Great Bass Players

Bazz

Who do you think is THE greatest Bass Player, ever, or who inspires you or impresses you on the old Bass... Either Double bass or bass guitar, whatever you want...

Or what Bass part in a song impresses you?


John Myung
Les Claypool
Stuart Hamm
Billy Sheean

Check out Stuart Hamms- 'Moonlight Sonata', he's tapping the ****ing thing. What's a talented fella..

Doctor J

Jaco Pastorius - No one has ever come close to achieving what he did. The greatest ever, no doubt about it. Jaco changed bass playing even more than Hendrix did guitar.

Hamm, Sheehan, Myung, Claypool, Stanley Clarke, John Pattitucci, Geddy Lee, Cliff Burton, Will Lee, Tony Choy, Shawn Malone, Doug Keyser, etc etc etc are all fine players but Jaco is King of Bass Mountain.

Bazz

True, what an underrated and criminally unappreciated musician.. Geddy Lee and Cliff Burton were more 'clever' then talented. In other words, they used their heads for the benefit of the song rather then be all ostentatious..

Victor Wooten is in the same league as Pattititucci and is just as intelligent a musician...

Doctor J

Geddy's OK, using your head is half the battle. I wouldn't wish Neil Peart on my worst enemy, so to be able to groove with him is worthy of mucho respecto :ninja:

As for Cliff, he was only getting started. He played in a genre where the bass player generally wasn't even heard and he was a legend before he passed away. He was, what, 24? He would have done great, great things had he lived, not just in Metal, he would've moved into other realms of bass playing.

I gotta say, one of the best players out there is Cliff Williams of AC/DC, I shyt you not. Nobody gets it right for the song as consisantly as Cliff Williams. OK, his simplified style isn't for everyone but he plays what's right, rather than what he's capable of, which I think is hugely commendable.

Bazz

Well the same can be said about Flea, Chi Cheng, yada, yada, yada, They play for the song not to be heard... Which is a ggood enough reason to be a good musician isn't it...

ferdi

some names that havnt been mentioned and who i think are good

Mark Iversen of the mad caddies
matt freeman of operation ivy and rancid
Joe Gittleman of the mighty mighty bosstones
tony kanal of no doubt
chris squire of yes
paul Mc Cartny of the beatles
john Mc Vie of Fleetwood Mac

threebeards

Originally posted by Bazz
Victor Wooten is in the same league as Pattititucci and is just as intelligent a musician...

I have to agree. I got a Bela Fleck DVD yesterday and Wooten blew me away - So effortless.

feylya

Originally posted by Doctor J
Hamm, Sheehan, Myung, Claypool, Stanley Clarke, John Pattitucci, Geddy Lee, Cliff Burton, Will Lee, Tony Choy, Shawn Malone, Doug Keyser

Yes, they'll do. Hamm's solo on Joe Satriani Live In San Francisco is incredible.

Although, I'd add in Jason Newstead. He is a decent bassist, probably more talented than Metallica ever let him be.

Doctor J

Newsted is quality alright, just check out Flotsam & Jetsam - Doomsdsay For The Deceiver.

cournioni

I have to agree with most of the bassists mentioned... Don't forget about Jonas Hellborg either! Savage Bassist. My favourite bassist has to be Martin Mendez, without being too technical. The others are savage but he is one bassist you can really listen to!

Doctor J

Better not forget Steve DiGiorgio either. A great metal player.

colincarnate

Paul McCartney is right dude, classic so he is.

But in truth bass sucks, bass solos suck, play the freakin geetar already is what i say to those boys.

What about Duff McKagan? i like the stuff he does on KOHD live.

and whatever is on Seinfeld intro...

Crucifix

Originally posted by Bazz
Check out Stuart Hamms- 'Moonlight Sonata', he's tapping the ****ing thing. What's a talented fella..

Indeed, I was thinking he was not bad at first but when he brought in the lead over the rythm I was blown away. I can play the rythm on guitar myself, but that's just unreal.

Kunst

ya'll forgetting flea.....abosolute class...puts his heart and soul into every track


(not doubting the talent of your choices though)

Pugsley

No-one has mentioned Mark King yet? sacrilage! For sheer bass madness noone comes close in his speed, he plays slap bass in 16th's for christ sake

Originally posted by colincarnate
But in truth bass sucks, bass solos suck, play the freakin geetar already is what i say to those boys.

Bit of Mark King might change your mind on bass solo's btw, some of his solo stuff is just unbelivable.

However most of the other bassists mentioned here are superb, John Wyung is another personal favourite of mine, Claypool is another truely excellent bassist.

Baggio

Well you lad's know your bass,,,thats for sure
...I liked Mark King alright, Flea is decent enough,,,,but I have to feel Geddy Lee..(surprise surprise!) is the one,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, my goodness,,,,,having watched him carefully these 20 years or so,,, man the speed of his playing and slapp bass, while singing AND controlling foot keyboards in a 3PIECE band???....amazing, truly,,,
I remember him doing Xanadu (a late 70's epic) with his double neck 6 string and bass rickenbacker on and he had the foot going, singing and his hands switching back and forth between keyboards and bass playing all in 1 verse?!!....crazy,.,,but marvellous to witnness, I re-listened to very early rush 75/76 lately and even then he played it like a lead guitar,,,hes a very rare player thats for sure.

keep rocking you bass supremo's...ciao'....Baggio............

superconor

What about Steve Harris?

Unbeleivable bassist, amazing strenght and musicallity.

Not to mention he wrote half of Maidens back catalouge!!

Deadwing

Alot of the bassists i like probably arent too technically excellent, but for me i dont think its all about technical excellence, that makes a great bassist, but thier individual sounds. For me, its all about:

Cliff Burton - Metallica
Greg Edwards - Failure
Billy Gould - Faith no more

Again, maybe not the most 'foot on the monitor' widdly bassists (Apart from cliff maybe) but the ones who inspired me to play bass, and IMO had the best sounds. (Anyone whos heard small crimes by Failure will agree its probably the best bass intro ever recorded)

loismustdie

chris novoselic

Civilian_Target

Harris, Mc Cartney and Tim Comerford. And the bassist from Fisto. He's a legend

projectmayhem

Chi Cheng from Deftones and Justin Chancellor from TOOL are superb bassists

Bazz

Steve Harris wrote most of Maidens music nevermind half... I'm suprised that he was mentioned so little here.. He's an innovator, he plays with three fingers and not many Bass players create that unique 'galloping' bass sound that he has pioneered over the last 20 odd years...

Mark King was a great Bass player but he hardly wrote any relevant or interesting music with Level 42 did he... And what he did; play slap in 16ths, was being done in the seventies by Americans... Tho he was ****in talented..

Doctor J

Bazz you sound like a player, have you been to the INSTRUMENTS forum and posted your gear up?

Quatre Mains

I can't disagree with any of the previous posts really (Geddy Lee is my fav), here are a couple of others;

- ability-wise I think Billy Sheehan was a class player, but most of the stuff he played on was crap.

- the midgety-looking guy from Blue Murder was a good fretless player

- sound-wise I love Jimmy Bain's bass on the Holy Diver album, especially on Stand Up and Shout

Cheers
Neil

Doctor J

There was a stroy, I don't know if it's true, that Dio fired one bassist because, for whatever reason, he sounded out of tune when they were recording - they'd tune the bass, they guy would play along to the track and it'd sound out of tune, even though the bass was in tune and the guy was hitting the right notes...?

I'm pretty sure it wasn't in Spinal Tap

feylya

Maybe his intonation was way out. A lot of players don't know the first thing about guitars in my (limited) experience.

PNDPUNK

MATT FREEMAN from Rancid.

Mystic Fibrosis

Martin from Decapitated. Maybe not the greatest composer, but by god, he's a solid player.

Ancient1

Tony Choy.

(whatever happened to him?)

Doctor J

There were rumours of an Atheist reunion about two years ago and they couldn't track him down.

He was rumoured to be playing in a Carribean cruise ship caberet band :eek:


What a fycking tragedy

Ancient1

Carribean cruise ship caberet band

omg!
If it wasnt tragic it would be comical... if it's a case of a great player like him not being able to find work in other bands, now that's truly tragic. If it is true, i have difficulty imagining Tony Choy being content in a caberet band (on a cruise ship!).

nadir

what about joey de mayo
damn i cant believe no one mentioned him.

awesome bassist imo

nesthead

Joey DiMaio ("mayo" lol) is a crap bassist. Hes a guitarist playing a bass. He doesnt understand the role of the bass line, like the majority of metal bassists.

Steve Harris is not an amazing bassist (hes guilty of being a guitarist too) but in Maidens song the basslines are very definitive.

Johann DeFaralla is much better then Martin Mendez imo. its so obvious that Johann made plenty of changes to Mikaels basslines (for the better) were as Mendez just plays them as they are.

the guy from Cannibal Corpse (cant think of his name:rolleyes:) is feckin amazing!

Gordon

Originally posted by Bazz

Victor Wooten is in the same league as Pattititucci and is just as intelligent a musician...

Don't know Pattitucci but Victor Wooten is a very cool bassist. He has one piece that sounds like two bassists playing at the same time and it's a one taker with no overdubs on a 4 string bass apparently.

B*stard!

wiped

Originally posted by Doctor J

I gotta say, one of the best players out there is Cliff Williams of AC/DC, I shyt you not. Nobody gets it right for the song as consisantly as Cliff Williams. OK, his simplified style isn't for everyone but he plays what's right, rather than what he's capable of, which I think is hugely commendable.

Here here Doctor J .... spot on .

. and I can't believe no one has mentioned the Ox ..... John Entwhistle ... :mad:

wiped

........ and more to the point ....Dee Dee Ramone for the exact same reasons as Cliff Williams but with the added fact that he wrote most the Ramones classic back catalogue

innisfree

Gonna have to add to the Victor Wooten vote. Saw him play in Whelan's and he just blew me away. Seemed so effortless. He does some great covers of Norwegian Wood and Amazing Grace, aswell as playing some stunning classical pieces on the bass alone.

Just don't touch him when he plays with his brothers (rather than the Flecktones). They drag him down real bad.

Bonzo

Where are Simon Kirke,Jack Bruce,John Paul Jones and Noel Redding in all of this??
Excellent all of them...

IrishMike

Lemmy
for cryin out loud how can u forget lemmy ?

nadir

Originally posted by nesthead
Joey DiMaio ("mayo" lol) is a crap bassist. Hes a guitarist playing a bass. He doesnt understand the role of the bass line, like the majority of metal bassists.

but I think manowar are class, *sob *sob

but i guess really, whose to say what the "role" of a base is, i mean it's there for whatever you want to use it for. If metal players want to play the base ultra fast or whatever, like a big 4 stringed guitar, thats cool, that's the way they want to play it, its very big of you to say these musicians dont understand the "role" of an instrument they play. I mean are violins for bow's or for plucking?
/me wonders what his "role" is
rofl?

PS. and i do apologise so sincerely for my spelling mistake.

Bazz

Man, you saw Wooten??? U jammy bastard...

And whoever said Lemmy acn go away now.... Flippin Lemmy??

I think I'll start a poll

innisfree

Yeh, just recently. Was it 03 or 02? Can't remember now, will have to check my ticket stub. Couldn't believe such a legend was playing in a club as small as Whelan's and nobody knew (though I preferred the smaller venue obv.). Actually, that went for the entire band - each of them is outstanding in their own field. Béla is always coming up tops in contemporary banjo player polls.
Talked to him briefly and he's a nice guy, signed my stub for me also. One of my favourite gigs ever.

MarkMI6

Dude don't knock Lemmy :P Sure it's not technically impressive, nor does it actually make much sense playing it like a guitar, but it just sounds good. Like a really fast steamroller.

Timmy C from RATM, now there's some interesting sounds he's made over the years!

And let's not forget Nick Oliveri...

Bazz

Originally posted by MarkMI6
Dude don't knock Lemmy :P Sure it's not technically impressive, nor does it actually make much sense playing it like a guitar, but it just sounds good. Like a really fast steamroller.

Timmy C from RATM, now there's some interesting sounds he's made over the years!

And let's not forget Nick Oliveri...

Nick Oliveri???? *sigh* But you're entitled to your opinion...

Bazz

Charles Mingus

ferdi

Originally posted by Bazz
Nick Oliveri???? *sigh* But you're entitled to your opinion...

i agree with MarkMI6, Nick Oliveri is good, not a wizard but very good.

Deadwing

I cant believe i forgot one of my favourite bassists of all time.#
Peter Hook from Joy Division.
(only Joy Division era hook tho, f*ck New order and thier David Hasselhoff videos!!)

dabhoys

I'm not a bassist but..

Jaco Pastorious = God

He's the jimi hendrix of the bass guitar hands down

Bazz

Originally posted by dabhoys
I'm not a bassist but..

Jaco Pastorious = God

He's the jimi hendrix of the bass guitar hands down

I don't know on what level you consider Jimi Hendrix but he's extreamly overrated..

But yeah, Pastorious is fairly deft.. he's a genius on so many levels..

Doctor J

Originally posted by Bazz
I don't know on what level you consider Jimi Hendrix but he's extreamly overrated..

:eek:

No way man, I just can't believe that. For me, no-one comes close to Hendrix. The man was sublime, a real talent. Sure, since his passing many players have come along who can play faster, cleaner, widdly widdlyer or more technically proficient, but Jimi communicated with people on a level no other guitar player has done before or since, and that for me is far greater than any 64th or 128th note arpeggiated sweep you can mention. Many people forget that Hendrix's 'career' lasted all of three years, Are You Experienced came out in August 67 and he died in September 70. Is there any other artist who made such an impact in such a short space of time. He's probably the most influential guitarist of all time, dammit even Miles Davis knew he was something special. Hendrix is the only guitarist who sends shivers down my spine (see Machine Gun off the Live At The Fillmore DVD). I would say the man is actually underrated. He was a very unique, very very special artist who hadn't really started to realise his capabilites when he died. For me, no one comes close.

loismustdie

krist novoselic