Fretless Jaco sound

Jaco didn't play the synth sounds. That's the keyboard player.

IIRC, Jaco only used a digital delay and the fuzz from his Acoustic 360.

 

On Birdland it sounds like he's using the bridge pickup, and in some places bridge pickup with huge amounts of reverb!

and of course pinched harmonics in the beginning

 

And if you want to play the Moog synth sounds with the bass, you need a bass synth pedal. All of them do this kind of stuff.

 

for the most part jaco really didn't use effects afaik, all i can suggest is what has been said before, like play on the bridge pickup, and i would suggest a chorus pedal, because those sound nice with a fretless

 

when jaco's parts sound synthy, its becuase joe zawinul is doubling them on keyboard. and zawinul did this a great deal.

 

fretless jazz bass w/ rotosound roundwound strings, all controls on bass turned all the way up, roll off the neck pickup a bit, as far as effects he used the fuzz built into his acoustic 360 amp, a delay pedal, and i swear ive heard him use a chorus...on his amp ur looking for a good deal of midrange and some solid bass w/ a pinch of treble - kinda like jack bruce's "frown" curve w/ a touch more bass...that should be a good start for the sound ur looking for

 

Birdland (at least the Heavy Weather version) was played on a fretted bass.

 

Bassman314, what recordings have you listened to? I think you should throw yourself at the listening side of this music, and then the tone settings for your bass and your playing style will be easy to sort out. I would start with roundwound strings though.

 

Not the version on "Heavy Weather", no. It's quite obviously a fretless; it's especially apparent when he does the long slide from E to C right before the pre-chorus.

Not trying to start a fight, but it's a fretless, absolutely.

 

Ever heard the word "overdubbing"?

 

Um....yeah....? And I've heard plenty of Jaco too...your point would be what? He played fretted on portions of the track and overdubbed certain sections? That wasn't his style especially on his (more-or-less) debut with Weather Report.

Besides, I used to talk to Othello and Peter Yianilos about Jaco quite a bit in my 3 years with him. I am pretty familiar with his work.

Is there some reason folks seem to think Jaco was not playing a fretless on that tune when

1) That's what he usually played and,

2) It clearly is even upon casual listening

 

just want to let u kno that the first melody that kicks in right after the synth intro (sounds like guitar) is jaco doing harped (pinched) harmonics...interesting, no?

 

I've wondered that myself a few times. Sure sounds like a fretless to me.

So.. anybody got a definitive answer? Did he use two basses or what? Where did this "Jaco did the Heavy Weather version of Birdland on a fretted bass" come from?

(Note for interested parties - some interesting meme stuff going on here, perhaps?)

 

Sorry, but I can't agree. The bending of the false harmonics is unmistakable (I know it can still be done on a fretless, but this ain't on a fretless). Plus I have two different videos of him using a fretted bass on the song. The only version that I'm not quite sure about (whether he uses fretted or fretless) is the version on "Live and Unreleased".

 

I've got two videos of him playing it on a fretted bass.

 

I don't guess you've seen any of the videos of this song, have you?

 

just for arguement's purpose (i really don't care what jaco used, all i know is that he is great with any bass he play) but are these videos from the studio or live?

 

I've seen Jaco playing a fretted a few times, but I'm 99% sure that Birdland is fretLESS. There are a few times in the song where it's extremely obvious that he is.
As for the intro (artificial harmonics), it could go either way. I know when I play that, I can't get them that clear on a fretless. BUT, it's JACO we're talking about. I'm fully confident that he could do it no problem with a fretless. Just because it's easier/sounds better on a fretted, doesn't mean he used one.