Avoiding the bad bass player problem, the band Maszer

[superblonde]

A way to cure the bass player problem? Saw an interesting original hard rock band recently. They were from Seattle, called Maszer (read down to see what the band name means). They drop some hints in the video below that Seattle is still happening..

2 drummers..!
1 female vocalist, also a drummer..!
1 guitarist-vocalist, hooked into 2 separate amps with separate huge cabinets!
no bassist!

So yes, the guitarist is the only musical instrument in the band. (No pressure on that guy, huh?)

The guitarist must have had a suboctave pedal of some kind.. I couldnt get a clear look.

1st drummer, at back, had a somewhat normal (I cant tell really, looked normal) rock band drum set and he played a lot of cymbals and kick drum.
2nd drummer, played these huuuge standing drums with big mallets, and some (sorry probably wrong name but I dont know drums) bongo drum with sticks, and also, bucket drumming on one song

The vocalist, also had a huuuge standing drum and beating with a mallet (wrong word maybe again I dont know drums) to match the kick drum.

They were a very very tight band with all that drumming going on, and the bass, was ridiculously enormous, just waaay too stinkin thumping loud.

The guitarist would play low strings especially with up-strums and fretting over the top with his thumb and also sometimes picking with his hand like a bass player (plucking maybe it’s called).

On the high strings he would play kind of hard shoegaze chords.

Meanwhile the female vocalist is singing and also the guitarist is singing, alternately and harmonizing.

And they were not singing in english most of the time.. I couldnt figure it out tho it sounded strangely familiar, but it turns out it is Hebrew. (Guitarist is originally from tel aviv, now lives in LA) and the band name Maszer is a Hebrew word for some concept like tithing (charity)

In general pretty cool and unique sounding setup, like trance hard rock, or psychedelic metal. Very danceable.

Ok found it here’s the linkola at a relevant timeola https://youtu.be/C0neS-Bq8AQ?t=451
and here https://youtu.be/C0neS-Bq8AQ?t=20m24s

The one thing I kept feeling from the stage performance (besides blown away) was that for bands who do that octave stuff with a single guitar and don’t mic the amps for a small club, it would sound much better to put the cabinets on opposite sides of the stage, because the bass tone was really interfering with the guitar tone and making it hard to hear the guitar.

I also spent some part of the show wondering why the female vocalist had her mic raised up so high (also can be seen in 2nd video), such that she had to sing on tiptoes to reach it.. I guess that’s how she activates her abs maybe but seems like it could be a better vocal technique..

Amazing tho, this band was so tight on timing, just incredible.

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[rightonthemark]

weren’t the white stripes a bassless group?
heck, it was just two of them.

i saw survivor several years ago perform live without a bassist.
their keyboard player played the bass parts.

rock and roll ain't pretty; that's why they picked us to play it.

[Igglepud]

Get a Trio pedal and you can replace the drummer too. Didn’t you want me to record something with mine? It’s Spring Break so I have some free time.

MY ROCK IS FIERCE!!!

[superblonde]

It sure seems like there are many more groups with different lineups today but who knows if that’s true… Yup, White Stripes a duo, so is Black Keys a duo, Blood Red Shoes is also a duo, all of these are drummer + guitarist.. with octave down pedals. Then there’s Royal Blood which is just bassist + drummer and bassist uses octave-up effects.. In comparison to classic rock days, the only classic band that I remember with alternate lineup is The Doors where keyboardist played separate keyboard for bass. and, 3 drummers and 1 guitar? That has got to be a unique one. For rock, anyways? Pop lineups have become strange since the 80s like Depeche Mode played synths for everything then later added a guitar (?) or like 21 Pilots today is a drummer and a vocalist (who also adds some novation or something or sometimes a bass) isn’t it?

The interesting thing about bass though is that as an instrument doesnt it have very player-unique tones, because there’s so many varied ways to play a note. So having a keyboard player on the bass, I dunno, hitting keys just won’t have the variation of tone qualities of a real bass, right. From that standpoint Royal Blood might be the more sonically interesting band.

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[Doug Marks]

The Doors didn’t have a bass player. I have heard that they toured with a bassist. Their keyboard player, Ray Manzarek played pedal bass on recordings and some of their live shows.

Metal Method Guitar Instructor

[superblonde]

Yup when I saw Robbie Krieger for the big anniv concerts a couple years ago (post-Manzarek, R.I.P.) he was touring with the bass player and keyboardist both from the Frank Zappa band and horn section. Wow what a band they looked like they were having the time of their lives and sounded absolutely amazing. The kind of great where you want to come home and burn your guitar. This past winter when I saw Robbie Krieger again, he didnt have a bass player (unless I am totally blanking on this), just a keyboardist (different one but still good) and also a horn section.

Tho I dont remember any other classic rock bands that went ahead without a bass player.. in those stone ages before sub-octave pedals..

Hmm come to think of it, The Black Keys brings a bass player when they play live according to interviews (after they made it big at least and could pay for one, not in their early days). Poor bass players, hidden nearly offstage I guess.

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[superblonde]

Different up & coming new band, blues rock, is a duo and no bassist-

no octave pedal? I cant really tell.

LITTLE HURRICANE – “Bad Business” (Live in Austin, TX 2016)

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

[superblonde]

Little Hurricane made a baby while on tour. So maybe they were not a duo after all. They were maybe a trio with the youngest player on the planet. No bass player, maybe the baby handled the metronome? Amazing story.. playing blues rock n roll drums while pregnant, what?

CC on tour while Pregnant

If CC were any more cute the world would implode.

I'm an intermediate student of Metal Method. I play seitannic heavy metal. All Kale Seitan! ♯ ♮ ♭ ø ° Δ ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬
And on the Seventh Day, Mustaine said: ∇ ⨯ E = - ∂B / ∂t ; and there was Thrash; and it had a ♭3; and it was good.

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