First, there was Geddy. He turned me to the low side.
Later, Steve Harris of Maiden.
Mark King in Level 42.
John Taylor in Duran Duran and the Power Station especially.
Brian Ritchie of the Violent Femmes made me want my acoustic bass guitar.
Doug Pinnick of Kings X and Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick, two reasons I own a 12ver.
Adam Clayton of U2 and Cliff Williams of AC/DC. Both great, understated solid players with taste, laid back in the pocket solid guys.
Billy Sheehan, bass wizard and all-'round nice guy.
Bob Daisley, check his stuff out with Ozzie, read his discography on his website, check out his work with other bands.
Amy Humphrey of Clatter. Go and listen! You can also drop in and chat with Amy at ebassist.com. This band deserves our support, if for no other reason than they don't have *any* guitarist in the band, just bass n' drums.
Kim Deal from the Pixies
James Jamerson/Carol Kaye (whoever it was, I wasn't there)
Jack Bruce
Noel Redding (way under-rated)
Andy Rourke (sp?) from the Smiths
Simon Gallup/Phil Thornally from the Cure (not sure which was the one who played on Love Cats era Cure)
Paul Chambers
Ron Carter
Charles Mingus
Flea
Colin Greenwood
Dirk Lance.
Doug Wimbish.
The guy from Earth Wind and Fire.
Rocco Prestia.
Timmy Cummerford.
Justin Chancellor.
Les Claypool.
Louis Johnson.
Larry Graham.
Steve Cook.
Chuck Rainey.
Jaco.
Pino.
Vic Wooten.
Steve Bailey.
MINGUS!
Flea, Chris #2, Krist Novoselic (Even if Kurt wrote most/all of the bass parts), Cone, Mark Hoppus, Les Claypool, Geezer Butler, Geddy Lee, Johnny Christ, JP Jones, Entwhistle, The One Armed Guy I saw in a Youtube video, The guy from Puddle of Mudd (I dunno his name) and... Paul Simonon. Theres almost definitely more that I cant think of right now.
Norman Watt Roy
Phil Chen
Wilbur Bascomb
Ralphe Armstrong
Nate Watts
Randy Jo Hobbs
Jack Blades (with RUBICON)
Rick Rosas
George Perry
Paul Jackson
Lee Sklar
Mike Been
Old thread revived - cool. Here's my personal favorites;
Stu Hamm
Billy Sheehan
Randy Coven
Steve Harris
Geezer Butler
Flea
Jaco
plus
Jim Hilbun (formerly of The Angels - Australia). A straight up great rock bass player.
BP - He effin wrocks in the Country Boy video
Cliff Hugo - cause hey, he's Cliff Hugo (and didn't his fan club start here?)
Oldtoe - have you seen him play? Check out his funkness on one of Jack's videos. Plus, he's a hell of a blues man.
Any Knucklehead with Balls - and the cajones to post video/audio on this forum
It appears we have all forgotten (myself included) to mention one of the greatest low end shakers Mr. Robbie Shakespeare, Jamaican musician and producer, who together with Sly Dumbar i.e. Sly & Robbie formed what was the to be known as the most prolific and long standing Reggae rhythm section that ever was, backing 99.9% of all reggae's stars coming out of Jamaica during the wolrd wide explosion of the Reggae phenomenon from Bob Marley & The Wailers to Peter Tosh, Chaka Demus & The Pliers, Shabba Ranks, Maxi Priest, Shaggy, Beanie Man, Black Uhuru, Gregory Isaacs, including non reggae musicians such as Ben Harper, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones, Grace Jones, Joan Armatrading, Gilberto Gil, Joe Cocker, Serge Gainsbourg, Simply Red, Michael Franti, Sting, Khaled, Mey Vidal, Tricky, Doug E. Fresh, Carlos Santana, Sinéad O'Connor, and many more.
Rutger Gunnarsson (ABBA's session bassist)
Ralphe Armstrong (Mahavishnu, Jean Luc Ponty..)
Bernard Edwards (Chic)
Bruce Thomas (Elvis Costello & The Attractions)
Stanley Clarke
Brian Bromberg
John Deacon (Queen)
Robert DeLeo (Stone Temple Pilots)