Bassist

A bassist is an musician who plays a bass guitar or double bass. This page lists famous bassists in four categories, depending on whether they are primarily known for playing bass guitar, double bass, both, or their main instrument is unknown. Certain musical genres tend to use one or the other (for example, bass guitar for rock and roll or pop music but double bass for classical music and jazz) but the rule is not hard and fast.

The lists are organised by alphabetical order of surname and brief mention may be made of their specific contribution or famous groups they have worked with.

Table of contents

1 Bass Guitar 2 Double Bass 3 Bass Guitar and Double Bass 4 Unknown 5 Further Information

Bass Guitar

• Les Claypool from Primus
• John Entwistle from The Who
• Lincoln Goines
• Mike Gordon from Phish
• Larry Graham
• Jimmy Haslip
• Glenn Hughes from Deep Purple
• Anthony Jackson
• James Jamerson
• Lemmy Kilmister from Motorhead
• Steve Lawson
• Geddy Lee from Rush
• Will Lee
• Phil Lesh from The Grateful Dead
• Sir Paul McCartney from The Beatles
• Marcus Miller
• Me'shell Ndegeocello
• Jason Newsted formerly of Metallica
• Jaco Pastorius
• Suzi Quatro
• Noel Redding from The Jimi Hendrix Experience
• Miiko Watanabe from the Screamin' Sirens and American Girls
• Leon Wilkeson from Lynyrd Skynyrd
• Victor Wooten from Bela Fleck and the Flecktones

Double Bass

• Wellman Braud
• Brian Bromberg
• Ray Brown
• Ron Carter
• Mark Dresser
• Pops Foster
• Milt Hinton
• Bill Johnson
• Edgar Meyer
• Charles Mingus
• Slam Stewart

Bass Guitar and Double Bass

• Stanley Clarke
• Sting from The Police

Unknown

• Kelly Grouchet from Electric Light Orchestra

Further Information

There is also a list of Jazz Bassists, which contains a larger number of musicians but doesn't differentiate by instrument (although most will specialise in double bass).