knirirr Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 (edited) Q: How many bassists does it take to change a lightbulb? A: None. The Pianist could do it with his left hand. I'd not seen a band without a bass guitar or double bass perform live, but I went to a jazz club in Prague last night and the pianist was indeed doing the bass with his left hand, having brought along a separate keyboard for the purpose. At one point he even took a bass solo whilst drinking beer with his right hand. Most odd and a bit of a disappointment although the music was good. The piano and bass are shown in the attached photo taken during the interval. Edited December 7, 2018 by knirirr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shambo Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 How many guitarists does it take to change a lightbulb? Three. One to change the bulb and two to mutter "I can do it better than that". 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baxlin Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 Many many years ago I saw The Alan Price Set at the Top Rank in sunny Donny, only it was winter, and one of their vehicles had an accident on the way. So they arrived without drummer and bassist. So as not to let the crowd down, they recruited the house band's drummer, and AP played the bass part on keyboard, at the same time as singing, playing keys, and leading the drummer. Brilliant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cato Posted December 6, 2018 Share Posted December 6, 2018 I saw an electric piano/drum duo at the Jam House in Birmingham a few months back where I think the pianist had assigned a bass guitar patch to the lower keys. I hate to admit it, but it sounded pretty damned good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casapete Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 Slightly OT, I saw Jimmie Vaughan supporting Eric Clapton at the RAH a few years back. No bassist, just the Hammond player using pedals. Sound wasn’t great for me , and really missed something. Also saw Stevie Winwood in Sheffield with his superb Brazilian band, and the same thing again. Maybe you just get used to the sound of a bass guitar underpinning everything? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knirirr Posted December 7, 2018 Author Share Posted December 7, 2018 7 hours ago, casapete said: Slightly OT, I saw Jimmie Vaughan supporting Eric Clapton at the RAH a few years back. No bassist, just the Hammond player using pedals. Sound wasn’t great for me , and really missed something. Also saw Stevie Winwood in Sheffield with his superb Brazilian band, and the same thing again. Maybe you just get used to the sound of a bass guitar underpinning everything? The keyboard did sound a bit like organ pedals, and from a distance a little like a fretted bass guitar; it took me a while to work out what was going on. On recordings I have the organ pedals sound reasonable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cicero Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 2 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassTractor Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 8 hours ago, casapete said: No bassist, just the Hammond player using pedals. Sound wasn’t great for me , and really missed something. Aye, it's more like short drones innit. Also, most of the time these people have never learnt to play the organ pedals at a professional level, and they tend to keep it simple - mostly using one foot only. That said, on many organs, especially from the seventies and later, it was perfectly possible for the organ to produce bass-resembling sounds, but of course the organ players still were no bass players. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chezz55 Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 The Doors didn't have a bass guitarist - Ray Manzarek (keyboards) used a Fender 'Piano Bass', which IIRC was about 1.5 octaves. And they recorded some pretty good music ! ! Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jus Lukin Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 (edited) - Edited March 2, 2022 by Jus Lukin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlloyd Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 42 minutes ago, Chezz55 said: The Doors didn't have a bass guitarist - Ray Manzarek (keyboards) used a Fender 'Piano Bass', which IIRC was about 1.5 octaves. And they recorded some pretty good music ! ! Chris No? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dlloyd Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 The Doors used bass players on most of their later material... here's a nice article about the making of Riders on the Storm... https://www.uncut.co.uk/features/the-making-of-the-doors-riders-on-the-storm-4035 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul S Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 I've seen the Matt Schofield trio a couple of times, a British Blues band. Keyboard player definitely thinks like a bass player. I was astonished at how he could play some complex and syncopated bass lines whilst soloing on the keys. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevB Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 1 hour ago, Chezz55 said: The Doors didn't have a bass guitarist - Ray Manzarek (keyboards) used a Fender 'Piano Bass', which IIRC was about 1.5 octaves. And they recorded some pretty good music ! ! Chris They didn't use a bass player for gigs but they had a few session men on some of the original albums Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muzz Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 Went to see Cadillac Three live last year, and tho they comprise a guitar/vocals, drummer and lap-steel player, I'd presumed they'd have a dep bassist for live work. Nope - the lap steel did the bass stuff - it was going into two or three Orange stacks, and sounded fantastic... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lfalex v1.1 Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 Frontman version; How many frontmen does it take to change a lightbulb? One to hold it still and the rest of the world to revolve around them and screw it in... I'll get me coat.. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
discreet Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 How did the Hipster burn his hand? He changed the light bulb before it was cool. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 How many sound engineers does it take to change a light bulb? one, two, one, two, two, two. I’ve never heard a keys player who isn’t far too busy with the left hand. There’s a balance to be had. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
josie Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 (edited) 6 hours ago, Muzz said: Went to see Cadillac Three live last year, and tho they comprise a guitar/vocals, drummer and lap-steel player, I'd presumed they'd have a dep bassist for live work. Nope - the lap steel did the bass stuff - it was going into two or three Orange stacks, and sounded fantastic... Kelby Ray was their bass player in their previous line-up as American Bang (worth checking out if you like their music). "I split the sound from my lap steel into 2 parts. One goes through some effects into a guitar amp, the other goes through some effects into a bass amp." Full interview here: http://thinkcountrymusic.com/whats-new/kelby-rae/ Edited December 7, 2018 by josie minor typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Japhet Posted December 7, 2018 Share Posted December 7, 2018 6 hours ago, Paul S said: I've seen the Matt Schofield trio a couple of times, a British Blues band. Keyboard player definitely thinks like a bass player. I was astonished at how he could play some complex and syncopated bass lines whilst soloing on the keys. Was going to mention Matt Schofield. They are such a talented band but when I've seen them I'm always left thinking they would be so much better with a bass in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertbass Posted December 8, 2018 Share Posted December 8, 2018 As well as the Doors, there's Atomic Rooster and Led Zeppelin, on Stairway to Heaven live anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjones Posted December 8, 2018 Share Posted December 8, 2018 Bah humbug. I'm an easy going kind of guy but I can get very irritated when keyboard players go anywhere near the bass end of their keyboard, when I'm playing. Two musicians playing the bassline, is one too many. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted December 8, 2018 Share Posted December 8, 2018 9 hours ago, gjones said: Bah humbug. I'm an easy going kind of guy but I can get very irritated when keyboard players go anywhere near the bass end of their keyboard, when I'm playing. Two musicians playing the bassline, is one too many. It’s when any two musicians try to operate in the same region when they aren’t listening to each other. I once played in a band with two guitarists, it was horrendous. Neither of them could agree on who was going to play what and it was just a sonic mush. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Dare Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 The late great Jimmy Smith played all the bass parts with his feet on his Hammond. Very tasty bass parts they were, too. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knirirr Posted December 9, 2018 Author Share Posted December 9, 2018 (edited) 5 hours ago, Dan Dare said: The late great Jimmy Smith played all the bass parts with his feet on his Hammond. Very tasty bass parts they were, too. Indeed; this one is a particular favourite: I can't quite work out all of the bassline though. Of course, this would allow for a "None; the organist could do it with his feet" variation of the joke. Edited December 9, 2018 by knirirr Fixed a typo. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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