P&J

[Ant1972]

Just out of interest...

Are there many bassists in big name bands who switch between P and J basses for different songs... or do they all tend to stick with the one style of bass for their set (and just tinker with pedals/effects)?

Sorry, for the dumb/naive question (I'm a noob bassist).... while I've seen guitarists switch guitars during a set, I've never really noticed bass players doing it.

[chris_b]

Daryl Jones in the Stones switches between P basses and his Laklands.

Bassists can switch between many basses in the studio, but most tend not to on stage. Drums and bass tend to stick to a collective sound whereas the front line can be changing their sound and effects on every verse, let alone song.

[EliasMooseblaster]

As Chris rightly points out, it's more common for the bassist and drummer to settle on one sound and stick to that; usually tweaking the bass sound to taste rather than changing it for something completely different.

I'd have thought the most common reason for guitarists to switch guitars mid-set are:

1. Different tunings

2. Broken strings

3. Overestimating how much a rodent's posterior the audience gives about the different tones available from their three very similar-looking Les Pauls

4. Just wanting to show off.

I distinctly remember seeing one group whose two guitarists had very differing approaches. One of them had a rack with half a dozen guitars, which he insisted on swapping over every other song. The other just came on with a Telecaster. After watching them both, my friends and I agreed that "Just-a-Tele" man was the much better guitarist, and that "I-will-definitely-need-all-six-of-these" man was possibly overcompensating.

[DoubleOhStephan]

I've seen Andrew Levy from the Brand New Heavies switch between a 4 string Jazz and a 5 string Warwick, although I imagine that's a tuning change as opposed to tone. 

[dmccombe7]

Geddy Lee in recent years although not so much in his earlier tours.

 

[dmccombe7]

Chris Squire used to swap between his Ric and other obscure looking basses on the tour i saw them.

Nick Beggs changes between his Ric, Spector and his Chapman stick basses.

Never really seen anyone change between P & J basses mid set. 

Dave

[uk_lefty]

Not seen many bass changes. A few years back I did a three bass gig and realised I must have looked like a right tit for it, it slowed things down too much. IMO its not needed unless you go fretted to Fretless and even then if I want a Fretless for a few songs I'll usually just play the half set or even whole gig Fretless just to not have to faff about. 

Guitarists who bring more than two guitars are usually showing off their collection. In my first band the guitarist had a very impressive collection but gigs took far too long to set up and he was pooing himself any time someone looked at his 1957 Tele which he had for one song. Last guitarist I saw doing this was in a dreadful band and he had three or four budget guitars he swapped between almost every song, and each was not stylistically different enough from the other. He really should have just invested in one decent quality guitar. 

[dmccombe7]

Our guitarist will use an acoustic 12 string in a few songs but he's looking at trying it with his Les Paul using some kind of pedal to see how it sounds at rehearsals first.

I'll take a 2nd bass but its purely as a back-up.

Dave

[Maude]

When I saw Kasabian the bassist used two or three different basses, one of which was a rather lovely CAR Jaguar bass. 

[spectoremg]

3 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Geddy Lee in recent years although not so much in his earlier tours.

 

Sponsorship possibly?

[spectoremg]

Wait long enough and ANOTHER p/j thread will come along zzz...

[PatrickJ]

I played a few gigs with a guitarist who switched between 3 guitars during our set.  

The only reason was because we had multiple tunings and although it did slow things down it was a lot quicker for him to swap guitar than retune.  We tried to group songs together that were in the same tunings so it wasnt too disruptive.

I bought a five string Jazz Bass and just worked out how to play the songs on that rather than have multiple basses - that worked for me.

Edited October 1, 2019 by PJ-Bassist

[itu]

I have switched between fretted and fretless. I have splittable humbuckers in few of my instruments. They provide that thin J or thick MM or nearly anything in between. That way I need max. 2 instruments at one gig. Fretless can be replaced by a double bass (or EUB). Have to admit, that most of my gigs are played by just one, so fretted 4- or 5-string.

[dmccombe7]

58 minutes ago, spectoremg said:

Sponsorship possibly?

Or he's just showing off his collection to help book sales. 

[Delberthot]

5 hours ago, dmccombe7 said:

Chris Squire used to swap between his Ric and other obscure looking basses on the tour i saw them.

 

I remember when I saw Yes at the Armadillo in Glasgow it was like a competition between Chris Squire and Steve Howe to see who could change their guitars the most during the gig.

Despite the number of basses I've owned over the years, for most of my playing career I've only ever taken 1 bass to a gig. It's only more recently that I've taken a second one purely as a back up.

[dmccombe7]

2 minutes ago, Delberthot said:

I remember when I saw Yes at the Armadillo in Glasgow it was like a competition between Chris Squire and Steve Howe to see who could change their guitars the most during the gig.

Despite the number of basses I've owned over the years, for most of my playing career I've only ever taken 1 bass to a gig. It's only more recently that I've taken a second one purely as a back up.

When i was younger i could only afford one good bass 

Seriously tho i've always had more than one bass since my very early years playing but like you i only ever took one bass. When you're young you never imagine anything going wrong. That comes with age 

Dave

[ezbass]

One of my bands is a Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers tribute. There are more 6 stringers than you can shake a stick up and there are numerous changes (i.e. not just window dressing). I just take one bass.

[chris_b]

There are two ways of looking at this. Either more is better or more is just needless showing off.

I'm on the "One bass to rule them all" side of the discussion. Get the best sounding bass you can buy and find a way of making it sound great in everything you play. Buy a good bass and the rest is easy.

[drTStingray]

I'm also in the one bass to fit all camp.

If it's good enough for Mark King, who goes from full on slap to finger style, then....

One person I've seen change basses is Marcus Miller, but to go from fretted to Fretless. I have done this from time to time also - but equally have used the Fretless all gig (if you've seen Pino in his Paul Young days, you'll know a Fretless Stingray can be made to sound like a normal bass even using slap). 

Edited October 1, 2019 by drTStingray

[EMG456]

If the gig is set up to require fretted and fretless, that’s what I bring. If there are songs on Chapman Stick then it comes along too. 

I don’t tend to differentiate between 4,5 or 6 string- if the odd song needs a low note and I’ve brought a 4, I’ll just detune the E to get there. 

These are listening gigs though- you’re easily changed between the applause (hopefully) and the preamble to the next song. If it was a dance gig or a theatre type show then I would rethink to suit. 

Wouldn’t change between a P and a J because there would never be a P there. 😮

[bassfan]

15 hours ago, Ant1972 said:

Sorry, for the dumb/naive question (I'm a noob bassist).... while I've seen guitarists switch guitars during a set, I've never really noticed bass players doing it

No such thing as a stupid question.... 👍🏻 

 

[Kiwi]

11 minutes ago, bassfan said:

No such thing as a stupid question.... 👍🏻 

 

Wot?

16 hours ago, Ant1972 said:

Just out of interest...

Are there many bassists in big name bands who switch between P and J basses for different songs.

I tried to but got asked to stop faffing about between songs as it was holding everyone else up.

[bassfan]

1 hour ago, Kiwi said:

Wot?

I tried to but got asked to stop faffing about between songs as it was holding everyone else up.

Ok .. maybe there is but that particular question wasn’t. 😂  my sister once asked what you put in a fruit bowl- now that’s a stupid question. 

get a P/J saves faffing

Edited October 2, 2019 by bassfan

[EliasMooseblaster]

Oh yeah...further to my response yesterday, I've just remembered that I would quite routinely switch basses during Cherry White's usual set. But that was because most of the songs were fine on a 4-string, but a couple of songs needed the 8-string. I'd like to think that was a big enough change in sound to justify swapping guitars.

[BigRedX]

When I played in a band where some songs required fretless and other fretted basses I used to swap between the two, although we would try and arrange the set so that I wasn't switching between them every song. We also had a guitarist who played keys on some songs so organising the set to suit both of us was sometimes "interesting".

These days I play 5-string bass and Bass VI, but in different bands. I just have back-up bass for each. I'd only swap basses during a gig if I was doing the fretted/fretless thing again or if I needed instruments with different tunings.