White Stripes. No Bass.

mame

mame

mame

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First off let me say im a big fan of the White Stripes. I've just listened to two of their albums back to back and something thats been bugging me for a while has got me thinking again. I'm not moaning BTW

Its the fact that they have no bass guitar. Now, first of all, i can see the achievement of two people being on stage and creating such a sound. Ive seen live videos of them doing just that and the sound two people can create is incredible. But having listened to their music a bit more close up, I cant quite make sense of it.

I think a lot of their songs sound great but would sound fantastic with an added bass track. Take seven nation army for example. Thats played start to finish on a guitar. Theres no bass (it even shows it being played this way in the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buIkPVqys1U. It sounds like he has drop-tuned the bottom 'E' to create a bass sound and then procedes to play the chords off the 'A' string meaning you either get 1 sound or the other. Also the bass drum is recorded louder than the other drums to create some bass sound. If you listen, you should hear what i mean. Now again its still a great song played by two people, apart from a 2nd guitar track that sneaks in towards the end.

Now, moving on ........ I'm listening to the albums and on many tracks i'm hearing 2, sometimes 3 guitars plus a piano plus the drums all playing together but yet still no bass? At the same there's the usual tuned down guitar emulating bass and the over-loud bass drum. Now this is a setup that could not be played by 2 people. This is what i dont get. I know its part of their unique sound but its still guitar rock. If their are 4 musicians (or probably over-dubs) why go to such lengths to leave out the bass?
 
Random point of interest: iirc Jack White doesn't drop tune his guitar, he uses a whammy pedal to drop to lower octaves for songs like Seven Nation Army, and up for some other songs I can't remember atm. He also uses a lot of distortion and some other effect that makes him sound more 'polyphonic' than you'd expect from one instrument, so I'm not sure there's much if any backing track (and after having seen them live I know that there isn't there anyway).

And even if he wanted a bass, I think they've got such an image of just the two of them now they couldn't ever add session players to their sets. And I think that Jack White is talented enough to create something out of nothing. :)
 
mame said:
Now, moving on ........ I'm listening to the albums and on many tracks i'm hearing 2, sometimes 3 guitars plus a piano plus the drums all playing together but yet still no bass? At the same there's the usual tuned down guitar emulating bass and the over-loud bass drum. Now this is a setup that could not be played by 2 people. This is what i dont get. I know its part of their unique sound but its still guitar rock. If their are 4 musicians (or probably over-dubs) why go to such lengths to leave out the bass?
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Excuse my ignorance, but does he loop stuff on the fly at all? For example, using a loop pedal for the main riff in Seven Nation Army then soloing over the top of it?
 
Take "I want to be boy the to warm your mothers heart" for example. This has guitar and piano throught (plus drums). "Seven nation army" has 2 guitar tracks, the 2nd guitar comes in from approx 2:02 to 2:39. On Ball and Biscuit the 2nd guitar plays from approx 1:47 to 2:19. Two people cannot play these songs as they are on the albums. There are many more. Thats all i am saying. I love the band but sometimes the lack of bass leaves such a hole in the sound, that it stops the song sounding as good as it could. Some of the earlier songs (love icky thump btw) sound just right with just guitar and drums but many others use extra instruments and its hard to see the point. It seems strange to have a song with 2 guitars + piano + drums and 2 of these trying to emulate a bass sound but without having a bass purely for the sake of not having one. It would seem odd to watch 4 musicians trying to pull this off with the bass sat in the corner.
 
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Maybe they have a phobia of bassists.

I know I do.

They always smell of brylcreem. And cheese and chive pringles.
 
mame said:
Now, moving on ........ I'm listening to the albums and on many tracks i'm hearing 2, sometimes 3 guitars plus a piano plus the drums all playing together but yet still no bass? At the same there's the usual tuned down guitar emulating bass and the over-loud bass drum. Now this is a setup that could not be played by 2 people. This is what i dont get. I know its part of their unique sound but its still guitar rock. If their are 4 musicians (or probably over-dubs) why go to such lengths to leave out the bass?
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Try searching for Redd Blood Cells on Google, a fella called Steve McDonald from Redd Kross added a bass track to White Blood Cells :cool:
 
Most of their tracks are built around either a single guitar riff or a piano...tingle? anyway, this makes the songs far easier to play live using just one instrument and a bit of improvisation, the addition of a bassline would mean taking a bassplayer on the road at all times, and splitting the money three ways :D .

On a different note, if you like the White Stripes, have a look at these guys, similar type of thing but better IMO:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=qHeF2lFO3IQ
 
It could add an extra dimension to their sound but I think part of their appeal is their uniqueness so a bass player might deter from that.

Its better than a lot of newer metal bands who set the equalizer on the guitar amps to have a load of bass and treble and no mid range. The result being a guitar sound that interferes with the bass making a wall of sound and a barely audible bass track. The guitar is meant fill the mid range of frequencies! :p
 
Malc said:
Its better than a lot of newer metal bands who set the equalizer on the guitar amps to have a load of bass and treble and no mid range. The result being a guitar sound that interferes with the bass making a wall of sound and a barely audible bass track. The guitar is meant fill the mid range of frequencies! :p
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that doesn't happen :S
 
I understand what Mame is saying -
Why bother to overdub guitars and keyboards they've got no chance of playing on stage but leave a bass out?
They should have made the most of studio time and then do what they like when live.
I wonder if anybody has done a bass version of the White Stripes albums like somebody as done a bass version of And Justice Of All by Metallica?
 
Really the question shouldn't be why don't they have a bass? but why should they have a bass. Music doesn't have to conform to anyones idea of what a band should contain, you might as well ask why Black Sabbath never had a Ukelele in the studio the simple answer is because they didn't want one.

Even if you think their recordings may benefit from a bassline, they obviously disagree and have the final say. Music is art, you wouldn't stand behind Leonardo Da Vinci and say, couldn't you make her look more happy? would you? :)
 
dmpoole said:
I understand what Mame is saying -
Why bother to overdub guitars and keyboards they've got no chance of playing on stage but leave a bass out??
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But you have got a chance of playing them, Jimmy Page overdubbed but when he played live he just varied which bits he played admittedly he couldn't play all the parts at once but he got damn close :D , there was no way he could have played bass and guitar.
 
dmpoole said:
I understand what Mame is saying -
Why bother to overdub guitars and keyboards they've got no chance of playing on stage but leave a bass out?
They should have made the most of studio time and then do what they like when live.
I wonder if anybody has done a bass version of the White Stripes albums like somebody as done a bass version of And Justice Of All by Metallica?
Click to expand...

http://www.reddkross.com/features/RBC/
 
dmpoole said:
I understand what Mame is saying -
Why bother to overdub guitars and keyboards they've got no chance of playing on stage but leave a bass out?
They should have made the most of studio time and then do what they like when live.
I wonder if anybody has done a bass version of the White Stripes albums like somebody as done a bass version of And Justice Of All by Metallica?
Click to expand...

Where's the bass version of ...and justice for all, please? :)
 
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