BASS Guitar

Yes it's easy to be a heads-down, hard plugging bass player but that's a bit like saying you only need 3 chords to play guitar. If anything I'd say it's harder to play bass because you have to keep the beat. My bass tutor was guitarists have 'all the power and none of the responsibility'.

First off there is very little bass tab out there. So most songs you'll need to work out which notes to play. Much of the time this'll be the root note but then you have a choice of where to play them on the fretboard. Bass players have to be a able to noodle something out.

Any instrument is easy to play if one is content with a low or minimal level of musicianship.
I play guitar and bass(fretless). I loop live and usually record the guitar first, followed by bass and/or percussion. I really enjoy bass, especially the smooth variation one gets from a fretless. The fretless is a little harder to play due to the absence of visible frets. My ear has improved greatly since taking on the fretless. On a fretted bass, anywhere within the fret will most always work but on a fretless there's a "sweet spot" that is much more precise and a little harder to find. It's well worth the extra effort when those low, smooth, singing tones float in the air. I also make a conscious effort to phrase my bass playing different than my guitar playing.