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Greatest Electric Bass Player Ever?

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I don't know who the best is, but my favorites are;

John Entwistle
Geddy Lee
Greg Lake
Chris Squire(though not very good)
the Primus dude
and you gotta love Gene Simmons
 
I got to go with Les Claypool. It is amazing what he can do with a bass. If I'm not mistaken his "standard" bass is a six string. I know that on occassion he will break out the double knecked six string bass and wail away on that. Not to mention the bass banjo and kazzoo 😉
 
Victor Wooten?
Can I get a big HELL YEAH!!!
The guy picks out banjo rolls on the bass, if thats not flat out amazing, I dont know what is.

Ill put in Flea for second.


And to the guy who said Bela Fleck, its the Banjo he plays, in fact, I would say he is a Banjo god, not the fiddle, though Im sure he DOES play the fiddle on occasion.
 
I'm with vi_edit, Les Claypool is incredible. He can play a bass like it was a guitar. I'll always remember this goofy ad that he posed for in a bass magazine I used to get. The caption was

Les is More

🙂
 
For all of you who said Victor Wooten, you should check out Jaco. Victor can only wish to be as smooth. They both have amazing chops, but Jaco puts more feeling into his music IMO. Don't get me wrong, Victor would be my second pick, but Jaco is the "father" of the electric bass.
 
Les Claypool
Flea
Colin Greenwood
Geddy Lee
Simon Gallup

ltk007: Didn't Billy record the bass for 'Geek USA'
 
Geddy Lee

I wish he would jam some more in concerts. He seems like he wants to but never does. Still waiting for the next album.
 
I'm not sure who's best but I think the list should exclude any player who's humped his bass on stage at any point in his career?
 
Les Claypool from Primus.

[edit]oops,guess I should have read the thread first huh. Well,hes so good he should be brought up again.
 
I would vote for Les Claypool.

A little know fact about old les, after Cliff died, les tried out for Metallica and "james told him he was to good to be in the band" apparantly the band was blown away at his audition.
 
Geddy Lee.

I'm waiting for their next concert. One advantage of living in Vegas is nearly everyone comes here 🙂
 
Les Claypool is my #1 vote. Just because he likes those 6 string fretless basses....
Cliff Burton is my #2 vote. Just because he "was" mettalica. There will never be another like him.

sparkle
That story is true. I have talked to Les personaly. (Saw him around Minneapolis a few years back)

Wolfie
 
Just for reference, Victor Wooten also plays banjo, and Bela Fleck also plays bass. 🙂 I have seen them live a couple of times and they switch on occassion. Awesome.

One guy who's not as well known but is amazing is Michael Manring. I saw him play with Michael Hedges a few years back. I actually saw him and Wooten during the same jazz festival. If I hadn't seen Manring, I would say Wooten was the best I ever saw. Manring was incredible. He does a lot of ebow stuff, and is just incredible. He did a solo where he had two basses strapped on, one below the other, and then called an audience member up to hold a third bass in his arms in front of him and played all three, hitting harmonics, tapping and changing tuning mid solo to make the most incredible sounds. It wasn't just showboating, but really musical.

If you've never heard him, check him out. He's awesome. I believe he was actually a student of Jaco's. He plays for a lot of the Windham Hill albums.
 
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