Great Rock Bassists your Top 10.Rock not Jazz. But Hey what about Reggae

@gavman + 1  One of the most amazing shows I ever saw was Sly & Robbie and their dub/roots band play a set over 3 hours long here in San Francisco about 10 years or so ago. Reggae is great, yeah??!! 

Innit☺👍

That must have been a good show

@tylermunns 

S. Clarke has never been a favorite of mine but I'm curious: are you rejecting all of his recorded performances or his own albums, specifically?

Anyone mention Phil Lesh?

@stuartk I’m rejecting any iteration of Stanley Clarke I’ve ever heard.  If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.

I find that particular type of dentist’s-office-waiting-room smooth-jazz Muzak unendurable.  It makes my soul hurt.

I mentioned him by the self-evident merits of his technical proficiency.

When addressing this thread, I tried to think of great non-classical, non-jazz bassists.  I have a bass-playing friend who is extremely into the Jaco/Manhattan Transfer/Wooten/Clarke stuff.  I perused those artists’ catalogs online again when trying to make my list, and I seemed to find Stanley’s output somehow slightly more unpalatable than people like Jaco, Wooten, and Flea.  It’s difficult to reconcile an artists’ technical virtuosity with the disagreeableness of their music.  
I’m not sure how I would go about the same type of list for guitarists, given that the likes of Van Halen, Vai, Satriani, Malmsteen and their ilk are clearly of a demonstrably higher level of technical proficiency/virtuosity than just about everybody else, but also make terrible music.

I suppose when we say “best,” perhaps a qualification is necessary to define the terms.  “Sheer technical proficiency,” or “makes you happy when listening,” or some combination of both.