Bassist With Best Distortion Tone

[Daveomd]

I can't believe no one has nominated Jack Casady. He was the first one I thought of when I saw the subject of this thread. If you haven't heard them, you owe it to yourself to listen to some Jefferson Airplane LPs: Crown of Creation, After Bathing at Baxter's, Bless Its Pointed Little Head, Volunteers,... It doesn't get any better than Jack and his Versatone!

Totally agree but check out "Burgers" by Hot Tuna for Jack's distorted tone blending with fingerpicked accoustic guitars and fiddle. A great recording too-his clean sound is panned to one side and his completely saturated distortion all the way on the other. Also Paul Kantner's "Blows Against The Empire" features Jack with some of the deepest low end ever recorded. This album also contains the multitracked distorted bass tour-de-force track "Sunrise".

 

[GM60466]

Larry Graham

 

[Space-Man]

Nobody's mentioned the great Mike Rutherford?

 

[mgauge]

+2 for Tim Commerford!

++

 

[wideyes]

Fieldy

 

[niceguy]

+1 for Tim C

 

[okcrum]

Julie Slick

This is pretty nasty, looks and sounds pretty Ampeg:

 

[Chrisretz1]

Only one true distortion basist. Cliff Burton!!! Search him up on Youtube and hear it!!!

 

[tdub0199]

Justin Chancellor

 

[Hutzbordello]

Mel Schacher from Grand Funk Railroad

used the wrong kind of tubes in his amps to get distortion, and always had a roadie ready behind them with extra tubes for they blew =]

 

[julieslick]

Agree with the others - John Wetton!

 

[Ayliffe]

Richard Johnson from Agoraphobic Nosebleed

 

[gscroggin]

Dick Lovgren - Meshuggah

This

 

[Korladis]

This

I can't even hear the bass in Meshuggah.

 

[gscroggin]

On an album like Chaosphere, I have to agree with you (despite the fact that it's still one of my all time favorite metal albums). On older and newer stuff, I have no problems hearing it. That said:

- I don't particularly find the bass lines insipiring
- The guitar players played bass on obZen, with nearly identical lines
- Dick Lovgren has a great recorded and live bass distorted tone (if you're into that sort of thing)
- I don't listen to Meshuggah for the bass
- I am a giant Meshuggah fan

 

[gscroggin]

+ for Doug Pinnick too, I believe he was mentioned earlier.

"What I Know About Love" came on the iPod during my ride home...I had to put on "Summerland" as a follow up. Two great Doug grindy-bass-sound showcases.

 

[DynaFlow]

My choices are all old-school:

Felix Pappalardi/Mountain
Jack Bruce/Cream/West, Bruce and Laing
Tim Bogert/Cactus/Back, Bogert and Appice
Mel Schacher/Grand Funk Railroad
Larry Graham/early Sly and the Family Stone
Jack Casady/Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna
Dale Peters/James Gang

I don't like the distortion tones of alot of contemporary bassists as they sound too processed to me. I prefer cranked amp distortion tone, as opposed to that attained by pedals.

 

[Qvist]

I don't like the distortion tones of alot of contemporary bassists as they sound too processed to me. I prefer cranked amp distortion tone, as opposed to that attained by pedals.

I agree, as James Hetfield once said "a great distortion comes from the amp"! Even though he is a guitar player, I believe the same thing goes for bass players as well

 

[gscroggin]

My choices are all old-school:

Larry Graham/early Sly and the Family Stone

The man is crazy!!!

 

[GM60466]

Jack Casady