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Great bassist with a pick...

M

Music_for_life

Aug 6, 2010
627
9
#1
Some bassist I will check out are Dave Ellefson, Adam Clayton, Zeta Bosio, Flea, Tom Hamilton, John Deacon, Justin Chancelor, Cliff Williams. Any challenging bass lines to learn to develop accuracy, speed and good technique???
 
#2
Scott Thunes was and is amazing with a pick, try out the transcription of "Alien Orifice" (From Frank Zappa's Make a Jazz Noise Here) that Bass Player Magazine did awhile back. Great stuff.

As for the others, Tool stuff is great for getting really comfortable with odd meters and getting solid time. John Deacon is melodic as hell, but I'm not sure how often he used a pick.
The metal stuff is great for technique, but check out Bobby Vega's pickstyle funk, super musical and fluid.
 
#5
Speaking of Tool, I've been listening to a lot of early stuff with Paul D'Amour on bass. Some awesome pick playing there. Check out Cold and Ugly and Hush. I prefer his style to Justin Chancelors, at least at the moment. Mabye because early Tool is more rock and less prog.

Also, Burke Shelly of Budgie is a great pick player.
 
#8
Berry Oakley. The guy was an absolute beast. I've essentially learned to play a pick to his lines, it's really helped improve my pick playing. His work in every version of Mountain Jam (obviously the Fillmore East version, but check out the 44 minute Ludlow Garage version too) is just fantastic.
 
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#10
Music_for_life said:
Some bassist I will check out are Dave Ellefson, Adam Clayton, Zeta Bosio, Flea, Tom Hamilton, John Deacon, Justin Chancelor, Cliff Williams. Any challenging bass lines to learn to develop accuracy, speed and good technique???
Click to expand...

There are a couple of ok pick players on this list.

Accuracy, speed and good technique are more dependent on the amount and quality of your practice than on copping specific parts. If I were going to recommend a guy to steal from though Mark Ranson absolutely kills on this live version of Sonny Landreth's Congo Square from the Grant Street Live recording.
 
#15
Jaco Taco said:
Chris Squire.
Click to expand...

Plus one to Squire, he is in my eyes the most impressive pick player.
And can add Mike Rutherford from Genesis, Dave Meros from Spock's Beard, John Wetton from King Crimson, UK, Asia etc, Pete Trewaves from Marillion and Transatlantic, Miguel Falcao which is the best man on Squire bass covers. McCartney no need to add.

Edit, forgot Greg Lake, his stuff on ELP and King Crimson is solid.
 
#16
Jason Newsted is crazy good (decent vocalist, too), even though you can't necessarily tell from most of Metallica's music. Dave Ellefson, of course. For challenging stuff, ever try "Blackened" from ...And Justice for All, or anything from Megadeth's Rust in Peace?

Paul McCartney is the man, too. Sometimes if you don't listen carefully, you can't hear all the great stuff he does because of the old recordings. Try "Penny Lane" (yes, "Penny Lane) for something that is moderately difficult in terms of shifting position all over the neck, and something that's musically interesting, but otherwise fairly simple. McCartney does what I love, which is play variations of a riff all the time. Memorizing those variations will help with your musical memory, too! And that can be difficult to develop, in a different way than chops.
 

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