NWB - Community Blog

I think there are always issues in a 4-man band, compared to a trio.

Trios are tighter units and with us, we have nearly always worked as a 4 piece, but after our first guitarist emigrated, to be honest, it's always been the band +1.

We've got one, and we love him! Rocker is a legend! :-) Ann x

Kingpin are a 4 piece - Singer, guitar, bass and (ofcourse) me. I don't think you really need that 'fuller' sound when you are playing live and in smaller venues - if your rhythm section is tight they can fill in when the lead is playing.

It would, however, be a major issue in bands playing a lot of thin lizzy or lynyrd Skynyrd (to name but two) where there is not only rhythm, but harmonized lead aswell.
Twin Lizzy are a fine example of duo lead guitar.
Most of us can just muddle by with a bit of extra 'fill' from the bass and a volume boost for the lead (plus, ofcourse, the split is worse with an extra member....only kidding - actually I'm not!)

Alyerifitsoundsgoodgowithitpal

well me personally as a bassist i do prefer a trio as i have mainly played that way in past bands, however as stated above doing Lizzy etc the benefits of dual leads is great, so i am really pleased that Baz our 2nd guitarist decided to rejoin us last month.it certainly gives us a fuller sound

We were two guitars, bass, singer and drums (5) when we set out but after one left and the replacement left after two gigs we couldn't be arsed to go through the the hard work of yet another replacement.
We tried some so - called keyboard players who fekked us about, hence just the four now with more vocals and bass filling in,

Rick.

Hi Gaz !

Nice to see you out at the Dogs (Boneyard ! ) last nite !

We are blessed with great Bass Player & Singer Bloke doubles as rhythm Git player on some tunes, he plays the coolest, cleanest janggly Strat !

:O)

Sin After Sin have the advantage of our singer Tony plays both guitar & bass and Russ our bass player is a fantastic guitarist so if the song requires 2 guitars then it'll get it. Of course if you only have one guitarist then you have to adapt or even think about dropping songs if you feel that you aren't doing them justice.
The Sinners

Well Ride On have one - and a bloody good one he is too. I think that good guitarists do get bored with sticking to rhythm which is a shame because I like to see a good rhythm player. Rob from Ride on is capable of playing much more than just Malcolm Young's parts but he is disciplined enough to do the job right.

(forgive me if I've got this wrong because I've seen ACDO but not Ride On yet, this was certainly the case with acdo).

I recently saw Mike Walker playing in the Ray Charles tribute gig in Clitheroe and he only took four solos all night and I rate Mike Walker as one of the best around.

we have one...but it wouldn't be a tribute without eh!

We have 2 guitarists. Youdsy plays most of the lead parts, but Fletch has a couple of leads too. They share the rhythm and try to compliment what the other is playing. Of course, playing bass, this means i've got to contend with 2 prima-donnas vying to be the loudest, but it works really well for us.!

We play as a trio (me on guitar, and the other guitarist on bass) or four piece, and both sound great...But it's literally ten times easier to get a great mix when playing with a three piece.
Balancing two guitar amps is tricky to do without getting the sound muddy, takes a fair bit of experience.

We just didnt replace one of our guitarists when he fecked off.....works a treat.....better mix, more room and a bit more ££.

It's testament to our own guitarist Ace that we can play the likes of Oasis with just one guitar. And before the anti indie crew come blogjacking - not because it's difficult but because the sound is just layer upon layer of guitar.

We play a lot of guitar driven tunes and when he drops out to play lead, the rhythm section fill in.

We've been a five piece band and it's nice to have a full sound, but talent and effects can make up for it. I like to think with us it's the former.

My hubbie Pauls a great rhytham player and thats what he used to do all the time . However we had lots of problems in trying to get a lead player into the band, so we just got to a certain point then couldnt be bothered looking any more. Paul luckily for us had enough about him to play some lead as well, so problem solved :0) .

Have a rhythm guitarist? And split the money 5 ways instead of 4? Bugger off! LOL
Mind you, 2 guitars sound great on Teenage Kicks, especially cos it's so hard to play.
Personally I would prefer a keyboard player to spice things up rather than a rhythm player. I'm a sucker for a bit of cheesy organ. Hang on, that didn't sound right...

our lead guitarist hasnt got any rhythm so we'd be fecked if our singer didnt play rhythm guitar!

unless your playing massive venues or as mentioned above material with lots of harmonised shit going on you just dont need a 2nd guitarist. i dont think its down to the guitarist ability its more down to the rhythm section to fill the space. to be fair theres not many solos in our set (thankfully) but when i do venture up the dusty end i dont think it ever sounds like an instrument has dropped out. testement to ryan and steve

I play rhythm guitar as well as handling the lead vocals. I only play on the songs that really need it to fatten out the sound - the rest of the time I leave it to the virtuoso guitarist in the band.

Bloody hell a compliment off ST.
The jack daniels not worn off yet!!!!!!

With you on that one too Ben.

See, the compliments don't get thrown about too often. Makes them all the more genuine when they are!!

When I used to run my Rock school, I used to tell students there is No lead or Rhythm guitarists only guitarists, unless your a Joe Satriani tribute your only going to be doing lead breaks for a very small percentage of the time (even this is unfair to Sach-hes a great "rhythm" players as well) so being able to keep time with the kick drum and play chord sequances cleanly will always make you a better "band" guitarist, sure we all love the Lead breaks ( for the pedantic the phrase "guitar solo" is incorrect, when used if there are any other instruments playing at the same time) most bands can get away with one twanger , and the benefits are of course, financial, and its one less person NOT to be available for gigs.

so how do we go about dealing with our non-rythmic'lead'player and have just one twanger then...offers of advice on a postcard please!!

Most guitarists can be made to shut up by placing some sheetmusic in front of them and inviting them to play it ! (JK) lol

This is a guy who's quotes include.."its close enough for jazz!" followed by.."we can always play the songs we know - better!"
Having played jazz, i find that quote an insult in itself...and the only thing thats gonna sort him is a new set of ears!
haha - i cud take over the entire blog on a rant but i wont...i'l stay calm for the sake of NWB rules :-I

i dont care how good a bassist is, they cant do a guitar part.
i write songs that have 2 or more guitar parts in, (99% of the time)

playing live sounds fuller with a rhythm sound, if you're playing chords and then switch to the solo, you lose the guitar rhythm and the sound goes a bit empty. as i said, bass does not cover this. bassists should play the unique bassline and not the general chords of the song, unless they're a poor bassist.

but it all depends on the music you do. the roses had a brilliant guitarist and always played live with one guitar. even limited guitarists like kelly jones from the phonics made do with one guitar in the band, although they couldnt re-create the multi-guitar parts of newer songs so got otehr people in.

if you're a cover band epsecially and playing songs with 2 guitar parts with a single guitar, you're missing out.

suppose the best way to get around this is have the singer playing rhythm, so songs that dont need 2 guitars, he can put it down and carry on without.

I do mostly rhythm guitar and leave majority of solos to Andy. I'm more than happy to do rhythm really

@The Mocking Birds - i dont care how good a bassist is, they cant do a guitar part.

Lemmy does. I take your point though.

....dont think a rhytmn player wud be any good with RR as i dont learn the parts properly and make up stuff !!!!
The same with Ruins too i do both parts (inc some keyboard intros like died in yr arms,final countdown etc) and it seems to work ok as long as the Bass is underneath

its an interesting debate, benefits to both ways