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Bassists with great fills
- Thread starter Melik
- Start date
The Ox - John Entwistle from the Who.
He sounds like he's soloing during songs.
He sounds like he's soloing during songs.
I always loved John Paul Jones's fills with Zeppelin. He really knows how to add just the right amount of variance to a solid phrase (his work on Led Zeppelin II is simply remarkable in this realm).
~Nick "Klaus" G.
~Nick "Klaus" G.
Ohhh, good thread:
Steve Harris
Geddy Lee
Entwistle
JPJ
John Taylor (more short, subtle fills)
Steve Harris
Geddy Lee
Entwistle
JPJ
John Taylor (more short, subtle fills)
John Deacon, in my opinion, is one of the kings of bass runs.
Cliff, of course, did some great runs/fills during his time (those two bits before the solo in "Ride the Lightning", a lot of stuff from Fade to Black and Sanitarium, and many more)
Cliff, of course, did some great runs/fills during his time (those two bits before the solo in "Ride the Lightning", a lot of stuff from Fade to Black and Sanitarium, and many more)
Jimmy Johnson. He may only play one big fill in a song, but it's worth waiting for!
Fully agree - Led Zep II is a must have for any bass player
This song is full of great fills by Sharay Reed, but the one at around 2.00 is probably the coolest I've ever heard:
Yurp. I kept looking at this video again and again thinking how cool all the fills are, and how I wish I could play like that... Finally I transcribed it. I can't quite play it yet, but I can put up the transcription if you're interested.
To me great fills are original but tasteful. I would go with Pino Palladino and Willie Weeks.
John Paul Jones is great too and of course James Jamerson.
John Paul Jones is great too and of course James Jamerson.
Here's the transcription of Sharay Reed's bassline on that video. The sound isn't great, so I did the best I could, but this whole piece is a masterclass in fills. The awesome fill referred to a few posts back is at bar 52.
Tough call...because to my mind the most successful fills are the ones that don't sound like they're separate from the basic bassline, and that's almost antithetical to the concept of interjecting a fill.
iow, there are a lot of bassists that play a line, then interject a fill, return to the line, interject another fill, lather rinse repeat...but those interjections can often feel like interruptions also. The fills that really get my attention and command my respect are the ones where it doesn't interrupt anything, it just feels like a natural, organic extension of the basic line
Actually the two names that came to mind when I read the thread title were Anthony Jackson, and John Wetton. Two guys whose styles are completely unlike one anothers' but who do share that one common trait: It's usually hard to differentiate their "fills" from their "lines" because they're so seamlessly integrated
...usually.
iow, there are a lot of bassists that play a line, then interject a fill, return to the line, interject another fill, lather rinse repeat...but those interjections can often feel like interruptions also. The fills that really get my attention and command my respect are the ones where it doesn't interrupt anything, it just feels like a natural, organic extension of the basic line
...like most of Tony's fills. (Though not all.)
Likewise for Jimmy's: Most; not all.
Actually the two names that came to mind when I read the thread title were Anthony Jackson, and John Wetton. Two guys whose styles are completely unlike one anothers' but who do share that one common trait: It's usually hard to differentiate their "fills" from their "lines" because they're so seamlessly integrated
...usually.
