How good is Duff as a bass player ?

[mrlee]

Well the title is my question really. I mean I'm biased as I'm a GNR and VR fan but on a purely musician basis, how good is he ?

I mean when people look back on the history of music, where will duff feature ? Of the greatest of all time ? Best of his generation ? 

whilst not a super duper bassist like pat badger.

Duff has really creative and interesting basslines (gnr era). listen to his work on The Garden, totally atmospheric bass playing, and on COMA. Hes great.

[Atillla]

I am not biased, I am just a casual listener to many bands including GnR and VR, I am also a musician (guitar, bass).

Duff's skills on the instrument is average compared to others, nothing more. His stage presentation is better than most.

PS: the bassline in The Garden was written by Arkeen or James, the bass just follows the guitar riff, Duff didn't write that. Just like the bassline in Coma follows the guitar riff written by Slash.

And this goes for all songs, most of the time, the bass just follows the guitar riff written by someone else. There are a few exceptions like in SCOM, where he does some nice stuff he wrote himself in the opening, but I never liked that corny song so...

[Wheres Izzy]

In my opinion Flea is the greatest Bass player in the world. Claypool may technically be better than Flea but Flea is better at composition, melody, riff and is the best all around bass player.

Duff is an average guitar player who took up playing bass, so he does a lot of guitar type feels on bass. He has a lot of feel and style, he is very solid.

Not sure Duff has ever slapped or done any technique like that.

I'm a big Flea fan but I think if you're Having a best bass player alive discussion you have to throw in Matt Freeman. I'm not a fan of anything Rancind has done since Wolves but you should check out some of his bass lines, they're insane and at times can dominate a song..in a good way. Check out a Rancid song called "Maxwell Murder" you'll see what I'm talkin about.

[IzzyDutch]

he's awesome, he's one of them who can write something simple and it sounds fucking awesome

I agree.. and most of the time his bass playing doesn't follow the guitar rhythm note for note but he's playing something else, great melodies and sound.. there are several Izzy songs which have some great playing by Duff: Ride On, Here Before You (probably the only song ever containing a solo from Duff), Highway Zero and last but not least Here Comes The Rain. Some sweet melodies during the slow parts of the song, there just isn't a note played wrong or to many.

[GNRfan2008]

He came up with the "It's So Easy" bassline. Enough fucking said right there!

[Olorin]

I think Duff excells in adding to a song and performance even though he is not exceptionally gifted. I like how he "plays" his bass guitar, rather than just "doing" bass for a song.

Thats what I love about GN'R, everybody plays and adds something rather than just doing the minimal and going through the motions to complete the song.