Bassist With Best Distortion Tone

[Space-Man]

I'm a big enthusiast of distortion, not sure why, and I was just wondering who you guys think uses it best. My vote goes to Geezer Butler.

 

[purpletornado]

Jason Newstead? I'm not sure if he plays with distortion. How about Les Claypool?

 

[hambonechicago]

John Wetton (King Crimson) & Takeshi (boris)

 

[polydeathsphere]

Dick Lovgren - Meshuggah

 

[SpamBot]

Jesse F. Keeler or Brian Gibson

 

[John Wentzien]

Tim Bogert.

 

[jhan]

- Marco Hietala of Nightwish. Really. Honestly. Does a good job of cutting through the huge symphonic wall going on there. Read that he uses a Sansamp GT2. Have one for guitar and tried it on bass. Too noisy.

- Mariusz Duda of Riverside. Not full on distortion, but slightly overdriven at times. That guy has great tone. Plays a Mayonne. Seeing more and more of those. Beautiful bases.

- Alex Webster's work on Blotted Science. Again, not full on distortion, just a slight overdrive. Real nice.

- +1 on John Wetton. Always liked his tone, on anything he's ever done.

Personally, I HATE full on, fuzzy-wuzzy / buzz-saw distortion on bass. Turns everything to mud, IMO. But that's just me.

 

[southshoreconor]

Lemmy?

my favorite is Tim Commerford.

 

[soulplane83]

+1 for Tim Commerford

 

[Johnny Crab]

- Marco Hietala of Nightwish. Really. Honestly. Does a good job of cutting through the huge symphonic wall going on there.

+100
Add Amy of Clatter to that as well.
If you've heard her setup at close-range LIVE you KNOW why.

If you include very old school(I cut my chops on) then Mel Schacher of Grand Funk although(IMO) some of his distortion was/is pushing gear to or past its limits.

 

[vegas532]

I gotta give a huge Julie Slick kudos. She has a fantastic overdriven tone (not too dissimilar to Wetton) with Adrian Belew.

 

[crice31721]

+2 for Tim Commerford!

 

[not_jason]

Robert Sledge.

 

[bassness]

Andrew Weiss

 

[Crystalman85]

I'm a big enthusiast of distortion, not sure why, and I was just wondering who you guys think uses it best. My vote goes to Geezer Butler.

I'm a bass distortion enthusiast too. I use distortion on bass. I like high-gain distortions and grinding distortions. I also like to combine distortion with chorus. it gives me a grungy but heavy sound. on the subject of who I think has awesome distorted bass sounds, here's my list.

1.Lemmy kilmister of motorhead

2.Cliff burton of metalica

3.Peter steele of type o negative

4.Paige haily of orgy

 

[Crystalman85]

Jason Newstead? I'm not sure if he plays with distortion. How about Les Claypool?

purpletornado, jason does use distortion when he does bass solos. check out this youtube clip.



at 1:17, he starts using distortion.

 

[Greevus]

Al Cisneros of OM and SHRINEBUILDER, formerly of SLEEP.

 

[purpletornado]

I'm a bass distortion enthusiast too. I use distortion on bass. I like high-gain distortions and grinding distortions. I also like to combine distortion with chorus. it gives me a grungy but heavy sound. on the subject of who I think has awesome distorted bass sounds, here's my list.

1.Lemmy kilmister of motorhead

2.Cliff burton of metalica

3.Peter steele of type o negative

4.Paige haily of orgy

Yes, and yes!

 

[Getaway Driver]

Tim Commerford, Justin Chancellor, and Brian Cook get my votes. Perhaps with top choice for me being Cook.

 

[Gunnerhea86]

Tim Commerford for sure!!!!