Ok, here's my bad bass player story (limited to my jazz experiences... I won't even touch the other part of my musical life... playing in blues/R&B bar bands).
When I was in the jazz program at Michigan State the instructor refused to let me play organ, even though they had a nice 1964 Hammond B3 with Leslie sitting in the room. He wanted me to play piano. I am not a pianist. Never have been, probably never will be. I love piano, but it ain't my thing. Asking an organist to play piano is like saying, "Oh, you're a trombonist? Here's a trumpet!" What, they both have a similair mouthpiece, right?!
Anyway, the bassist he puts in my combo is this jackhole from the classical music department. The guy walks around like he's the shit and hands out dorky business cards to everyone that exclaim he's not only a bassist, but a composer and lyricist as well (oh brother!).
This mofo was so sad. He could not even play a simple I-IV-V blues without reading the notes off the page. And even then he fucked them up. And forget about time. He swung like a frozen squirrel. And then to go from simple blues into a tune that actually had changes... forget about it.
It was even more frustrating to me, as an organist, because I had spent the last 5 years learning how to create a good bass line on the organ... and there was that nice 1964 Hammond B3 sitting in the corner, beckoning me... PLAY ME!!!
Thankfully, the next semester the instrutor finally gave in and let me be in my own organ combo with Joe. And the rest is history!!!