Here's the thing about bass - and drums too, actually - if you screw up even once, it can (in my opinion) affect the song MUCH more drastically than flubbing a note on the guitar.
I have been to more than one show where the guitar player(s) screwed up here and there, and it was no big deal to my ears (especially if it was the odd squelched note in a solo), and might have went completely unnoticed by audience members who weren't players...but when the bass player totally drops a note (and I speak from experience as a bass player who has dropped a note
), WOW...again, same goes for a drummer, especially if he screws up on the kick.
Of course, everything is relative, and the context has to be considered: If there is a song that has a part that is dominated by the guitar - let's say bridging from one part to another where most, if not all, of the other instruments drop out for a few measures, as the guitarist strums a few complicated-ish chords, and he utterly mangles those chords - that is going to have a huge (negative) impact on the tune as well, and that guitarist, depending on how much of a professional/perfectionist he is will likely be cursing himself.
But in the overall picture of most songs, yeah, I barely notice the occasional minor mistake on guitar, but I cringe when the bass player or drummer screws up.
The debate about whether or not bass is "easier" than guitar, or whatever other instrument you want to put it up against, is probably one that will never be resolved. At the end of the day, it's not "easy" to play any instrument well, but it is exceedingly easy to play one poorly...and all that this "instrument X is much harder/easier to play than instrument Y" debate does is, at best, annoy people, and at worst causes people to not want to play with those people who keep bringing it up, or maybe even stop playing music altogether.
I mean seriously, can you imagine a professional like, say, Steve Vai, being in rehearsals with Billy Sheehan, or Phil Bynoe, and crapping all over them because they play the "easier" instrument?
One little anecdote before I get down off my soapbox
: Several years ago, I was on the phone with one of my aunts...this woman doesn't have a musical bone in her body, but she was telling me how she had been visiting someone at the old folks home one week where a guitar/bass/singing duet were performing for the oldies. She said she was back again a week or two later, but this time the musical performance consisted of just the guitarist/singer, and she (my aunt, who again is not musical whatsoever) said something to the effect of "The music was just so empty with no bass player there..." 
I have been to more than one show where the guitar player(s) screwed up here and there, and it was no big deal to my ears (especially if it was the odd squelched note in a solo), and might have went completely unnoticed by audience members who weren't players...but when the bass player totally drops a note (and I speak from experience as a bass player who has dropped a note
), WOW...again, same goes for a drummer, especially if he screws up on the kick.Of course, everything is relative, and the context has to be considered: If there is a song that has a part that is dominated by the guitar - let's say bridging from one part to another where most, if not all, of the other instruments drop out for a few measures, as the guitarist strums a few complicated-ish chords, and he utterly mangles those chords - that is going to have a huge (negative) impact on the tune as well, and that guitarist, depending on how much of a professional/perfectionist he is will likely be cursing himself.
But in the overall picture of most songs, yeah, I barely notice the occasional minor mistake on guitar, but I cringe when the bass player or drummer screws up.
The debate about whether or not bass is "easier" than guitar, or whatever other instrument you want to put it up against, is probably one that will never be resolved. At the end of the day, it's not "easy" to play any instrument well, but it is exceedingly easy to play one poorly...and all that this "instrument X is much harder/easier to play than instrument Y" debate does is, at best, annoy people, and at worst causes people to not want to play with those people who keep bringing it up, or maybe even stop playing music altogether.
I mean seriously, can you imagine a professional like, say, Steve Vai, being in rehearsals with Billy Sheehan, or Phil Bynoe, and crapping all over them because they play the "easier" instrument?
One little anecdote before I get down off my soapbox
: Several years ago, I was on the phone with one of my aunts...this woman doesn't have a musical bone in her body, but she was telling me how she had been visiting someone at the old folks home one week where a guitar/bass/singing duet were performing for the oldies. She said she was back again a week or two later, but this time the musical performance consisted of just the guitarist/singer, and she (my aunt, who again is not musical whatsoever) said something to the effect of "The music was just so empty with no bass player there..." 
