Top 10 Musicians Who Have Played Both Guitar and Bass Guitar
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame with the rock band the Beatles, one of the most popular and influential groups in the history of pop and rock music.One of the most successful composers and performers of all time, he is known for his melodic approach to bass-playing, his versatile and wide tenor vocal range and his musical eclecticism, exploring styles ranging from pre-rock 'n' roll pop to classical and electronica. His songwriting partnership with John Lennon remains the most successful in history Paul did such a great job playing both guitar and bass in the songs for the Beatles. Interestingly if you hear the Beatles' cover of "Till There Was You", only Paul had his bass plugged into an amp there, so it gives off a cool rhythm to the song.
Jeff Waters (born February 13, 1966) is a Canadian metal musician and founder of the metal band Annihilator. He's best known as the guitarist for Annihilator, appreciated for his fast riffs and solos. Waters is also the primary songwriter in the band. Very often he has taken on the role of lead singer, bass player, engineer and producer.
He has owned Watersound Studios Inc. since 1994.
At a young age he took some classical and jazz guitar lessons.
Notable songs include Alison Hell, Human Insecticide, The Trend, Ultra-Motion, Detonation. A very talented lead and rhythm guitarist who played bass on a whole thrash metal album, that happened to be one of the best metal albums ever (Alice in Hell, 1989).
When 'Alice in Hell' was recorded, Annihilator was a three-piece: they had no bassist so Jeff Waters wrote and recorded all basslines. Bassist Wayne Darley joined the band when the album was finished and he was credited although he didn't perform.
Besides playing bass, lead and rhythm guitars, Jeff Waters produced the album, provided backing vocals and wrote all the songs, with the exception of "Crystal Ann" (a short acoustic instrumental).
I put him at #1 because it isn't easy to play technical thrash metal but he played guitars and bass amazingly. And there were no other guitarists and bassists in the band to play part of what he played.
Charles Michael "Chuck" Schuldiner (1967-2001) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known as the founder and vocalist, guitarist and bassist of the American heavy metal band Death. He is considered the most influential figure in Death Metal, with some publications referring to Chuck ...read more.
David Jon Gilmour is an English singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. He joined the progressive rock band Pink Floyd as guitarist and co-lead vocalist in 1968. What how is David Gilmour not yet on this list. He is basically the best guitarist ever (OK that's subjective but he's definitely top 5) and he played both the guitar parts as well as the bass parts on songs that were difficult to play.
I think David Gilmour is an extremely talented guitarist. He has an amazing blues sound only he could do. Definitely in the top 3.
He plays bass in Hey You - Pink Floyd on a fretless bass I believe.
Donald Thomas "Tom" Scholz is an American rock musician, inventor, engineer, and philanthropist, best known as the founder of the band Boston. He was a regular guitarist and bassist. I was gonna made a list about it. And he was on top of the list.
Richard Hugh "Ritchie" Blackmore is an English guitarist and songwriter, best known for his work in the hard rock/metal bands Deep Purple and Rainbow. He was ranked number 16 on Guitar World's "100 Greatest Metal Guitarists of All Time" in 2004, and number 50 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2011. In 2016 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of original members of Deep Purple. Ritchie Blackmore is a great guitarist but he also played bass on official band recordings. Not limited to this example, but he played bass on Rainbow's album 'Long Live Rock 'n' Roll' (1978).
He provided bass for 4 songs: Long Live Rock 'n' Roll, L.A. Connection, The Shed (Subtle), Rainbow Eyes.
Bassist Bob Daisley played 3 songs: Kill the King, Gates of Babylon, Sensitive to Light.
But Ritchie Blackmore also played bass on some rough mix tracks: Kill the King, Sensitive to Light, Lady of the Lake.
John Nicholas Oliva, known as Jon Oliva, is an American composer, multi-instrumentalist and singer. Co-founder of the metal band Savatage and the rock opera Trans-Siberian Orchestra. He's got a real 4 octave range, able to morph the sound of his voice to any style, from John Lennon and Freddie Mercury, and clean to Joe Cocker-raspy. He is basically a lead singer but he played bass, lead/rhythm guitars (plus piano, drums and keyboards)
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm was an American rock 'n' roller, Americana musician, and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and regular lead vocalist for The Band.
James Patrick Page is an English musician, songwriter, and record producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Started out on Bass for The Yardbirds, then took over Lead Guitar when Jeff Beck left the group.
Lars Mikael Åkerfeldt is a Swedish musician, prominently known as the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter of progressive death metal band Opeth, as well as being the former vocalist of death metal supergroup Bloodbath for three albums up until 2012.
He also has a side project with Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson known as Storm Corrosion. They released their self titled debut in 2012.
Akerfeldt also performed lead vocals on Katatonia's sophomore album "Brave Murder Day". He is best friends with their regular lead singer, Jonas Renkse. He joined Opeth as a bassist!
Prince Rogers Nelson (June 7, 1958 - April 21st, 2016) was an American musician, best known for being one of the most popular and influential artists from the 80s, with songs such as "Purple Rain", "Little Red Corvette", "1999", and "When Doves Cry" . Prince should be much higher on the list. He was a terrific bassist and guitarist. He was also proficient on a number of other instruments. His Royal Badness was an extremely versatile and well-rounded artist who could do a number of things well and definitely needs some more love on this list.
Prince is unique. There is no other, there will never be another.
His talent transcends this realm.
George Roger Waters is an English singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. He is mostly known for being the secondary lead vocalist and bassist of Pink Floyd. He will play both bass and guitar within a whole concert.
Paul Dedrick Gray, also known as The Pig or by his number #2, was an American musician, best known as the bassist and one of the founding members of the Grammy Award-winning metal band Slipknot. He's a bassist but played guitar too
Philip David Charles "Phil" Collins is an English singer-songwriter and musician, who has also worked as a record producer and actor. A well known singer and drummer who played guitar and bass (and keyboards)
Jimi Hendrix (born November 27, 1942 - September 18, 1970) was an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter.
Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as "arguably the greatest instrumentalist in the history of rock music". Hendrix is consistently ranked on lists of musicians who died too soon. He played some Bass passages because he was annoyed by Noel Redding
Arjen Anthony Lucassen (born 3 April 1960, Netherlands) is a Dutch progressive rock/metal songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist musician and record producer, best known for his long-running progressive opera project Ayreon.
Stephen Lawrence Winwood is an English rock musician whose genres include progressive rock, blue-eyed soul, rhythm and blues, blues rock, pop rock, and jazz.Played bass in the Jeff Beck Group, and he played guitar in the Faces and (of course) The Rolling Stones.
Jeff Lynne is an English rock musician who founded the Electric Light Orchestra and has performed with and produced other artists, including George Harrison. On the ELO album 'Zoom' he played guitar, bass, drums, keyboard and cello.
(ELO - Electric Light Orchestra)
Clifford Lee "Cliff" Burton (February 10th 1962 - September 27th 1986) was an American musician, best known as the second bass guitarist for the American thrash metal band Metallica, recording three studio albums.
He died after the driver of the bands tour bus lost control on a patch of black ice and crashed at the town Dörarp in Sweden whilst promoting Metallica's third album "Master of Puppets"
Cliff fell out through a window during the chaos and when the bus rolled over the last time it crushed him. When did he play guitar?
Piotr Wiwczarek (also known as Peter) is a Polish guitarist and vocalist who is best known as the frontman for death metal band Vader, where he is the only constant member of the band since its inception. He started in Vader as a bassist, then became guitarist and vocalist
Steffen Kummerer (born June 1, 1985) is a German guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. He is the leader, main songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist for the progressive technical death metal band Obscura as well as the blackened melodic death metal band Thulcandra.
Joan Marie Larkin known professionally by her stage name Joan Jett, is an American rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and occasional actress, best known for her work with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, preceded by success with The Runaways, including their hit song "Cherry Bomb".