harmonics technique

[delamigo]

Hello Mr. Lawson and Mr. Manring-

New member here; make my home in Oakland, CA .

I recently saw a video of Victor Wooten playing an Amazing Grace solo; he was using a Fodera tenor bass (fretted, I believe) without a whammy bar. While playing the melody using harmonics mainly on the 3rd, 4th, 5th frets, he actually slid a harmonic (the note G to A, a major second apart) . He did not bend the neck to get this effect. Looks like his finger merely slid up two frets, then back again. I thought once you sound a harmonic on a string, you cannot effect it by sliding your finger.

I'd like to know how he achieved this.

Thank you for your expertise in this matter.

[Steve Lawson]

Hello delamigo,

It's a tricky one to explain as it requires quite a lot of trial and error to see how it works on your bass, but the basic idea is that you sound the harmonic, then push your left finger down and slide it all in one - you fret the note and immediately slide it up. It'll take a while to get comfortable with, but it's a cool effect. Works even better on fretless.

cheers

steve
www.stevelawson.net

[christobass 416]

Yea, bending/sliding harmonics is fun, it is a pretty cool effect.

[delamigo]

OK, I will try what you said. When you say,

"then push your left finger down and slide it all in one - you fret the note and immediately slide it up",

do you mean push the finger all the way down to the fretboard or touch the finger lightly and slide it, without the string actually touching the fret?

Thank you,

John G.

[christobass 416]

Yes, you push the string all the way down to the fretboard, then slide.

[Jeff Moote]

Originally Posted by christobass 416

Yes, you push the string all the way down to the fretboard, then slide.

Well it's not exactly this, but not what he said either. It is neither all the way down to the fret or so lightly that there is no contact that creates the desired effect.

I'll leave it to Steve to come back and explain it well if he likes, but I would describe it as applying enough pressure to just about contact the fret, but not enough that the string is stopped by any one fret. Depending on how the action is set on a given bass you just have to try out different ammounts of pressure and find what works best.

[christobass 416]

Originally Posted by Jeff Moote

Well it's not exactly this, but not what he said either. It is neither all the way down to the fret or so lightly that there is no contact that creates the desired effect.

I'll leave it to Steve to come back and explain it well if he likes, but I would describe it as applying enough pressure to just about contact the fret, but not enough that the string is stopped by any one fret. Depending on how the action is set on a given bass you just have to try out different ammounts of pressure and find what works best.

Ah, I see. It must be different for fretted basses. On my fretless, pushing all the way down worked.