sliding harmonics?

[ABH_bassist]

i purchased the victor wooten/ steve bailey bass extremes dvd about a year ago, have currently lost it so i figured id come here to inquire.

i swear steve bailey was hitting harmonics, and sliding them up the fretboard. im not sure if these were false harmonics or what, and im just pissing myself off trying to figure it out.

anyone?

[Kronos]

You can do this with a fretless. Just hit the harmonic, then fret the harmonic and slide. Jeff Ament did this in the song Evenflow.

[labgnat]

yeah it's easiest with fretless bass. but you can do it on fretted too, just gotta be a bit gentler pushing the harmonic down onto the fret, then you can bend it too

[ABH_bassist]

unfortunatley i dont own a fretless
one day...

but about doing it on a fretted, i dont want the string to hit the fretboard at any time while sliding correct? just the harmonic, push it onto the fret and slide it up?

[Alec W. Conway]

Lets say you want to slide up with your 5th fret harmonic on your little G.

1- Ring your harmonic the usual way
2- Squeeze your string down on the fret right after ringing your harmonic
3- go ahead with a usual slide technique

And thats it.


Since you're fretted, you might get a bit of that clunky squared out sound that so typical on slides with frets. You might also get a bit of the actual fret-note sound instead of the harmonic itself. That's both a matter of technique, practice, and your neck being fretted. You'll get much less background "non-harmonic" sound on a fretless neck.

[ABH_bassist]

awesome
thank you guys very much for the help
now i can taunt my guitar player by showing him what im doing, but not showing him how. muwahaha

[Alec W. Conway]

Taunt ahead mate. Show those pimpy guitar players who the boss really is.