Grunge's greatest bass lines

[Jonesy]

Some great suggestions so far! Really love Robert DeLeo's work with STP and he creates some really interesting, melodic lines. A couple of other suggestions.......

 

Soundgarden - 4th of July, Gun. Not really standout for their bass lines, but probably 2 of my favourite Soundgarden tunes just because of the riffs

Mother love bone - I dig all of Ament's stuff really, another melodic player who isn't too busy. Cloe Dancer/Crown of thorns is a nice slow number. Half donkey monkey boy is more fun

Temple of the dog - more Ament. Pushing forward back & four walled world are great!

Mad season - liifeless dead, i don't know anything

Jesus Lizard - I love everything about David W Simms, his playing is great (but not showy) and his tone is up there with Bob Weston's. Mouth breather, along comes dudley and monkey trick are all good fun 

Melvins - all of it. history of bad men is really simple, but one of my favourite riffs

Big business - lonely lyle. We're bordering into more stoner doomy stuff here, but seeing I've mentioned Melvins, i couldn't leave this out

 

And then to top if off........I wouldn't say Nomeansno are grunge at all, but seeing as you're open for more general alt rock stuff then I'll throw them in. Rob Wright has some fantastic lines. Rags n bones is a joy to play and It's catching up is a work out! 

[peteb]

 

Interstate Love Song (and yes, I do count STP as a grunge band) is a great bassline. 

 

Of ones I've actually played, Jeremy by Pearl Jam is an instantly recognisable bassline and the bass part to Spoonman is pretty cool...! 

 

[DaleASmith]

2 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

Interstate Love Song (and yes, I do count STP as a grunge band) is a great bassline. 

 

Of ones I've actually played, Jeremy by Pearl Jam is an instantly recognisable bassline and the bass part to Spoonman

 

 

Agree. Spoonman and Interstate Love Song are both Killer bass lines

[SteveXFR]

8 minutes ago, Jonesy said:

Melvins - all of it. history of bad men is really simple, but one of my favourite riffs

Big business - lonely lyle. We're bordering into more stoner doomy stuff here, but seeing I've mentioned Melvins, i couldn't leave this out

 

Melvins are one of my favourites. Going Blind is a great one to play, so is Honey Bucket. 

Melvins definitely blur the line between grunge, sludge and stoner. I do enjoy a bit of stoner, I think there's some grunge influences in some Kyuss songs, Demon Cleaner has got a bit of grunge about it.

 

[Jonesy]

21 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

Melvins are one of my favourites. Going Blind is a great one to play, so is Honey Bucket. 

Melvins definitely blur the line between grunge, sludge and stoner. I do enjoy a bit of stoner, I think there's some grunge influences in some Kyuss songs, Demon Cleaner has got a bit of grunge about it.

 

 

Melvins are really difficult to put in any pigeon hole and I think that's why I love them so much.. Really love that Steve McDonald plays Epiphone Thunderbirds too. 

 

Kyuss have a touch of grunge in them too, I guess a load of alt rock stuff at the time had snippets of grunge in it. Even KISS cashed in (surprise, surprise) with Carnival of Souls!

[SteveXFR]

12 minutes ago, Jonesy said:

Really love that Steve McDonald plays Epiphone Thunderbirds too. 

 

So does Alice Coopers bassist, Chuch Garrick. 

According to the experts on the Thunderbird Facebook group, they cannot possibly be standard Epiphones and must be hand made specials which look like Epiphones because a non US built bass would disintegrate by the third song.

[Jonesy]

10 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

So does Alice Coopers bassist, Chuch Garrick. 

According to the experts on the Thunderbird Facebook group, they cannot possibly be standard Epiphones and must be hand made specials which look like Epiphones because a non US built bass would disintegrate by the third song.

 

They're such great basses, I'm trying to get my one I sold back........hopefully it'll happen!

 

When I originally picked mine up I had a go on a full fat Gibson and thought the Epi was miles better. Adding in the fact that they're chirpy cheap means I was guilt free when taking chunks out of it by playing with a metal pick!

[SteveXFR]

1 minute ago, Jonesy said:

 

They're such great basses, I'm trying to get my one I sold back........hopefully it'll happen!

 

When I originally picked mine up I had a go on a full fat Gibson and thought the Epi was miles better. Adding in the fact that they're chirpy cheap means I was guilt free when taking chunks out of it by playing with a metal pick!

 

I actually went to the shop with the intention of buying a Gibson but just out of curiosity tried the Vintage Pro. It definitely sounded better to me, maybe not quite as nicely finished but overall, I preferred the Vintage Pro to the Gibson even ignoring the £1000 price difference. 

Mine is set up for tuning down to C with some DR DDT strings. It sounds like thunder. Put on a nice light overdrive and it sounds fantastic. 

 

[Jonesy]

Snap! But with a classic pro. Drop C and some gain and you're in thunderous heaven!!

[SteveXFR]

9 minutes ago, Jonesy said:

Snap! But with a classic pro. Drop C and some gain and you're in thunderous heaven!!

 

I think the classic Pro is a bit less bright than the Vintage Pro but I turn the tone knob down to about a quarter to lose a lot of that extra brightness.

[Marvin]

Nirvana - Come as you are.

[walshy]

On 04/03/2022 at 18:20, Bjam said:

Lounge Act

Is the right answer!

[verb]

Interstate Love Song, Plush and Sex Type Thing by STP

Outshined and Spoonman by Soundgarden

In Bloom, Lounge Act, On A Plain and Love Buzz by Nirvana.

Alive, Jeremy and Even Flow by Pearl Jam

These are the first that come to mind, but there are loads.

[SteveXFR]

35 minutes ago, Marvin said:

Nirvana - Come as you are.

 

I'm not sure whether you're joking or not. I think that's one of Nirvana's least interesting bass lines

[Doctor J]

 

 

 

Soundgarden have a rich seam of cool bass

 

[Lfalex v1.1]

Nutshell- AIC

WMA- Pearl Jam

Mailman- Soundgarden

Room a thousand years wide-Soundgarden

Jessie- PAW

Stain- Nirvana

Unwound- Helmet

Throat Locust- Tad

Creep- Stone Temple pilots

 

[Barking Spiders]

When I'm occasionally wound up I like to put on Ty Cobb by Soundgarden crank up the volume and play along on either bass or drums. Total catharsis!. + 1 here for pretty much any STP track. I'd go for Plush, Trippin On a Hole..., Interstate love Song and Sour Girl.

[StickyDBRmf]

The Bad Plus. Oh, check out Chariots Of Fire (I had to pull the car over) or Smells Like Team Spirit.

Edited March 7, 2022 by StickyDBRmf