Quote Originally Posted by Glacies View Post
Being relatively new to music, I never knew how important bass was until I didn't have it.
It's a fair point. The way I like to frame it is that drums and bass are most important to a band sounding good, but the singer and guitarist are the most noticeable. You don't really want a weak person at any position, but I feel like you can get by with a much weaker guitarist (or occasionally vocalist -- look at Dream Theater) and still sound like a good band if your rhythm section is good. Ironic, since most people want to sing or play guitar because there's more glory there. I think I once heard a drummer say that drumming in a rock band is like being a rock plumber; I thought that was pretty funny.

I think an extension of that thought is that band members notice bad musicians at bass and drums far more than audience members will notice them.