Great Bassist's.

[Thrashgrinder]

Steve DiGiorgio. From Death, Testament, Quo Vadis, Iced Earth and Sadus. I can't say that I am a metalhead anymore but listening to this man playing bass is and always will be an amazing experience

Here's a piece from his Jazz Fusion band

 

[smudgey]

I'm surprised by the lack of Paul McCartney in this here thread.


Also gonna throw in some Fieldy; love him or hate him, not a lot of people come up with their own unique style to playing an instrument like this guy did (hit it really hard to make percussive clicky noises).

 

[Total LOLige]

Taka Hirose of Feeder, John Entwistle of The Who and Kim Deal of the Pixies all awesome. I'm too lazy to get videos though, nobody watches them anyway.

 

[GTwander]

OT: I'm quite a fan of Masaki.

That dude needs to be louder than the guitar in that vid.

One thing I've always said about bass (and bassists in general) is that it's like the retarded cousin of guitar, and is usually lame - unless they hit Rainman levels of tardation that shines like none other. The bassist is either hidden in the back, or is the defining member of the entire band.

 

[thelittleman66]

Cliff Burton, of course.

Flea, Geddy Lee, Les Claypool, Geezer Butler, John Paul Jones, and Jason Newstead are also great.

 

[el_kabong]

Plenty of good bassists so far in the thread. However, as an upright player in a psychobilly band, I'd be remiss if I didn't post something from Kim Nekroman. The guy has lightning hands.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Easily Jack Bruce!

Cream were one of the best bands of all time for raw music talent! What they would often do was Jack Bruce would make up a bluesy riff up on the spot in a gig... Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker would just join in and jam for an entire lenght of time until they tired of it! Jack and Eric would even just make up lyrics on the spot! Awesome stuff... pure talent!

 

[royohz]

I like Colin Edwin. He might not be the greatest, but he's pretty darn good at what he does. I'm lost for his work in Porcupine Tree. Haven't taken the time to listen to his solo work.

And also Nick Beggs. He's fucking awesome and cool as hell.
[small]I'm a sucker for anything Steven Wilson.[/small]

 

[Psycomantis777]

Scott Reeder of Kyuss, he's pretty damn handy, just check out "Demon Cleaner" or "Space Cadet".
Craig Adams of The Mission UK had more of a rhythmic presence, but you can always hear him.
Paul Raven of Killing Joke was more than handy, you can here a lot of chunky bass in "Millennium"
Err, I've seen Les Claypool and Vic Wooten mentioned, they're pretty handy...
And..er, Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath and G//Z/R always played some neat stuff.
There's a lot of awesome bands with awesome bassists.

 

[Random berk]

I fully admit to not knowing a great deal about bassists, but regardless since no one else has done it, I must take this opportunity to attest to the general epicness of Phil Lynott, the bassist, vocalist and frontman for Thin Lizzy.

http://youtu.be/-JQTUgLh6mc[/youtube

Since it won't put the video up, there's the link above.

 

[someonehairy-ish]

Gotta throw out Duff Mckagan of GNR, as well as Johnny Christ of Avenged Sevenfold, and agree with the above listings, as all are fantastic bassists.

Johnny Christ? Are you being serious? He's competent but I can't think of a single memorable avenged bassline that didn't just follow the guitars exactly, or play root notes. He sometimes does nice moody legato bits in the slower songs but they're by no means difficult or unique.

The bassists that stand out to me due to sheer technical ability have mostly been mentioned- Burton, Wooten etc. I'd like to add John Myung (Dream Theater) to that list.
Justin Chancellor (Tool) is pretty damn good too. He's perhaps not quite as technical as someone like Wooten, but he's extremely accomplished at playing in strange time signatures and he has a knack for coming up with memorable basslines too.

Edit: Lemmie (Motorhead) and Chris Wolstenholme (Muse) get props for being able to sing and play some fairly tough stuff at the same time. That kind of multitasking is goddamn difficult.

[sub]Also please take out the apostrophe from the title. The plural of bassist is bassists. Bassist's would be used to indicate possession, ie 'the bassist's technique' - and bassists' would be used for plural possession.[/sub]

 

[smithy_2045]

Carlos Denger of Interpol. Not the most technically proficient, but their best songs all have really prominent basslines.

 

[irishmanwithagun]

The only bassist I have any particularly strong feelings for is Ted Dwayne of Mumford and Sons fame.

 

[bluepotatosack]

Some great bassists mentioned in this thread. Jaco Pastorius, Victor Wooten, Les Claypool, Mike Watt, etc.

But we need more upright players.

Spoiler: Charles Mingus

Spoiler: Paul Chambers

Spoiler: Ron Carter

 

[JonnyHG]

Sean Malone of Cynic is pretty swell in my opinion. He had a solo (ish) project called Gordian Knot that showcased his talents pretty well.

I was hoping someone would mention Sean Malone and it didn't take long at all. Also check out his work on Aghora's self-titled album.

 

[deathninja]

Phil Lynott, no question. Though Flea is awesome when it comes to funk.

 

[Bravo Company]

I'm pretty sure nobody has mentioned Geddy Lee (rush) and I'm sure he meets great bassist status, singing, playing bass, and keyboard; all in the same song.

 

[deakin_j]

No Steve Harris (of Iron Maiden) yet? i mean, the basslines in some of their songs are more memorable than the guitar parts (Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Clairvoyant, and Run to the Hills for example).

 

[sinsfire]

John Entwistle - The Who

How has no one said this yet??

 

[Michaluk]

What's your definition of "great bass player"? Is it his chops? Is it the genre of music he plays? Is it his compositions?

If you're just looking for players with amazing chops without regard to genre, look into fusion-jazz bassists like Jaco and Vic Wooten. The album "Jaco Pastorius" is very bass-centric and has some of the best playing you'll ever hear.