Name some good bass players. Any genre. (A.K.A. Bassist Appreciation Thread)

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Chapbass

Chapbass

Diamond Member
May 31, 2004
3,147
96
91
SunnyD said:
Wow. That was just... awful. You thought that was a good bass line? Really?
Click to expand...

While I'm not the biggest fan of My Name is Mud as a song, Claypool has definitely helped bring Bass into the forefront, especially among people just getting into the instrument (Flea is another excellent example of this).

Check out some off Primus' other stuff, especially some of the Tommy the Cat renditions, its pretty...unconventional.

I'm a pretty huge Claypool fan, but admittedly I haven't followed him in quite a while.

Most of the other biggies have been mentioned in here already. I have to give a shout out to my old private instructor, Bill "The Buddha" Dickens. Most people view him as not the most musical, and more just running around the neck with random wankery, and while I would agree, the guy is a technical master and excellent instructor.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh6BB_rs5S4 is an example.


Also, Kevin Keith is an excellent Bassist and Chapman Stickist, take a look at EJE for some excellent stick work (not going to derail this thread though :) ).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7UCAiW77kI
 
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SphinxnihpS

SphinxnihpS

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2005
8,368
25
91
Probably all been named but here goes, in order of 'this guy invented things and can do things others can not':

Jimmie Blanton: This is the single person responsible for the way bass has been played in all modern western music genres. Let's call him Issac Newton of bass.

Stanley Clark: This guys is the Albert Einstein of bass guitar. Theroies may be refined, but it will be a long time before someone provides the Grand Unified Theory of bass, and until that time, Clarke's E=MC^2 will be the definition of what can be done on this instrument.

Jaco Pastorius: If Clarke is Einstein, this is Niels Bhor.

Les Claypool: Sticking with the physicist analogy, here is Richard Feynman. Les has acheived a level of technical mastery of the instrument which rivals that of jazz players, blending funk, rock, jazz, slap, and other 'sound-effectsie' elements together in some of the most complex and inventive playing around. A true wizard! The father of strange world of QED is a fitting analogy for the father of the strange world of the Primus bass player.

Paul D'Amor: I see some of you listed Justin. Justin Chancellor was asked to copy D'Amor's style, and play his already written parts on Aenima, the rest is an extension of writing and playing bass parts in same vein. Paul's suffocating swampy drop D and drop E style and syncopation with Adam Jones IS the defining sound of Tool. To credit that sound to Justin is criminal. Just is technically excellent, but he didn't invent anything. He is essentially a session guy. I'm putting D'Amor above the next guys simply because I like his sound more than any other in rock.

Bootsy Collins: The master of funk, and arguably the father of much of the bass sound you hear in post-modern rock. The list of people who list Bootsy as their greatest influence is immense, bring me to the next guy...

Paul McCartney: Perhaps not the fastest, slickest, or flashiest, but do not underestimate any member of the Beatles. This is another person of very high influence on all rock music.

John Cale: This might be another head scratcher for those of you who disagree with Paul McCartney. Basically most of the rock music you hear today owes everything to a handful of bands, and none more so than The Velvet Underground.

Noel Redding: Another high influence guy from a high influence band, The Experience.

Cliff Burton: The defacto inventor of speed metal bass. A lot of people would plae Cliff higher on this list, and I can understand that; he was a master and one of the first in rock to approach the instrument as if it were a guitar, but his influence is mainly limited to a genre of music I find utterly boring, ultra repetitive, grating, and shallow.

Apologies to:

VICTOR WOOTEN
Roger Waters
John Paul Jones (he always get's fucked)
Mike Gordon (he can play anything, any style, anywhere, anytime, and probably do it better than the inventor, and find a way to do it on a garden hose)
Rob Wasserman
Chris Pravdica
Robert Trujillo (not for his Metallica shit)
 
Chapbass

Chapbass

Diamond Member
May 31, 2004
3,147
96
91
SphinxnihpS said:
Probably all been named but here goes, in order of 'this guy invented things and can do things others can not':

Jimmie Blanton: This is the single person responsible for the way bass has been played in all modern western music genres. Let's call him Issac Newton of bass.

Stanley Clark: This guys is the Albert Einstein of bass guitar. Theroies may be refined, but it will be a long time before someone provides the Grand Unified Theory of bass, and until that time, Clarke's E=MC^2 will be the definition of what can be done on this instrument.

Jaco Pastorius: If Clarke is Einstein, this is Niels Bhor.

Les Claypool: Sticking with the physicist analogy, here is Richard Feynman. Les has acheived a level of technical mastery of the instrument which rivals that of jazz players, blending funk, rock, jazz, slap, and other 'sound-effectsie' elements together in some of the most complex and inventive playing around. A true wizard! The father of strange world of QED is a fitting analogy for the father of the strange world of the Primus bass player.

Paul D'Amor: I see some of you listed Justin. Justin Chancellor was asked to copy D'Amor's style, and play his already written parts on Aenima, the rest is an extension of writing and playing bass parts in same vein. Paul's suffocating swampy drop D and drop E style and syncopation with Adam Jones IS the defining sound of Tool. To credit that sound to Justin is criminal. Just is technically excellent, but he didn't invent anything. He is essentially a session guy. I'm putting D'Amor above the next guys simply because I like his sound more than any other in rock.

Bootsy Collins: The master of funk, and arguably the father of much of the bass sound you hear in post-modern rock. The list of people who list Bootsy as their greatest influence is immense, bring me to the next guy...

Paul McCartney: Perhaps not the fastest, slickest, or flashiest, but do not underestimate any member of the Beatles. This is another person of very high influence on all rock music.

John Cale: This might be another head scratcher for those of you who disagree with Paul McCartney. Basically most of the rock music you hear today owes everything to a handful of bands, and none more so than The Velvet Underground.

Noel Redding: Another high influence guy from a high influence band, The Experience.

Cliff Burton: The defacto inventor of speed metal bass. A lot of people would plae Cliff higher on this list, and I can understand that; he was a master and one of the first in rock to approach the instrument as if it were a guitar, but his influence is mainly limited to a genre of music I find utterly boring, ultra repetitive, grating, and shallow.

Apologies to:

VICTOR WOOTEN
Roger Waters
John Paul Jones (he always get's fucked)
Mike Gordon (he can play anything, any style, anywhere, anytime, and probably do it better than the inventor, and find a way to do it on a garden hose)
Rob Wasserman
Chris Pravdica
Robert Trujillo (not for his Metallica shit)
Click to expand...

Pretty well thought out list right here. You sir, have much more patience for writing out long posts than I do. :D

The only other way I can think of to do a "who's who" of bassists would be to give a list of members who are influential to bringing more people to our often unloved instrument.

Many of the members listed above probably wouldn't be on a list like this, but some (mainly Les and Cliff Burton, also possibly Paul d'amor but not so much by name, more by associaton) would be.

Other notables:

Geddy Lee
Flea (major one right here, regardless of what you think about him/rhcp in general)
Chris Squire
John Paul Jones (also semi-sorta by association)
POSSIBLY Gene Simmons, but hes similar to McCartney in that its more who he is, not the fact that hes a bassist. Most people would just as easily equate both of them as guitarists. I could be wrong however, as I'm not old enough to know the Beatles wonder years, and pretty much the same with KISS.

I'm mainly thinking them based on how influential they've been to bringing people to bass (the guys that make kids/new bassists say "I wanna play like (x)".

/shrug. beats me. dunno where I was going with this, mainly just thinking out loud.
 
TwiceOver

TwiceOver

Lifer
Dec 20, 2002
13,544
44
91
Don't know why everyone always has such a hardon for Cliff. He wasn't *that* good.
 
Chapbass

Chapbass

Diamond Member
May 31, 2004
3,147
96
91
TwiceOver said:
Don't know why everyone always has such a hardon for Cliff. He wasn't *that* good.
Click to expand...

I'd agree with this...not sure if you were saying that in response to my post, but if so, I was basing it more along the lines of people wanting to pick up bass from listening to them.
 
S

stargazr

Diamond Member
Jun 13, 2010
4,161
3,684
136
Jaco Pastorious. This is from a Joni Mitchell concert. You can jump ahead to around 2:00 for his solo if you aren't a Joni fan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm1jdhiwoZs

Paul McCartney's bass playing was underrated IMO. Especially the psychedelic stuff. he's all over the place but always melodic, what suits the song.
 
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