Playing lead on bass

[SteveXFR]

Last night I received an email from our guitarist with an mp3 looping an absolutely disgusting, sludgy, doomy guitar riff. It sounds great but because he's gone so low with it, he's pretty much playing a bass part on baritone guitar (tuned to A#). This means the space left for me is pretty much a lead part which is something I have zero experience writing. Are there any good guides or rules or tips for writing a lead part? Or is it just a case of put it on loop, pour a whisky and jam until something happens?

[BigRedX]

Start listening the Joy Division and all those other post-punk bands where the bass guitar carries the main instrumental tune.

 

I've found the easiest way to come up with a good tune is to sing it first, and then work out how to play it.

[Burns-bass]

24 minutes ago, BigRedX said:

Start listening the Joy Division and all those other post-punk bands where the bass guitar carries the main instrumental tune.

 

I've found the easiest way to come up with a good tune is to sing it first, and then work out how to play it.

Excellent advice. 
 

Isolate the melody and try and work some ideas from that.

 

Lead stuff high up doesn’t sound great in the bass, which is why Hooky and those guys used a lot of root notes. 
 

If it’s not in a E,A, D or G, you can use a capo so you can still get that root note to bounce off. 

Also, if you have effects might be a great time to use them!
 

Sounds like a lot of fun. Be great to hear it.

Edited April 6, 2023 by Burns-bass

[Happy Jack]

Some excellent advice there ^

 

On the rare occasions I find myself in this territory, I usually resort to playing the main riff / bass line at the 12th fret on the D/G strings, with just a touch of fuzz or distortion. 

 

With a Rickenbacker strung with rounds  this works well. With a Thunderbird strung with flats ... erm ... less so.

 

[BigRedX]

I do a lot of "lead bass" with Hurtsfall. I find that alternating the tune with the root note works well where I play two strings either as chords or alternate plucking, with the lower string doing the root note of the chords and the higher string doing the "melody"

[SteveXFR]

Thanks for the tips. Listen to Joy Division is just good advice for all problems but they do have so great bass leads.

[Barking Spiders]

Listen to the first two New Model Army albums  when Stuart Morrow was on bass and in particular a track like this one. Such as great tone!

 

 

 

[paul_5]

Check out Ned's Atomic Dustbin for lead bass stuff - they had two bassists, one for t'low end and one for t'dusty end.

[Leonard Smalls]

1 hour ago, paul_5 said:

they had two bassists

Us too!

Raph does the standard bass stuff and I go widdley woo everywhere else... I use a splitter in my helix so it puts reverb and envelope filter, plus loads of overdrive and distortion on the higher frequencies.

However, much to Rap's chagrin, being an E/A string never higher than the fifth fret type punk bassplayer, we've now got a song where he  plays chukkachukka damped chords on 3 strings well above the 12th fret. 

 

[bartelby]

2 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

Listen to the first two New Model Army albums  when Stuart Morrow was on bass and in particular a track like this one. Such as great tone!

 

 

 

Good call. Moose on the 3rd and 4th albums is pretty good too.

 

[SteveXFR]

57 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Us too!

Raph does the standard bass stuff and I go widdley woo everywhere else... I use a splitter in my helix so it puts reverb and envelope filter, plus loads of overdrive and distortion on the higher frequencies.

However, much to Rap's chagrin, being an E/A string never higher than the fifth fret type punk bassplayer, we've now got a song where he  plays chukkachukka damped chords on 3 strings well above the 12th fret. 

 

 

What band is that? I'll have a listen. 

[Leonard Smalls]

1 hour ago, SteveXFR said:

What band is that? I'll have a listen.

Here's our album...

https://choked.bandcamp.com/album/choked

 

Edit: bear in mind the album was recorded 6 months ago... Our dual bass approach has evolved since then!

Edited April 6, 2023 by Leonard Smalls

[PaulThePlug]

Lemmy's bass noodling with Hawkwind...

Time we left, Orgone Accumulator - Space Ritual, Dave Anderson on Should'nt do that - In Search of Space.

Melodic...

[SteveXFR]

1 hour ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Here's our album...

https://choked.bandcamp.com/album/choked

 

Edit: bear in mind the album was recorded 6 months ago... Our dual bass approach has evolved since then!

 

I like that. That's giving me ideas. Good tunes.

[Passinwind]

8 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

Last night I received an email from our guitarist with an mp3 looping an absolutely disgusting, sludgy, doomy guitar riff. It sounds great but because he's gone so low with it, he's pretty much playing a bass part on baritone guitar (tuned to A#). This means the space left for me is pretty much a lead part which is something I have zero experience writing. Are there any good guides or rules or tips for writing a lead part? Or is it just a case of put it on loop, pour a whisky and jam until something happens?

I seem to end up in two bassist situations fairly often. By now my default choice for lead bass stuff is to use a slide. Much easier on fretless, I reckon, but since I so rarely play a fretted one I wouldn't really know!

[SteveXFR]

1 hour ago, Passinwind said:

I seem to end up in two bassist situations fairly often. By now my default choice for lead bass stuff is to use a slide. Much easier on fretless, I reckon, but since I so rarely play a fretted one I wouldn't really know!

 

I think fretless slide lead bass could be a first in sludge/doom metal. Add in a wah and some heavy overdrive and I'm sure it'll work. 

[Passinwind]

49 minutes ago, SteveXFR said:

 

I think fretless slide lead bass could be a first in sludge/doom metal. Add in a wah and some heavy overdrive and I'm sure it'll work. 

FWIW, I did this cut with my Travis Bean fretless  as a bit of a goof several years ago:

 

 

 

 

 

[Jackroadkill]

11 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

Listen to the first two New Model Army albums  when Stuart Morrow was on bass and in particular a track like this one. Such as great tone!

 

 

 

 

Why can I only like this post once?!

[Gasman]

The band on before mine at the gillingham dorset festival yesterday was Black Sheep, a barn dance/ hoedown outfit with just drums, fiddle and bass. Johno the bassist was leading the band, huge sound, combining melodies, chords, harmonies with the violin and thumping bass at a relentless speed. Not my favourite musical style perhaps, but full respect!

[nilorius]

I t comes from Your heart !