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Overrated Bass Players

#104
The thing about these threads is, you take a "down and dirty meat and potatoes" bass player like Duff or Gene Simmons and there are people who hate them and there are people who love them. Then you take progressive, forward thinking chops heavy players like Wooten, Jaco or Geddy Lee and you have people who hate them and love them.

The truth is: every player in this thread has been paid to play in front of large groups of people with recordings that have sold high numbers and I'm willing to bet that most (if not all) of the posters in this thread are driving in to a day job tomorrow morning.
 
#105
Alan Vorse said:
The thing about these threads is, you take a "down and dirty meat and potatoes" bass player like Duff or Gene Simmons and there are people who hate them and there are people who love them. Then you take progressive, forward thinking chops heavy players like Wooten, Jaco or Geddy Lee and you have people who hate them and love them.

The truth is: every player in this thread has been paid to play in front of large groups of people with recordings that have sold high numbers and I'm willing to bet that most (if not all) of the posters in this thread are driving in to a day job tomorrow morning.
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+1. Well said.
 
#106
Honestly, I don't know if there's much to be gained by rating bass players. What I notice is: my own playing seems to progress when I catch a spark of passion from a player (bass player or other) who inspires me.

And who inspires me usually has little or nothing to do with who is currently considered hot, or "highly rated".
 
#107
oh god no not this thread again

DoubleFacePalm.jpg
 
#109
It's about jealousy (and people pretending to be able to imagine the music in question with some other bass player - themselves? - playing instead).

To my way of thinking, the Beatles are a good band (just to name one band whose bass player was called "over rated").
 
#114
Meddle said:
I agree. Cliff was good as a thrash bassist, but he was not versatile. He should never be entered into a conversation about bassists other than thrash bassists.

I personally think its not that hard to play fast on a low-action bass if you hide behind distortion and effects. Cliff's playing was, I think, a little bit too reliant on distortion. Once again that is perfect for thrash, but not the alpha and omega of bass playing. Moreover if he had not died in such tragic cirumstances then who might still be talking about him today?
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I respect your opinion, but I do not believe that Cliff was "hiding behind his effects".
First off, you say that he was too reliant on distortion, but most Metallica songs from the first three albums have very little "truly distorted" bass. Anesthesia, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Orion, and Call of the Ktulu are the only ones (that I know of) that have effects driven bass. His tone was somewhat aggressive and had a bit of "overdrive" to it, due to the high volume settings and is no more of an "effect" than Jaco's nasally tone.

Also the effects that Cliff or any other bass player use are not to "hide behind" but to bring out a particular approach to a song. Using distortion and a wah is just like vibrato or any other technique.

And lastly, you say that Cliff may not have been so admired if he had not died so tragically. I find this ridiculous. Cliff was admired quite a bit when he was still living and I believe like any other musician that over the years he would have developed even more. Plus look at other thrash metal players from the same era like Jason Newsted, Dave Ellefson, and Frank Bello. They are still widely discussed today and they are no more special than Mr. Burton.
 
#118
Okay I am going to go with underrated: I'm going to say John Deacon from Queen. He never gets a mention but, listen to his lines and hes one hell of a player! overrated I will go with Jack Casady. I have listen to tons of Jefferson Airplane and Hot tuna stuff in my opinion just at the right place at the right time.He is consider a legendary? bassist John Myung of Dream Theater I would consider legendary.
 

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