personalities are involved that could split up the band.
    While it isn’t what I’m into, I still think it’s amazing how they pull this off.

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  4. WOW! Wish I had names for your pedals in the rug! This is more than very cool! I have too many pedals hat just don’t cut it with my basses so a recommended list would be so much appreciated! I have even played thru my Korg Radias-which is WILD but not stageable.

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  5. I’m part of a local jazz society. We have weekly jams but for the last few months we’ve been short on everything except bass players. So i’ve been playing lots of heads, solos and chords on my 6 string using guitarish EQ settings. I’ve really been enjoying.

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  6. Just learn from Stanley’s school days or Jaco’s birdland intro so use you fingers. look at pedals for every day bass playing not for fake guitar, I mean, electric bass with effects is better than a guitar.

    Reply

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