Originally posted by Andrew Sa
I know in my band whenever I am doing a solo the bassist gets damn bored, as do I when he does a bass solo or slapping groove. I would just sound like too much was happening if it was any other way, I guess

If your bassists is getting bored while your doing a solo, Suggest him to lay down a nice groove, something he can get down to that's not too long and it's not hard for you to solo over. Like a 1 or 2 measure bassline. A nice bass groove and a guitar solo works very well together. And if you get a nice groove on bass it's hard to stop playing it cause bass grooves are a blast to play.

For a bass solo, it's probably best for the drums and bass to go at it alone. But if your wanting to throw in alittle guitar, do small things that go with what the bass is playing. Like a quick 2 note strum and the begining of a measure then quickly mute. And let the bass continue. The key to adding guitar while a bass solo is not to let the guitar ring out. You want to be the rhythm. Usually instead of distorted guitar, try playing clean with some flange or cool effect. Works great.

To keep things from getting to be too much, think of music as being in 3 parts.

Rhythm, melody, and harmony.

Solos are always the harmony part. If your doing duel guitar solos have one guitar play something melodic and then have the other guitar harmonize over that melody. Bass on rhythm, and if this is the case. Have him work around the root arpeggio, if he gets bored with just the root note.

If you have one guitar soloing, the other should be playing the rhythm. Now the bass can play something melodic, but nothing to crazy that it takes away from the guitar solo. Something like a walking bassline within the chord arpeggio. Arpeggios are the bassists best friend, they allow him/her to do something interesting without taking anything away from anything else.

You can rearrange these in anyway. But if you break it down into these three parts, it's easy to keep things from being too much and combats for attention.