Here Today... Gone To Hell!

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 ? 

He's an accomplished musician ... he has a great feel for the bass ... and is more technical than some people think!  He's far from the most amazing bassist in the world ... but Duff isn't just a root notes guy ... he'll put together a kick ass melody... well ... you can hear for yourself :)

Well yes I think it's good stuff, I was trying to get an impression from a TECHNICAL standpoint and from musicians.

Ok ... well, I'm a musician ... and I'm telling you, yes he's good.

He's god an awesome sense of rhythm ... his playing is tight as hell ... and he can throw his hands around the fretboard plenty :)

Duff is awesome.  Top 100 easy. 

Perfect sense of what to do as a bass player.  Killer tone.  Killer bass lines.  Sweet Child, Double Talkin Jive Outro.  Duff is pretty intelligent musically.

Is he better than Nikki Sixx? Who cares. Is he better than Les Claypool? No, but he sold more albums than Les. Have you tried playing the bass solo in the beginning of SCOM? He said it himself that he was worried about getting technically any better because he didn't want to lose his "feel". There must be something about his playing to get him where he's at.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u_8zOoQokw

Guess that says it all, right there. 

Duff isn't the most skilled player in the world but he def. has his own style that makes up for any of that. He isn't gonna play stuff like Matt Freeman where he can take over the whole song, but he always adds something to whatever he plays on and whenever I have seen him live he is flawless.

He's mediocre at best.

I like his work, but he ain't no Stanley Clarke (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcuC7KBlV9w&feature=related)

As a bass player he is one of my favorites. I think generally he is under rated, even within the GnR community sometimes.
There's an interview with him where he says he plays the bass as a 'singing' instrument and a percussive instrument in the sense that the beginning of SCOM sings, while the intro for Right Next Door To Hell is percussive.
He has a great sense of rythm and groove, and adds a lot of cool touches to songs. He has an awesome style.

I think he's a good musician and that he comes up with some good bass lines, but he's not a real technical player and his bass doesn't really stand out in songs... He gets the job done well.


That's Slash on a six string bass.

Huh, must have sliped my mind.
Here's the quote I was refering to:
"...but the beginning of Sweet Child sings. The more abrasive songs, like the beginning of Right Next Door To Hell, is what I mean by percussive."
Must be reffering to his parts in it after the six string.

I dissagree however with people saying his bass doesn't really stand out. They're huge parts of songs to me, I'm always picking out fills here and there, and the bass stands out well for me.

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.

Slap bass just sounds horrible in band situations in my opinion ... so I actually think players like Flea etc, are overrated.

:)  It's like saying Eddie Van halen can tap faster than Zakk so he's a better player.  But actually, Zakk writes cooler riffs in my opinion, and can pick faster than Eddie.

I think what people focus on will determine how skilled they feel Duff is.  Duff doesn't slap ... so what...?   :)

I think duff is a great player.  Songs like Nightrain, Sweet Child, Coma and DTJ have really cool bass fills, and duff generally lays down a good bassline.  I've not listened to VR enough to notice much bass, but certainly for Gnr, he was good. Much as he may try to look like Sid Vicious, his bass playing is markedly better. 

Im a musician, and I think Duff is great,he is high on the top ten list as a bass player in the rock/heavy/metal genre.. He is very groovy and have a great feeling and tone. I think its fair to judge his playing within the genre, and not comparing him to other styles, as that is like comparing apples to oranges..  And like someone said, he is very intelligent musically, just listen to all the stuff he have done and you should be able to heart it for yourselves  :yes:

He reminds me alot of how Slash is to guitar players. Neither are what you would call technically gifted, but you would be hard pressed to find a bass player or a lead guitarist with a better resume the past 2 decades.

50 years from now Duff will still be the bass player on Appetite for Destruction. No one will remember where he ranked among bass players on technical ability, but like the other 4 members of the original GNR their contribution to rock music will be immortal.

I bet if you gave him a choice between rock immortality or technical ability he would choose option 1 every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Playing on possibly the greatest rock n' roll album of all time and a likely spot in the Hall of Fame is not a bad career by any stretch of the means.

ITs So Easy! Duff is great!

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

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.

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...

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.

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. 8)

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

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.