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INSANE: Bass player | Vintage Vibes

“Jaco made a great contribution, but what came after was all these idiots trying to sound like him. That's why bass players today are so lame”: Bill Laswell gives his unfiltered verdict on modern bassists

The visionary producer also had his say on Lemmy, Paul Simon, and his failed studio session with Jaco Pastorius

Guitar World

“I’d be there with bass pedals, a triple-neck guitar and keyboards, and Robert Plant would ask, ‘Can you sing, as well?’” How John Paul Jones became Led Zeppelin’s ultimate wingman

Armed with years of experience as a session bassist and arranger – having worked with the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck and the Rolling Stones – John Paul Jones could do it all

Guitar World

“He actually signed it for me on the back of the headstock. That’s the most magical bass”: How Victor Wooten got his hands on his biggest hero’s bass guitar

Wooten idolized the bass hero, so knew he had to get involved when he started selling off his gear

Guitar World

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“Chaka Khan decided to fire the whole band – I don’t know why. But the week after she fired us, Prince called”: How Andrew Gouche rose from playing church halls to become the guru of gospel bass with Prince

Gouche met Prince in 2011 while leading Chaka Khan’s band

Guitar World

“Absolutely essential listening for any would-be rock bass player”: How Rainbow bassist Craig Gruber galloped his way through a hard-rock classic alongside Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio

Having become disillusioned with Deep Purple’s growing love of funk, Ritchie Blackmore jumped ship in August 1975 – taking most of Purple’s opening act with him

Guitar World

“I don’t think that bassline is playable by anyone else”: How Stevie Wonder recorded one of the funkiest basslines in existence

Stevie Wonder played one of music’s all-time craziest contraptions on this classic track

Guitar World

“After the set, Hendrix came knocking on the dressing room door and said, ‘I want you to come on tour with me’”: Chicago bassist Peter Cetera reflects on signing for Columbia Records, opening for Jimi Hendrix and why Paul McCartney changed everything

The newly named Chicago were invited to open for The Experience on several dates during their 1969 US tour

Guitar World

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“People wanna assume the worst and say he’s some kind of dictator and forced me to do it. It was totally not like that”: Steve Di Giorgio sets the record straight on what it was like to sideman for Dave Mustaine and Megadeth

The Testament bassist has looked back on his experience recording on Megadeth's 2022 release, The Sick, the Dying... and the Dead!

Guitar World

“I was a good bass player, and I am proud of my Celebrity Skin work, but oh my God, it changed my level of musicianship forever”: Melissa Auf der Maur on what she learned from playing with Billy Corgan and The Smashing Pumpkins

Auf der Maur joined the Pumpkins in October 1999 following a five-year stint with Hole

Guitar World

“Sometimes David had suggestions. If he wanted a specific thing, he'd ask for or try to explain it. Lenny's the opposite – he wants it to sound exactly like he did it!” How Gail Ann Dorsey honed her bass craft with David Bowie and Lenny Kravitz

Bowie’s long-time bassist salutes her mentor and unpacks her approach to the bass chair with Lenny Kravitz

Guitar World

“I hate bass player albums. It's an ugly instrument, solo-wise. Probably the only person I can tolerate is Marcus Miller”: Grammy-winning bassist Meshell Ndegeocello favors restraint over fretboard theatrics – but Marcus Miller (and Jaco) get a pass

Meshell Ndegeocello discusses what set Jaco Pastorius apart from the pack, what she looks for in a bassist, and the crucial lesson her jazz musician father taught her

Guitar World

“In Mötley Crüe I always used a pick, but I’m a better bass player when I use my fingers”: Nikki Sixx names his biggest weakness as a rock bassist

The lifeblood of infamous hair-metal band Mötely Crüe, Nikki Sixx has been polarizing bassists since he first took to the stage nearly 50 years ago

Guitar World

“My tech said, ‘This bass looks tiny on you.’ I lowered the strap so it would look cooler. You have to throw your whole body into it”: Bought from grunge icons and stolen before Soundgarden reunited – the story of Ben Shepherd’s 1972 Fender Jazz Bass

Shepherd was robbed of all his music gear in 2008 just as he was about to mix his first solo album

Guitar World

“I was the most vocal about being unhappy. That's when George grabbed Bootsy Collins and his band to replace us”: He was schooled by James Jamerson and freaked Larry Graham out – how William ‘Billy Bass’ Nelson founded the Funkadelic sound

The late Funkadelic co-founder tells the story of his encounter with Larry Graham, bass lessons with James Jamerson, and life in George Clinton’s ever-changing band

Guitar World

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“He is the funkiest bass player that ever lived. Every note a mighty oak, a bull elephant, a bomb”: William ‘Billy Bass’ Nelson, Funkadelic bassist who coined the band’s name, dies aged 75

Flea has led tributes to the Funkadelic bassist, who was one of the founding architects of funk’s most audacious musical revolution

Guitar World

“I just said, ‘Sell all the assets…’ not really thinking that this instrument would accrue so much in value”: Facing mounting debts, Nick Beggs sold off the bass he used on Kajagoogoo’s Too Shy – 40 years later his fans helped him buy it back

A family intervention and the generosity of Beggs' fans reunited him with his much-loved bass – and he found a musical way of rewarding them

Guitar World

“Atlantic Records told me, ‘Eric should be the singer. You’re just the bass player.’ So I cried in the corner while they came up with Strange Brew”: Eric Clapton was Cream’s biggest star, but Jack Bruce sang most of the band’s classic tracks

In later years, Bruce jokingly referred to Cream as Da Creams, in a nod to the band’s supergroup status

Guitar World

“I don’t know if Jaco was a Van Halen fan. We were both more intent on getting drunk than anything else”: When Michael Anthony met the self-proclaimed “greatest bass player in the world”, Jaco Pastorius

How the accidental meeting of two of the ’70s and ’80s greatest bass icons – neither recognised by the other – came about in a Tokyo hotel

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Guitar World

“Young bass players should diversify their sound if they want to land gigs. Not everyone can be in Foo Fighters”: How Juan Alderete’s infatuation with bass gear made him one of the world’s greatest authorities on pedals and effects

The Mars Volta and Racer X tone wizard imparts decades of wisdom on stompboxes and all things bass effects

Guitar World

“I looked at the bass, Billie looked at me, and I picked it up. I thought, ‘Did I just become a bass player?’” Green Day’s Mike Dirnt looks back on his early bass days – as Epiphone launches signature version of his cult classic Grabber G-3

Dirnt has championed the oddball 1970s bass throughout his career. Now he's got his own signature Epiphone version

Guitar World

“I was almost throwing down a challenge with some of those basslines: play me if you can!” John Paul Jones’ best Led Zeppelin basslines – including an eight-string classic

A choirmaster, organist and expert in many archaic music styles, John Paul Jones also happened to play bass guitar in the biggest heavy rock band there has ever been

Guitar World

“Jeff Beck would pick up my fretless and play the craziest licks. I was in awe”: Pino Palladino’s adventures with The Who, John Mayer, Eric Clapton and his Music Man fretless bass

One of the most identifiable bass players on the planet on why he shifted back to fretted, embracing flatwounds even though they were unfashionable, and how he’s still topping the charts with the likes of Miley Cyrus, Beyoncé and Ed Sheeran

Guitar World

“It’s so hard when you come in to bands like Grateful Dead and the Allman Brothers where the fans actually care who the bass player is”: How Oteil Burbridge set about replacing Phil Lesh to become Dead & Company’s new singing bass hero

Burbridge played with The Allman Brothers and Tedeschi Trucks Band before joining Dead & Company alongside guitarist John Mayer

Guitar World

"Sam Rivers wasn’t just our bass player – he was pure magic…" Limp Bizkit bassist Sam Rivers has died, aged 48

Nu metal bassist Sam Rivers has died, Limp Bizkit confirm

Guitar World

“It’s nasty and greasy and oozing funk. It’s a masterclass in funk bass”: Robert Wilson had his step-out performance on this Gap Band classic, which features two bass parts, both cut on a flatwound-strung P-Bass

The main riff is likely familiar to many via Victor Wooten’s song Bass Tribute

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