[Tannin]

Here is my take - and not as a guitarist who plays bass. I'm a bass player who plays guitar.

Technique has nothing to do with it. It doesn't matter how many strings you play and what you pluck them with, let alone how you fret them. No, it is 100% about attitude.

As a bass player, you have one job: make the singer sound good. That's it. Nothing else. Make the singer sound good. (Or the sax player, or the lead guitarist, whatever - never yourself.) If you get to the end of a gig and people say "You played well" you screwed up. Your job is to make people say "Great band!" or "Wow! I love the singer!"

Most people won't notice how good you are. If you don't like that, don't play bass. If they do notice how good you are, you aren't any good, not as a bass player. Being noticed is not your job. But people who know will know: any other bass players in the audience for a start. (Real ones, I mean, not flashy posers.) Your drummer will know immediately, and the other members of your band will too after a while. And most importantly, you will know.

Bass is a state of mind.