Bassists you love with tones that you would hate to have

[Drewskie]

Gary Willis... Best five string fretless improvisor alive with great tone, but has a completely different technique than I use(very light 3 fingered picking). I rely more on growl and attack. Love listening to him but could never sound like him...

[RED5]

Sheehan. Great player, landmark bassist, I wish I had half of his finger control, but that fart noise he gets from his rigs?, bleh. Must sound good live,maybe?

[davidmpires]

John Myung...you can barely hear him in this last tour.

[CrazyArcher]

+1 for Myung. I wish I had 10th of his technique, but his tone is...

[Orangeclawhamme]

Originally Posted by pbass2

I LOVE the Ox, but I'd have to say Entwhistle's sound, later in his career. Mind you, his sound on Who's Next, and Quadrophenia I absolutely adore, (and the really early stuff too), but I could never warm up to his tone he got into later on---it seemed like it had so much going on frequency-wise, that it lost the focus and roundness of the earlier tones.
(But that's a pet peeve of mine anyway--bass that has such a wide frequency spectrum that the end result is it gets kind of . . .lost in the mix, ironically.)
Quadrophenia ranks as one of my all-time fave bass sounds. Eminence Front on the other hand, is one of my least favorite. But I'd listen to him play anything, anytime, regardless.

+1. I wonder how much of his increased nasally tone had to do with his hearing being shot.

And he's one of the reasons I gravitated to bass. I bought the "official bootlegs" that Pete Townshend & Roger Daltry put out of their last tour. I got the Detroit show. It kills me to admit I liked Pino's sound much better. Sounds kinda like a bass player or something.

[Kgoodrich]

Originally Posted by Deluge Of Sound

I'd also like to list some metalcore bands, but I don't think I've ever actually heard a metalcore bassist.

i do agree with you on that account, most bands i've found myself getting into seem to have their bassists lost in the wonderful world of 2 guitars hellbent on maximum gain and overdrive so there is hardly any room for the bass to cut through anywhere.

It's still refreshing to hear the occasional band with a bassist who knows what he's doing (Between the Buried and me, Dillinger, Black Dahlia, Etc.)

[hentor]

Originally Posted by loendmaestro

Cliff Burton....his thin rubber band tone got buried so far under James & Lars ego mixes it was scary. So much talent that you have to strain to hear. Same could be said for Newstead on the And Justice LP too...

There was bass on "And Justice for All"?

Newstead's playing was also hampered by the fact that he was doubling the rhythm guitars instead of playing an actual bassline...

[mothmonsterman]

Originally Posted by double-muff

Les Claypool.

Big fan of his music but i do not think his tone would be good for Sludge/Doom

haha i love his tone, very unique and often like he's playing on old rusty dead strings.


Gotta go with Jaco for this one though, or bootsy

[antiochbass]

Originally Posted by RED5

Sheehan. Great player, landmark bassist, I wish I had half of his finger control, but that fart noise he gets from his rigs?, bleh. Must sound good live,maybe?

it doesn't...but man is he wicked on the fretboard.

[Sneckumhaw]

I like the tones of Bootsy, Jaco and Lemmy who are all monsters, but I wouldn't know what to do with those tones myself.

[RONQUITO]

+1 for Steve Harris...now if i had 25% of his strength and stamina...

[melt]

Originally Posted by Orangeclawhamme

+1. I wonder how much of his increased nasally tone had to do with his hearing being shot.

And he's one of the reasons I gravitated to bass. I bought the "official bootlegs" that Pete Townshend & Roger Daltry put out of their last tour. I got the Detroit show. It kills me to admit I liked Pino's sound much better. Sounds kinda like a bass player or something.

I think I'm in the (possible) minority of people who prefer Entwistle's sound from his Alembic period onwards (his Alembic tone being my favourite; in fact one of my all-time favourite bass tones. The sound he has on the old "America" live VHS is stellar). But I like big, bright, aggressive & twangy. As for Pino, he's a good example of someone whose sound I wouldn't know what to do with unless I was playing old Motown stuff or something. In the Who he's just completely wrong, stylistically & sonically, IMHO. Entwistle drove the band, he lays back waaaay too much for my taste. Great player otherwise though.

I love JPJs Jazz/flats tone (and Lenny Kravitz and Jack Daley) but I couldn't use it myself, and I've tried!

[4-Bang'er]

Bill Wyman - The Rolling Stones -love his short scale bass use and sound/tone all those years with The Stones-but could not and would not use the basses or tone/sound Bill did.
Jack Bruce-cool fretless sound (Robin Trower albums) on an off thru time-sounds gr8 with his style-but i could never pull it off and be satisfied with that bass tone.
James Jamerson-love the legend! and his low flat an fat tone/sound with Motown Artists but "dead"heavy gauge FLAT WOUNDS I could never swing with myself.-James owned that sound!

[envika]

ENTWISTLE

love the playing, the tone is hard to listen to. too damn bright.

[DistantTremor]

Originally Posted by double-muff

Les Claypool.

Big fan of his music but i do not think his tone would be good for Sludge/Doom

Sludge/Doom?


Oh, and for the sake of contributing to this thread, I don't like Cliff Burton's tone while soloing with distortion.

And I like John Myung's tone, especially in Dance of Eternity...

[BEADGCF]

Billy Sheehan. That guy can play, but I don't like his sound too much.

John Myung. I can't HEAR him in the mix most of the time, which is a shame, because when I DO, it's pretty awesome.

Lemmy. It's not as bad as the vocals for turning me off Motorhead's music, but it's close. It's a shame because some of the music I actually might like.

[sarcastro83]

Peter Hook... during the "Warsaw" days, on all of the recordings I've heard it just sounds way, way too "honky".

[melt]

Originally Posted by BEADGCF

Billy Sheehan. That guy can play, but I don't like his sound too much.

John Myung. I can't HEAR him in the mix most of the time, which is a shame, because when I DO, it's pretty awesome.

Lemmy. It's not as bad as the vocals for turning me off Motorhead's music, but it's close. It's a shame because some of the music I actually might like.

Lem has one of my top 5 tones. Now that's a tone I can use! Agree on Billy Sheehan though.

[Jereth]

Harris' sound... ever
Burton's distortion...

For me really it's any sound that sounds too thin or clangy...

[Marcury]

Another vote for John Entwistle's later tone. I bought the Hot Licks DVD he put out. Can't listen to it. At least buried in the mix i can listen to Who songs from that era, but on it's own on the DVD it's just painful.