Help with fretless slap bass

[Felib7ss]

Hi im new here, i have a few mouths playing fretless, i have a 6 strings, and looking for things to play on ear a found a old video, here is and i have a problem with 00:50 part, there is a harmonic that sound that i heard is a F but i dont know how he made it cause of the posititions of his hands. If somebody could help me with that i would be grateful because i have no bass friends lol

 

[Felib7ss]

correction, exactly is the sound and rhythm between 00:51 and 00:52 to be puntual

 

[SteveCS]

Hi im new here, i have a few mouths playing fretless, i have a 6 strings, and looking for things to play on ear a found a old video, here is and i have a problem with 00:50 part, there is a harmonic that sound that i heard is a F but i dont know how he made it cause of the posititions of his hands. If somebody could help me with that i would be grateful because i have no bass friends lol

Start by sounding the 'B' harmonic at the 4th stop on the G string. Then press your finger to the fingerboard at the node and gliss up, maintaining good contact with the board and string at all times. Stop when you reach the required pitch

 

[Felib7ss]

i think i got you thank you

 

[MarkA]

Hi im new here, i have a few mouths playing fretless, i have a 6 strings, and looking for things to play on ear a found a old video, here is and i have a problem with 00:50 part, there is a harmonic that sound that i heard is a F but i dont know how he made it cause of the posititions of his hands. If somebody could help me with that i would be grateful because i have no bass friends lol

Start by sounding the 'B' harmonic at the 4th stop on the G string. Then press your finger to the fingerboard at the node and gliss up, maintaining good contact with the board and string at all times. Stop when you reach the required pitch

This is a succinct and accurate explanation of a "sliding harmonic" (if you want to look up more videos or information on the technique, OP).

I'll add this: Check what Stew (the player in the video) does with his right hand (where he plucks) when he fingers the harmonic with his left.

EDIT: The video, for some reason, was obscuring part of the text of your original post, for me, OP -- since you know he's playing a harmonic of some kind, you're probably already familiar with the basic technique of playing natural harmonics (and that they sound more clearly and reliably when you pluck close to the bridge), but I'll leave that part in, in case it's useful to someone in the future. ;-)

Welcome to Talkbass (and to fretless)!

 

[Felib7ss]

i appreciate your answer

 

[Jogobass]

sliding harmonic starting on the 4th 'fret' G string. pluck the harmonic, put your finger down at the same spot, then slide

 

[MarkA]

i appreciate your answer

De nada. I appreciate your appreciatin'. ;-)

If you're playing (and slapping) a six string fretless, you might check out some old Primus.

Not slap, but Steve Bailey is known for six-string fretless (and all kinds of stuff with harmonics).

Be mindful of your technique and pay attention to your body as you learn that expanse of fingerboard.

Happy exploring!

 

[Casual Bassist]

Hi im new here, i have a few mouths playing fretless, i have a 6 strings, and looking for things to play on ear a found a old video, here is and i have a problem with 00:50 part, there is a harmonic that sound that i heard is a F but i dont know how he made it cause of the posititions of his hands. If somebody could help me with that i would be grateful because i have no bass friends lol

I haven’t watched this since the 80’s, but I believe there’s a section where they discuss pinching harmonics.

It’s a good video to watch if you play bass.

 

[Casual Bassist]

 

[Carl Hillman]

 

[winston]

Paging @steubig

 

[Lo-E]

I was wondering if somebody was going to mention Percy Jones before I did!

Percy doesn’t slap on fretless but he uses a number of other peculiar techniques and sliding harmonics are something of a calling card of his.

Percy Jones is actually the reason I bought my first fretless, circa 1986-ish.

 

[steubig]

Paging @steubig

hi

since you pinged me . . .

the sliding harmonic everyone has mentioned works (didn't look at the vid, just commenting from experience). of course you could also hit the D harmonic on the G and slide up to the F.

ime, all the below require a back pickup and a hard attack very close to the bridge

there are also two ways to get an F *an octave higher* than the F you all are discussing. they're both a little harder to get: one is between the 2nd and 3rd "fret" on the G string; the other is at approximately the 10th fret on the G string. i prefer the one closer to the nut because it's easier to get interesting chords or diads.

just for grins, you can also get an A (the 9th) it's a little tougher on teh G string, but it's in the vicinity of the middle of the 2nd fret. (i've been able to get a C# [#11] at between the 1st and 2nd "frets," but that is very dicey.)

ps: helps to use a fingernail for the #11 harmonic.

 

[Casual Bassist]

You can pinch a harmonic pretty much anywhere using physics.

 

[steubig]

You can pinch a harmonic pretty much anywhere using physics.

for sure. but i thought they were talking about natural harmonics.

 

[Lo-E]

ime, all the below require a back pickup and a hard attack very close to the bridge

Interesting that you mention this.
After commenting on this thread yesterday, I started messing around with sliding harmonics in the afternoon.

I grabbed the bass that was by my practice stool this week; a stock ‘78 fretless P-bass with a (later) stock Fender pickup, strung with very old Ernie Ball Group IV flats.

Given that it’s a passive bass with flats and no bridge pickup, I expected a difficult time sliding harmonics but, to my surprise, I didn’t find it much more difficult than it is with my active, two-pickup basses strung with rounds. I had no trouble sliding the 4th “fret” harmonic up and back down.

Maybe it’s just that the technique is already very familiar to me but the lack of a bridge pickup really didn’t hold me back at all.

 

[steubig]

Interesting that you mention this.
After commenting on this thread yesterday, I started messing around with sliding harmonics in the afternoon.

I grabbed the bass that was by my practice stool this week; a stock ‘78 fretless P-bass with a (later) stock Fender pickup, strung with very old Ernie Ball Group IV flats.

Given that it’s a passive bass with flats and no bridge pickup, I expected a difficult time sliding harmonics but, to my surprise, I didn’t find it much more difficult than it is with my active, two-pickup basses strung with rounds. I had no trouble sliding the 4th “fret” harmonic up and back down.

Maybe it’s just that the technique is already very familiar to me but the lack of a bridge pickup really didn’t hold me back at all.

for sure. but i was mentioning the higher partials between the 4th and 2nd frets (fifth, seventh and ninth). if you can get ‘em with a P pickup, all power to you.

i can do those with flats as well.

imo, the bridge pickup “hears” the higher partials better.

 

[MarkA]

A little over a month ago (and I'm not sure why this never occured to me, prior), I discovered that you can play pretty gnarly, bowed sliding harmonics on a doublebass.

 

[Lo-E]

imo, the bridge pickup “hears” the higher partials better.

Oh, it does without question. And I prefer having it there when I’m playing that kind of stuff.

I was just surprised that it wasn’t as necessary as I thought it was.