harmonics trick?

[jzauner]

So I have always been dissatisfied with the way harmonics sound, and I was messing around trying to get the 2nd fret harmonic to sound, and I decided to use my nail for the heck of it, and it rang beautifully! If you place your finger directly on the fret, not the string, and let your fingernail touch it, it works perfectly

Anyone use this? maybe just for those hard to hit harmonics? Or am I just crazy. Tried searching, but didn't seem to find anything about this. What do you guys do to make harmonics ring, other than plucking at the end of the string, etc.

 

[Tylerrr51]

I've done that when im just messing around, but i can get a harmonic off 2 by putting your finger a little in front of the second fret

 

[Chunk-O-Funk]

I've never done that.

One way to get your harmonics to be more prominent is to change your tone. For instance, on a Jazz bass (or almost any two pickup bass) if you roll back (turn down) the neck pickup the harmonics will sound more clearly. Same with your amp. If you have a really bass heavy, round sound the harmonics will not stick out as much.

 

[jzauner]

I have it set all the way on the bridge pickup. What is odd is that on my 1970 gibson, the pickups are both close to the neck, but it sounds better than on my other basses. I'm just trying to get that C# harmonic on the A string (not 4th fret, 2nd fret) to sound better

 

[Diogenes]

Depending on the harmonic you may have to touch just over, slightly behind or slightly in front of the fret. My main P Bass is great for harmonics and I find that boosting the mids, no matter whether its a P, J or ATK, really helps. In fact I use harmonics to determine whether or not I will buy a bass. If I can play "Portrait of Tracey" on it with each 'note' ringing clear and relatively even with the others, then it's a keeper.

 

[LC13]

I've done this before, the only real problem I started to encounter was the fact that it limited the speed and accuracy I needed so I wound up just using the older way most of the time.