Can you start a rock band without a bassist?

The Doors - would record with a bass player on occasion but there was no bass player formally a member of the group as Ray Manzarek believed his left hand/foot work with an organ and organ pedals was better than any bass player (may be apocryphal, but this is one story I have heard about them)

same is partially true for led zeppelin i.e. their bass player was also their keyboardist
 
Man (a slight thread hi-jack, here), I saw John Paul Jones a few years back, when he opened up for King Crimson. He is an awesome bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, singer, and song-writer. He was quite constrained in the Led Zeppelin format, if you ask me; a real talent.

GJ
 
Fear Factory has no bass player in their "The Industrialist" album, the bass part is played by Dino Cazares (guitarist) himself. Metallica didn't have a bassist in St. Anger, so it was recorded by someone else. there are lots of bands that don't use bassists for their studio recordings, but normally pay for someone to play live.
Oh, Slipknot doesn't have a bassist as well. The guy playing the bass isn't still in the band.

What I see is that normally this role is taken by the guitarist. Probably because in most of rock/metal music out there the bass doubles the guitar line.
 
Lots of bands do this. Mid-era Pig Destroyer did it. Discordance Axis did it. Magrudergrind did it. Hm, notice a pattern with these grind bands? Anyway, other genres do it as well. If I remember correctly, Hella is just a guitar player and a drummer. DZ Deathrays and Japandroids are great if you're into indie/alternative.
 
loveinathens said:
Lots of bands do this. Mid-era Pig Destroyer did it. Discordance Axis did it. Magrudergrind did it. Hm, notice a pattern with these grind bands?
Click to expand...
Everything is so distorted in grindcore bands that normally you wouldn't hear any bass sound, at all! But, also, you have some great basslines adding weight to the songs in grind bands like Napalm Death, Brujeria and Gorerotted.
 
Sure you can, but why? Find a decent player. Bass is the base of rock groove along with drums, dropping bass from a band is quite risky for your music.
 
I think so. I know a local band that uses an octave guitar fx pedal that gives a deep bass sound to the guitar whilst keeping it's original sound. Sounds decent!
 
There are some good bands in this thread already - but if you're really looking to start a rock band with a bassist, why not just do it? You can find other ways to fill up the low end (e.g. bass amps used with a guitar, keyboards, etc)
 
My friends didn't have a bassist for awhile until I picked up a bass. But before that I would create a full bass line with a synthesizer pre recorded and then play it back almost like a backing track when practicing and it wasn't too bad.
 
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