How do I do a linear vibrato on fretted bass.

[Gladowsky]

I used to play a fretless but have switched to a fretted for various reasons. I miss the expression available on the fretless. But, after seeing Tal Wilkenfeld and the technique she uses to make the bass sing I must learn how it is done. Anyone out there know? It does not appear that she is using the up/down, choking method as we guitar players so often do but a linear back/forth motion. I'll try this on my Sadowsky but achieve poor results.

Thanks for any help in advance.

[tZer]

I certainly hope you mean a linear vibrato... LOL

I had a very natural vibrato - the kind you see done on upright and violin - due to the fact that I started on violin and upright. It would happen naturally when I was playing electric bass (fretted) and looked quite odd being that I was playing Rush, Iron Maiden, Zeppelin and so on. I'd often have other bass players come up to me and ask what the heck I was doing shaking my left hand back and forth like that. I'd always explain that it was a reflex and not something I was doing consciously.

I don't really think it had a great deal of impact on my sound in that I don't think I actually got much of an actual 'vibrating tone' - but the way I expressed myself through my playing naturally caused me to use vibrato in that way - hit a sustained tone, do vibrato - it's just how things are done in the orchestra, ya know?

I imagine you'd have to have a pretty exaggerated vibrato to have a noticeable impact on a fretted bass.

[ClassicRock55]

As an upright and fretless player, i have tried linear vibrato on my fretted bass. It can be done, but it requires a lot more effort and tends to work best in the upper register on the D and G strings. It won't sing like fretless, but I noticed a difference.

If your trying to do it on, let's say the 5th fret of the E string, forget about it.

[rarisgod]

As ClassicRock55 said, it can be done but requires a lot more effort.

As for making the bass sing, I find it works someewhat if you use the bridge pick-up exclusively and mess around with your tone, closer to a lower setting but possibly not completely turned down. Also, pluck really close to the bridge. Play like this while applying vibrato and you can get somewhat of a singing tone. It's how I played Jaco songs before I got my fretless, most notably A Remark You Made (ok that's a Weather Report song).

It's worked for me, so I figured I'd suggest what I knew.

[Gladowsky]

Yes .... ha ha - I about choked when I re-read my original post as linear vibrator.

:-)

[John Wentzien]

Originally Posted by Gladowsky

Yes .... ha ha - I about choked when I re-read my original post as linear vibrator.

:-)

Is there any other kind

[tZer]

This is devolving quickly! LOL

[Dave Muscato]

Originally Posted by Gladowsky

I used to play a fretless but have switched to a fretted for various reasons. I miss the expression available on the fretless. But, after seeing Tal Wilkenfeld and the technique she uses to make the bass sing I must learn how it is done. Anyone out there know? It does not appear that she is using the up/down, choking method as we guitar players so often do but a linear back/forth motion. I'll try this on my Sadowsky but achieve poor results.

Thanks for any help in advance.

That's how I vibrato (classical guitar-style, along the length of the string, side-to-side). It takes a bit more pressure on metal strings than it does on nylon, but it still works just fine. Sometimes I do vibrato up & down (choking) instead of side-to-side, but only when I'm playing a bluesy solo.