Oddly enough just saw a video explaining that very slide and how it's only. Possible to play on fretless bass. They didn't mention it being a harmonic tho that's dope af.
Its actually also possible on bass with frets. You have to slide very fast and only works 2 or 3 frets. You can also see Victor Wooten do it on Amazing Grace
@@darthultor6365It certainly looks like that, but that's straight up the most famous fretless bass (and bassist) there is. Jaco Pastorius playing his Bass of Doom It had frets originally, that were removed and filled in (hence the lines, that do look weirdly 3D in that picture)
I agree. The first time I remember hearing a sliding harmonic was on the track "Radioactive" by Tony Franklin from The Firm. The only other prominent fretless bass player I was listening to prior was Pino Palladino. He was playing with Paul Young and Go West. Later Tony Levin with Peter Gabriel.
Steve digorgio has to be UP THERE for me in terms of technical death metal bassists. His fills and solos in all the death albums he’s on just hit me differently
Tony Franklins’ the MAN!!! Had front row for the Blue Murder tour in high school. Maybe 700 people there. Packed. Was awesome. He was barefoot with hair teased to the moon hopping around like a lunatic. Played “if I only had a brain” in his bass solo 😂. The local guitar shop had tons of fretless bass orders that Monday.
Yes, one can do it with fretted basses, one needs hot pickups, an onboard preamp helps, fast hands, as well as good strings. This short is giving away my magic! I am glad so many people love the electric bass, now more than ever. 🎉
It helps GREATLY to do the technique below on a bass that has some fairly clean strings (meaning not DEAD), and also bridge pickup and/or the settings to get a more treble, top-end sound. Also setting the amp to have a strong midrange to relay these frequencies. The two parts: 1.) The technique. 2.) The non-technique details to best able to relay the technique to come through. Good luck.
I don't own a fretless, so I don't know if it will be as clear sounding as these ones, but you should be able to do this with false/artificial/pinch harmonics as well. For instance if you want to do it with harmonics other than the natural ones - or simply if you want an alternative way to achieve this. Another advantage of this aproach/technique is that you already have your finger(s) on the fretboard ready to do the slide.
You might see fret lines on Jaco's bass but he famously removed the frets to make it fretless. The days before bass guitars were made with ebony fingerboards
On a related topic that severely hurts music creation, is signing a bad record contract. The best documentary I have seen on the topic was hosted by Sharon Osborne for the BBC. It’s called “Rock 'n' Roll's Dodgiest Deals.” It very informative and highly entertaining. One band that did not sign bad deal was the Police.
Sting did this on many Police records and live on fretless bass and the upright bass (without the body). For instance, listen to the bridge on "Man In A Suitcase"
Ngl I’m a music student for bass and have wondered how to for so long, a tiny part of my ego has been tainted thinking there’s just 1 technique I couldn’t do that some others just can so easily. I’ve been trying to do sliding harmonics on a fretted this whole time 😂
You can do this with a guitar but instead of sliding you can bend the string and it can be used kinda cool. It’s like doing a pinch harmonic without the pinch harmonic part
Day 1 of asking for Jeff Ament’s fretless BEHS tone. He does a harmonic slide on the song Even Flow where he starts at the nut for more range. It’s the best example of any harmonic slide ever
You can do this on a guitar with frets too! Unsure if it's only possible in certain tunings but I discovered I was able to slide pinch harmonics when messing around in Drop A, I was also using a Crybaby pedal with it fully "open", unsure if that also helped with it
I do those all the time. If you use artificial harmonics with your plucking hand you can get a full chromatic octave higher. Allowing for full harmonic solos, chords, and slides anywhere on the fingerboard.
