If you listen to any of their music you should get a sense of his talent. He's great, like the entire band. I don't think all that many bands had such consistent talent throughout... some examples would be Zeppelin, of course, as well as The Who (Daltrey/Townsend/Entwhistle/Moon). But the Beatles were great despite most of them being pretty bad at their instruments... Ringo Starr was a better public personality than a drummer, and while John Lennon was great at writing music and singing, you can see how poor his guitar skills are if you listen to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," played by one of the masters of guitar, Clapton. Experience had white man with fro on the bass who was horrible, though I guess you could say Hendrix/Mitchell was such an awesome combination it almost beats out the solid casts of The Who or Led Zeppelin -- though not quite.
Overall the bass player is pretty unimportant though -- it's up to him to stand out and become a major part of the band and to become a musician who is noticed for his talent and innovative playing.
