favourite bass sounds?

Colin Hodgkinson: Back Door's master of chordal strums, melody and extreme bluesiness. Very innovative player.

Good choice - but why did Jan Hammer only employ him as a vocalist until those Neil Schon albums - wasteful? And why whilst in Whitesnake, did he sound ordinary?

CH is best  playing the blues, (as with Back Door - thank goodness Warners reissued the first two albums on CD - and there is an excellent video of Hodgkinson and  great late Alexis Korner playing live).

My bass hero Jonas Hellborg is on record stating: Hodgkinson rather than Pastorius influenced him most.

I like a multiplicity of bass tones:

Anthony Jackson to put it mildly is a GENIUS!! Between his unique dark, piano-like 6-string sound, his ability to reharmonize music spontaneously and a number of other abilities makes him a real standout to me. Check out his playing with Steve Khan's Eyewitness band (www.stevekhan.com ) and pianist Michel Camilo as killer examples of his playing. He cited influences as far flung as James Jamerson (Motown session guru), Jack Cassidy (Jefferson Airplane) and classical composer Oliver Messaien.

Jaco Pastorious needs no introduction

Chris Squire's on "Relayer" (a bit bit less treble but LOTS of growl like a panther).

Janick Top, Bernard Paganotti or any of the Magma fuzz-bassists. It amazes me how they could play with this heavily distorted sound and yet play so musically, clean and precise! Not an easy task.

Percy Jones with his slithery, stuttering fretless growl and all that crazy stuff he does with natural and artificial harmonics.

Colin Hodgkinson: Back Door's master of chordal strums, melody and extreme bluesiness. Very innovative player.

Stanley Clarke's Alembic tone w/ RTF (especially on Where Have I Known You Before and Romantic Warrior)

Jimmy Johnson with his super-melodic Alembic sound, super clean yet so rich sounding.

John Wetton w/ King Crimson and UK, very cutting and fierce especially live.

Michael Manring  A walking encyclopedia of 1000 things you can do with a fretless in crazy tunings.

Hard to believe Randy Jackson went the route he did, a great, very capable player just submerged in all this CRAP!! What anyone sees in a bimbo like Pariah Scarey is beyond me!

Edited by The Owl

Actually, I left out Deon Estus...

and yes - I really do like the SOUND of his bass when he played for THAT 1980's pop band...

Battlestations!!!

  I was listening to Jean-Luc Ponty's "Individual Choice" and noticed Randy Jackson (of "American Idol" fame, I believe) played on two tracks. Crikey, how the mighty have fallen. The guys playing with JLP and Holdsworth on a good, not great, fusion disc, and then calling everybody "Dog" and acting like Mariah Carey's the hottest thing on the planet.

 

Ooops, sorry about the rant. Rickenbacker's tone: Goooood.  

My award for best technique has to go to Victor Wooten and Bill Dickens - AMAZING slapping technique, and Wooten is one of the most gifted bass players today (read; 'ever'). They're both too much about technique, though, they beat guys like Jaco at that, but Jaco had his tone and his groove. But, none of them participated in any really MUSICALLY great album (maybe except of Weather Report's "Black Market" and "Heavy Weather", where Jaco was in the band), not as far as I know anyway. They're more like solo bassists than Tom Kennedy, Dave Meros, Jimmy Johnson and the bunch. At least Tom Kennedy has released solo albums, but he's more of an awesome session musician than a solo bassist, or at least I regard him as that. He made some great work with Dave Weckl and Al diMeola, too. He knows hos to get the groove without overdoing anything; very tasteful fellow.

Rickenbacker tone all the way.

Why has Jonas Hellborg has been ignored so far? He is a master of the 4 string electric bass, and in many styles from jazz to heavy rock taking a lot of jazz rock: check out the 30+ albums he has been involved with since the late 80's. Personally I don't believe anybody can touch him as an acoustic bass guitar player : "Icon" (with the late Shawn lane and Indian persussionists) and "Octave Of The Holy Innocents"  (with Buckethead and Michael Shrieve) being the recommended starting points.

 

Tom Kennedy and Jimmy Johnson : in demand jazz/jazz rock sessionmen, and Jimmy sounds best with Allan Holdsworth (e.g. last year's "All Night Wrong").

 

I was gob-smacked by the electric bass solo on the Czech band Collegium Musicum's "Live" album ("You Are Dreadful Pt 1"?) - recorded in 1973, there were several effects/riffs which I thought came with Pastorius three years later. Alas I can't remember the name of the electric bass player, - but I'm willing to bet he was classically trained on the cello. (In passing Musicum's keyboard player is definitely worth tracking down, guy called Marian Varga. He used a Russian build Hammond copy and I'll rate him above Keith Emerson)

Agreed - good heavy metal lyricist, too

Certif1ed wrote: Mmmm! Rickenbacker + Marshall! Mmmmmm! Mr Peter Trewavas and Mr Ian Kilmister rule that combination

I hope we're not forgetting Geddy Lee here!

Certif1ed wrote: J J Burnel from the Stranglers has a sound to die for]

Oh yes - there were times when you could swear he was using a Rickenbacker himself, given the overdriven treble he used, yet he always sworn by the Fender Jazz

Certif1ed wrote: ....but top award for bass technique goes to Stanley Clarke

Stanley Clarke is an absolute genius, but for my money, the award for sheer technique would have to go to the late Jaco Pastorius.

Mmmm! Rickenbacker + Marshall! Mmmmmm!

Mr Peter Trewavas and Mr Ian Kilmister rule that combination for their inspired use of the tones - although Mr Squire and Mr Meros are both more technically oriented and deserve a mention.

J J Burnel from the Stranglers has a sound to die for, as does John Entwhistle's Alembic; Keith da Bass (Here and Now), Jasper (Subhumanz, Culture Shock, Citizen Fish) and Robbie Shakespear (Sly and Robbie) all have definitive Reggae bass sounds - it just doesn't get any better!

Scott Thunes and Billy Sheehan both have a superb sound and incredible technique, but top award for bass technique goes to Stanley Clarke.

Finally, Roger Waters. 'nuff said.

***Old bass players never die - they just hang up their G-Strings...***