Best Bassist?

i dont want to get started on the beatles again, but paul really was a very good bass player. (listen to taxman)

*sigh* another hypocritical say what you dont mean... double damnation.

I noticed a few people voted for Roger Waters as the best bass player. PF are one of my favorite bands but not because of Rogers bass playing...I would consider him an average bass player at best. I've been playing bass for over 10 years and I would have to say the following about his bass playing: 1) his bass lines are pretty much all easy to play 2) he doesn't have a distinct style or sound 3) the bass doesn't play a big role in most of the PF songs with a few obvious exceptions. I like the bass at the beginning of Let There Be More Light alot. The delay pedal he uses on One of These Days makes for an interesting sound..but overall I would say musically rogers bass playing was the weakness in PF overall. I'm sure I'm going to get blasted for this post even though it's just my opinion.

It's gotta be Flea.

I voted for Entwistle, only because I really love his playing and he was quite amazing. His finger work was almost inhuman.

There have been a lot of others mentioned already that are excellent, Hamm, Deacon, Lee, Squire and Levin... I think all have contributed greatly.

Mr McCartney is an exemplary musician, on a wide variety of instruments. His bass ability is on par with the names mentioned above. Do not discount his talents just because the music he chooses to play and write may not be to "your taste".

Too many to choose from... I choose The Ox.

LES CLAYPOOL

Where the hell is jaco in the poll? He IS the best bassist ever.
Im shamed to not hearing ONE word about Jaco.

Heres the the thing about Paul, he really was one of the first LEAD bassits i mean he layed down the foundation for Jaco and i'll bet my life paul was a big influence to him.
If you want to consider the best bassits you have to look at two things: 1) who revolutionised bass playing the most- two people Jaco Pastorius and John Entwhistle, theres no question as to just how much they did for bassin' world. 2) overall skill, and this one with out a doubt goes to Wooten. Wooten could probably have outplayed Jaco but the thing is Wooten wouldnt be who he is today without the influence of Jaco.
In my opinion the best bassist of all time was Jaco Pastorius and the best living bassist is Victor Wooten. But there are so many who did so much.

Roger waters

JACO JACO JACO JACO JACO JACO JACO JACO JACO JACO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!

I'm with black sheep on this one, Les Claypool is freakin awesome. I have this Primus DVD that has a bunch of music videos on it and when Les does his solo in 'Tommy the Cat' i was so amazed. He is all over the fret. Its so amazing.

I'll vote for John Entwistle

John Deacon.

John Paul Jones!!!

Entwistle all the way.