Bill Wyman

eew, victor wooten, les claypool, jaco pastorius and geddy lee? now there's a sack i'd like to attach a heavy weight to and hurl off the golden gate bridge

although on a positive non flippant tip I's sayin'
eric a
hooky
bootsy
'Cartney
john deacon

Victor Wooten, Bootsie, squarepusher, and Les Claypool stand out from the live performances I've seen, especially Victor.

I'll add Steve Severin (Siouxsie) and Les Pattinson (Echo & the Bunnymen) to my list.

this girl. and ive never heard her play a note

Only judging on the looks it will be this one for me :D :

Phil Chambers

Without a doubt--Phil Chambers.

paul simonon
tina weymouth
gang of four guy

just for bass sounds i like. not people i think are cool that happen to play bass. ):

I've recently realized that Michael Dempsey was a really fine bassist, maybe even better than Gallup.

roger waters could get pretty funky, i like his bass line in that echoes breakdown.
the girl from erase errata is pretty great.
the dude from can is incredible, i guess he's the producer too.
whats his face from dead kennedys, klaus!! hes a melodic fucker.

Some of mine r:

-Lemmy
-Wobble, for Metal Box alone.
-John Paul Jones
-Dave Holland (jazz)

Speaking of Sid, did anyone hear the story about him sending a note to Lemmy for bass lessons? Sid inquired about lessons saying "I can't play bass" and all Lemmy wrote back was "I know".

victor wooten
jaco pastorius
paul chambers
geddy lee
mark king

Boosty Collins
Noel Redding
Peter Hook
Simon Gallup
Flea
Chris Novoselic
Fieldy
Chi Cheng
Cliff Burton
Les Claypool
D'Arcy

...

Mike Watt & Joe Lally

tony sales is the shit

Macca is a hell of a bassist. Can't believe he hasn't been mentioned yet.

Also, John Wetton, Ron Carter, and Stanley Clarke (granted I'm not crazy about Return to Forever, he's really fucking awesome.)

I agree with a lot of choices in this thread, so I'm not going to repeat anything.

Caxide.

Victor Wooten and Tina Weymouth

Jonathan Chapple
Bob Weston

No big shock but



Mike Watt's playing embodies both the qualities of the bass as melody anchor and as an involved instrument in its own right. He makes the whole song sound good which should be the point of the instrument.

Skoll (Ved Buens Ende, Ulver, Arcturus, Fimbulwinter)
Takeshi (Boris)
Tracey Pew (The Birthday Party)
Andy Rourke (The Smiths)

Four pages of conversation about bass and no-one's pointed out that it's not even a real instrument? Shame on you, SYG.

Oh!!
What does this mean??!..

Carol Kaye
Paul McCartney
James Jamerson

Trevor Dunn, from Mr. Bungle, Fantomas and some other groups. He's incredible.

I did mention him ;)

Yes, I enjoy playing the bass lines of Echoes a lot.

Jenny Lee Lindberg (Warpaint).

How is the bass "not a real instrument"? I purchased one several years ago and it lives at my rehearsal space...... Without question I can say that it exists.......

anyone that plays slap bass is automatically a shitty bassist. I hate that shit. By far the most played out style. It had limited potential to begin with.

Tony Levin.

I was thinking about this yesterday.
She sure can play and has a niiiiice style too.
And sound.
Yes.

You're forgetting that she's insanely hot as well:

 

So cute.

not sure if I already responded to this but peter hook is my favorite bassist and main influence

also see:
anyone that played bass for the magic band or the fall

predictable, I know.