The Greatest Bass Players of All Time
Who is the greatest bass player?
Vote for your favorites, or add a new one to the list below.
From the editors at notreble.com, the site for bass players.
Who is your favorite bass player?
Vote for your favorites. If your favorite isn't on the list, feel free to add!
1
Jaco Pastorius
The "world's greatest bass player"15 points
2
Cliff Burton
Cliff Burton14 points
4
Victor Wooten
Freak of nature, bassist for Bela Fleck and the Fl more...10 points
5
Larry Graham
The legendary Bassist9 points
6
John Paul Jones
Led Zeppelin bassist and now solo artist.8 points
8
Les Claypool
The official Web site of Les Claypool, uniquely ta more...7 points
9
Jayen Varma
7 points
10
Jeff Berlin
Electric bass monster.6 points
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Featured bass pages
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Billy Sheehan
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Billy Sheehan has changed the way bass guitar is played. Rising to cult status in the 80's with his Buffalo, NY based band Talas, Billy was recruited by David Lee Roth when Roth left Van Halen in '85. He recorded two platinum selling albums with the...
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Victor Wooten
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Victor Wooten redefines the word musician. Regaled as the most influential bassist since Jaco Pastorius, Victor is known for his solo recordings and tours, and as a member of the Grammy-winning supergroup, Béla Fleck & The Flecktones. He i...
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Linley Marthe
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I had never heard of Linley Marthe until I saw the Zawinul Syndicate live at Blues Alley in Washington DC, October 2006. I've been looking for recordings with him ever since. Zawinul knows how to pick bass players, and Linley...
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Richard Bona
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Richard Bona is my favorite bassist living today. I've seen him perform live twice, something I highly recommend if his touring brings him to your town. Bona is from Minta, in eastern Cameroon, where he grew up in a musical family. &n...
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Stanley Clarke
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Exploding into the jazz world in 1971, Stanley was a lanky teenager from the Philadelphia Academy of Music. He arrived in New York City and immediately landed jobs with famous bandleaders such as: Horace Silver, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon, Joe Henders...
Your Take
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- StorasSvietoLygintojas StorasSvietoLygintojas Aug 6, 2009 @ 7:57 am
- Lemmy Kilmister is my personal favorite. The bass sound he invented is just amusing, no other band has repeated that since.
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- wholigan11 wholigan11 Jul 29, 2009 @ 9:28 pm
- the ox?wheres john?
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- howtoplaybass howtoplaybass Jun 16, 2009 @ 8:10 am
- Cliff Burton was an extremely talented bass player I loved to play his basslines a while back.
Seeing as you like bass, please visit http://www.play-bass.com.
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- KimGiancaterino KimGiancaterino Apr 8, 2009 @ 8:35 pm
- Just added Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen to the list and gave you another Squid Angel Blessing.
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- trides trides Mar 14, 2009 @ 6:41 am
- I would have to say James Jamerson is the greatest. James revolutionized the artistry of the bass guitar. Most of the great bass players of today looked to James for his brilliance and innovativeness.
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- Charles1957B Charles1957B Feb 8, 2009 @ 11:09 pm
- I find Geddy Lee of RUSH to be an amazing Bassist. He puts 110% into singing RUSH's complex vocals/lyrics and when viewed on video seems to effortlessly grind out the bass. Awesome bass player.
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- coreybrown coreybrown Dec 29, 2008 @ 10:55 pm | in reply to dpatterson2
- This is a reader-created list. Please add to it!
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- dpatterson2 dpatterson2 Dec 29, 2008 @ 10:43 pm
- Any list without James Jamerson (Motown bass player of every Motown song you love) and Ashton "Family Man" Barret (Bob Marley and the Wailers) is not a list of the greatest bass players. I'm not saying they should be numbers one and two, but to not include them makes about as much sense as including the bass player for Yes. Please, let's not be so ridiculous in our list making. I'll be sure to discredit this web-site for its lack of insight.
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- Number1Athlete Number1Athlete Oct 23, 2008 @ 5:50 pm
- John Paul Jones is my favorite :) Cool lens by the way, 5 stars
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- brotherarticle brotherarticle Oct 20, 2008 @ 1:37 am
- This is really awesome. The list is incomplete. However, best can not be judged. But voting can bring out a list of Bassists whose styles are widely accepted..
Thank You
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- danthemanv8 danthemanv8 Oct 4, 2008 @ 5:01 pm
- Geezer Butler is and always will be number 1 no matter what some stupid list says
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- KimGiancaterino KimGiancaterino Aug 21, 2008 @ 12:06 pm
- My husband is a bass player, so I recognize most of these names. Angel Blessings to you!
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- ArtSiren ArtSiren May 27, 2008 @ 10:21 am
- Great lens! And a nice list of bass players - some fantastic bassists on there!! Cheers.
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