Lots of good stuff guys! I was way into synth bass back in the 80s. In fact, I still run into people from back then who thought I was a keyboardist rather than a bass player.
Surprised nobody mentioned Stevie Wonder yet. And there was a guy named Cameron Hawkins in Canadian prog band FM that did killer synth bass lines (he played bass guitar and Taurus pedals as well).
Stevie's synth bass from "Innervisions" alone makes him the king of synth bass. Great lines and a fat sound. Beach Boys' "Holland" comes close and of course there's Jan Hammer who had a fantastic snappy Moog bass sound.
I like Cameron Hawkins synth bass and sequenced Moog stuff on early FM albums (their two eighties albums are quite awful). "Black Noise" is probably the best but "Surveillance" and "City Of Fear", while poppier, have their good moments. "Direct To Disc" is almost avant-garde at times.
Some of their stuff on that album (released 1979) sound like a precursor to Rush' "Signals" album.
Saga's Jim Chrichton plays a lot synth bass, one of my favs is "The Vendetta" from "Heads Or Tales" where the first part of the song is played on Multi-Moog and Simmons drums and for the last part Crichton and Steve Negus switch to "real" bass and drums.
Max Webster used synth bass (Arp Odyssey) on a few songs, my fav is the snaky line on "Beyond The Moon".
