>>1) What kind of "rock" band has no bass player?

>Well, the Doors, for one.  Not that the Doors didn't suck 31 flavors of ass
-- 'cause they did -- but it's not unheard of for rock bands not to have
bass players.

They had piano bass. I think that fulfills the spirit of bassness.

to be technical, i wouldn't consider piano bass sufficient - that is, if you
mean by piano bass -- a piano player who plays the bass line on his piano
with his left hand.   most piano players do some sort of bassy thing with
their left hand,  and in the overall mix of an entire rock band, the piano
bassline doesn't usually have enough bassness to register enough on the
bassosity meter!    but maybe thats not what you mean by piano bass?   in
the case of the Doors, ray played a separate keyboard (some sort of synth or
something?) with his left hand to cover the bass line and played a keyboard
organ with his right hand.   maybe the bass keyboard he played was called a
"piano bass"?  this would be interesting for me to know, as i've played
keyboards almost all my life and like to learn about arcane key equipment.
never been a big Doors fan however, so i never paid that close attention to
what actual instruments ray m played.

but in any case, i agree, ray did fullfill the spirit of bassness.

white stripes have no bass at all, ie little to no bottom end, so the sound
is kinda bass-ackwards.  i can't say i dislike their sound, but i wish they
had more bottom end.