Rotosound Competition!!

[Leonard Smalls]

Stanley Clarke is my favourite Rotosound player - because you'd think what he does is impossible until you see him do it...

[Jazzman2477]

Andy Pearson, previously 'The Beat', now with 'The Selector'. Tone of his Precision basses is absolutely perfect and sits beautifully in the mix, nailing the groove. 

Personally, use the 'Swing bass', stainless steel 40 - 100 gauge on my Precisions; complement each other perfectly! 

[LITTLEWING]

Got to be JJ Burnell.  Without his sound, The Stranglers wouldn't have been.

[Stag]

Its Mr John Paul Jones for me. His live sound is fabulous, BBC Sessions and How The West Was Won feature this in front and personal to the listener!

[sblueplanet]

Mr. Pastorius would get my vote. The guy single-handedly jettisoned the bass into the stratosphere influencing pretty much every other player on the planet.

[Bassalarky]

Originally it was Richie Blackmore. I saw Rainbow at Wembley Arena when I was around 16 years old and it just blew me away.  Later it was Bruce Foxton as he first made me realise that playing the bass was even cooler than playing the guitar.  He had so much energy in his sound but still carried the rhythm perfectly - all while singing backing vocals!  I just wanted my bass to sound like his.

[SH73]

The one and only Steve Harris. I've listened to Maiden since 1982, and got hooked instantly. When Live After Death was released I listened to it twice a day. The sound of the bass on that album was mesmerising. I'm still a fan, nearly 40 years later. Not only I own his sparkly blue signature bass but managed to meet him few years back. Rotosound flats are not just for jazz.

 

[Stub Mandrel]

2 hours ago, Billy Apple said:

Bruce Foxton made a young me

... grow my hair to avoid looking like a hedgehog.

[Bafflegab]

It’s got to be John Deacon for me.  He served the song so well, managing to create bass lines that weren’t too complicated, but still really interesting and full of melody.

[prowla]

Chris Squire - there are plenty of brilliant bass players past and present, but he's the first one who made the music fit around him.

[leemarseillebass]

I would have to say Billy Sheehan. He got me into Rotosound’s, I use BS66 and have done for years and years. They’re perfect. I’m an aggressive player and the feel is exact, there’s a flow to them plus the 110 feels stable, anything less is a little too loose for me. As far as taking bass strings to the extreme for bending notes up or down with neck bends, he’s the best example. No blurriness with notes either during rapid sections, all decipherable, all heard clearly and I understand this is the sum of all parts - but the thing that starts all of this music, the first point of contact, are the strings. Brilliant, trustworthy product. 

[guyl]

Billy Sheehan for me. Innovative and instantly recognisable. Amazing performer and great musician. And a lovely guy too! 

[NickA]

9 hours ago, Merton said:

Unmistakeable tone which has barely changed over the years

Unlike the strings which are super zingy out the packet and dead a few weeks later 😆

[Baceface]

It's hard to choose from so many great players but if you held a loaded Jazz bass to my head it would have to be Geddy Lee.

I saw Rush live on the Moving Pictures tour as a callow youth and, to my shame, I hadn't really paid too much attention to the bass players at the previous gigs I'd seen.
That night changed things! Amazing lines and amazing tones: deep, thunderous lows and soaring, glassy highs. Often both at once!

I'd guess the strings are a big part of that so fair play to Rotosound.

PS: I only have one bass and I haven't changed the strings for 13 years so, even if I changed them tomorrow, 8 more sets could last me another 104 years. That would make me 157 and by that time I might be able to play YYZ. Or probably not.

[prowla]

59 minutes ago, Baceface said:

It's hard to choose from so many great players but if you held a loaded Jazz bass to my head it would have to be Geddy Lee.

I saw Rush live on the Moving Pictures tour as a callow youth and, to my shame, I hadn't really paid too much attention to the bass players at the previous gigs I'd seen.
That night changed things! Amazing lines and amazing tones: deep, thunderous lows and soaring, glassy highs. Often both at once!

I'd guess the strings are a big part of that so fair play to Rotosound.

PS: I only have one bass and I haven't changed the strings for 13 years so, even if I changed them tomorrow, 8 more sets could last me another 104 years. That would make me 157 and by that time I might be able to play YYZ. Or probably not.

I've still got the T-shirt!

[Paulhauser]

Very nice of you Rotosound!

For me it's gotta be Billy Sheehan. I have learnt a lot from his playing and his videos explaining what and why he does. His three finger plucking technique especially made an impact on my playing. 

Also I never used distortion until his signature EBS BS pedal convinced me to appy it to my sound at certain instances to spice up things. And his unique approach to distortion made that pedal to stand out. Kudos again to Billy!

[Guest MoJo]

Steve Harris for me too. After hearing that punchy, clanky tone on a 7” single that my Brother had bought, driving the band along, I knew that I wanted to be a bass player. He was the reason I picked up the bass in the first place. Without him, I probably wouldn’t be here on this forum writing this now

[Baceface]

7 hours ago, prowla said:

I've still got the T-shirt!

I went all posh and got the sweatshirt. I think it fell to bits sometime in the early 90s, pity. Not that it would fit me now. Not by a long way!

[prowla]

28 minutes ago, Baceface said:

I went all posh and got the sweatshirt. I think it fell to bits sometime in the early 90s, pity. Not that it would fit me now. Not by a long way!

Yep - mine must've shrunk...

[thestick]

It’s got to be John Paul Jones for me or Geddy Lee or John  Entwistle  so many greats use Rotosound Strings 👍

[DanOwens]

My favourite Rotosound Artist is Eugene 'The Senator' Wright, bass player with the Dave Brubeck quartet. When my daughter was born there were several complications, but the sound of Gene Wright commanding the bottom end with Dave Brubeck on 'Time Out' soundtracked that period of turmoil and hardship. As a bass player I loved the presence of his bass tone, but all my family appreciated the sweet, cool sound which invited calm into our turbulent life. 

 

When I play my bass with Rotosound RS4000s I'm reminded of that present, commanding tone with a clear coolness that I don't find in any other strings. My daughter also likes to listen to me play, but I know she prefers to listen to Gene Wright.

[mangotango]

Jaco. The one, the only...a total re-definition of bass guitar and also bass guitar sound.

As soon as I found one that I could afford, being a poverty-stricken student at the time, I bought a Fender Jazz because of him...and strung it with Rotosounds, natch.

[Quatschmacher]

Got to be Jaco Pastorius for me. Oddly enough I only recently learned that he used rotosounds even though I’ve been listening to him for over twenty years. It was a revelation to find that rotosounds were part of his otherworldly sound in Portrait of Tracy; that track blew me away when I first heard it at 17 and got me deeper into playing bass and into jazz. My school music teacher was a jazz fan, I had a huge crush on her (she was 27) and she made me a C90 with Jaco’s eponymous album on one side and Kind of Blue on the other. That music is still with me 25 years later. 

[TrevorR]

Almost too many to choose from... Herbie, Phil Lynott, Geddy Lee, Dave Paton, John Wetton, Kelly Groucutt... all of whom were huge influences as I was growing up as a bass player.

However, I’ll have to plump for Chris Squire in the end. A hugely inspirational player who created the most inventive basslines with in complex music but always with a huge sense of melody. His bass could have so easily been lost under a sea of drums and synths and guitar but yet it is always there taking authority over the music. For me on albums like Close To The Edge is simultaneously holds down the bottom end while still creating delightful countermelodies which form as much a part of the music’s distinctiveness as Steve Howe’s guitar or Rick Wakeman’s keyboards. A lead bass player with a fantastic lead bass tone who never failed to ensure that his bass lines were still 100% part of the team and helping to lift the whole of the tune and the other band members to a higher artistic space. There’ll never be another like him.

[Bigwan]

So many great artists to choose from, many with very distinctive sounds, but I'd have to say John Deacon of Queen. Such a tasteful player. Always serving the song.