Player magazine, Stevie Glasgow says, "Peter Cetera's bass (and vocals) were key to Chicago's sound. His tasty 4-string style was forged through a deep knowledge of early rock & roll and R&B, bolstered by a keen melodic sense, astute rhythmic prowess, and a dexterous technique capable of issuing graded nuance and fervent oomph in equal measure." Jeff Coffey gained a new respect for Cetera's bass lines when he took over as Chicago's bass player (2016–2018). Cetera's first bass guitar was a Danelectro Shorthorn. He switched to a Höfner 500/1 to use with The Exceptions. When the Höfner sound was deemed not "bassy or ballsy" enough for Chicago, he replaced it with a 1963 Fender Precision Bass. The Fender became his favorite and it was his usual choice of instrument throughout his 17-year tenure with the band. Other basses that Cetera has played include the Fender Jazz Bass (in both fretted and fretless versions), Gibson EB-3, Gibson Ripper, Rickenbacker 4001, Steinberger, Ibanez, Music Man StingRay and Spector models. His amplification has varied between Ampeg, Orange, Kustom, Acoustic Control Corporation, Phase Linear and Sound City. He currently endorses Wilkins basses, as well as Fender Precision Basses and Taurus bass amplification. He is a longtime user of LaBella flatwound bass strings. He briefly switched to the LaBella roundwound strings for a time, but was not satisfied with them and returned to flatwounds. He also uses Fender medium picks. Recognition and influence as bass player Cetera received high praise for his bass playing during his years with Chicago. In his review of a 1969 Chicago concert at the University of Hartford, Ken Cruickshank wrote, "Their bass player, Peter Cetera, is perhaps the fastest and finest I've heard." Reviewing a 1972 live Chicago show at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles, Henry Mendoza, writing for the San Bernardino Sun-Telegram, labeled Cetera's bass work "superb" and said Cetera "emerged as one of rock's finest bassists." After a 1973 performance at Middle Tennessee State University, writer Mike West reported his view of Cetera as more singer than bass player had changed, "His bass work was great, driving to peaks of soul sound." Writer Brown Burnett called Cetera's bass playing "excellent" in his review of Cetera's first solo album, Peter Cetera (1981). In a 2018 review writer Bob Helme said Cetera's bass playing on the song "Hot Streets" is "astounding" and called Cetera "an amazing bassist". Cetera was