• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Jaco's Hands

#21
Ya know there is one thing that always blew my mind, and seeing garey post here made me want to kick myself for not asking vic at camp, but.

in the Live at bass day '98 DVD vic mentions how with 'portrait of tracy' he was unable to hit that one stretch in the beginning. Granted this was when he was a kid, during that interview it also shows him trying to do it, and he hits what could only be described as a harmonic thud, you can kind of hear the note, but it's not very clear at all. Then he goes on to talk about how he later figured out how to hit that note with a thumb-false harmonic.

now that's all well and good, but what blows my mind, assuming that's true, that vic actually does have some problems stretching that far consistently. Then how is he able to do that break down in "U can't hold no groove?" ya know the part where he plays the G-D-F bass line while strum/slapping notes above it to do a melody line.

some of the stretches in that part are very challenging for me, yet vic(who has smaller hand-span than I do) has no problem and does it perfectly cleanly every time.

I just don't get it.
 
#22
WR,

Stretching from the 2nd fret to the 6th for the harmonic in Portrait of Tracy is much more of a stretch than 3rd fret to 5th G-D-F line in Vic's tune....thats my thought.

As far as tapping out his lines....his fingers are thick and strong....its the coordination between left and right hand tapping that boggles my mind...

Man, it was amazing to see Victor, Steve Bailey, Mike Pope, and Oteil all on stage at the same time...with Gregg Bissonette keeping the beat! Talk about some funky grooves!

Aloha, Garey
 
#23
Garey said:
WR,

Stretching from the 2nd fret to the 6th for the harmonic in Portrait of Tracy is much more of a stretch than 3rd fret to 5th G-D-F line in Vic's tune....thats my thought.

As far as tapping out his lines....his fingers are thick and strong....its the coordination between left and right hand tapping that boggles my mind...
Click to expand...

Ah but vic stretchs to the 7th with his pinky while hitting the G-D-F line, it's about an equal stretch, but it's across strings AND he hits those three notes perfectly clear every time.

but yeah, it's probably just do to his immense fingers, he may have smallish hands, but wow are they built tough.

remember vic when he was doing that speed punching? that was insane.
 
#24
I'll frequently write a guitar part that has a not-unreasonable-to-me stretch in it. And then I get a bunch of dirty looks from my guitar player when I say then you do "this."

A wedding song I wrote for a friend has a descending ostinato that starts as root-fifth-octave in D, then keep the same A&D, but have the first note descend with each chord change.

Like this: DAD DAD DAD C#AD C#AD C#AD CAD CAD CAD BAD CAD C#D DD.

The catch is that those notes are at frets 577 577 577 477 477 477 377 377 377 277 377 47 57.

I hold the seventh fret notes with my pinky and ring fingers and do the descending line by moving my first finger. This is on my 12-string, not my bass. Let's be serious.

I fail to see the problem but that stretch from second to seventh fret really irks him. He also hates when I include chords with barres in the pinky position.

Guitar players can be such wimps. :p
 
#29
I am 6foot 3, and I wish the fingers on the plucking hand were a bit smaller. whats annoying for me is my middle finger is much longer than my index finger. And I am in aggreeance (if thats a word) with the spacings for slapping with my 6 is more difficult. Thats why I play 16th finger groove moreso instead of slap. My spacing is 25 1/2 cm. just mesured it then.
 
#30
I'm 6'1 and have pretty long, thin fingers and haven't had any problems with playing, in fact my hands have helped me a lot in longer stretches especially in the higher portions of the neck. However I do have problems with basses with narrower string spacing, but ever since I got my Stingray I haven't had a problem. Having a bass suited to the size of my hands is quite a benefit.
 
#33
Eargasm said:
Ok people I realize that this is a forum, but to get back to what this is about, does anyone know any rough measurements of Jaco's hands? :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

~10 inches thumb to pinky

This is based on my hand measurements,10 inches, and the fact that I've never seen or heard jaco do a stretch that I can't do, even though he looks a little more comfortable doing some that I've seen, his finger placement isn't necessarily any different than mine.
 
#35
Eargasm said:
Psh, that's nothing. I can reach from the open E string to my 24th fret, no problem. Wusses. :D

:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

ya know, I already had responded to your inquiry on the first page. :hmm:

Doesn't your comment here feel a little out of place so far after the question was asked(and answered)? it does to me at least.
 
#37
Well all I can say is you made an educated guess as to how big they were. I did say rough but I was looking for something more... how do I say this... 'uneducatedguess-ish', like if someone actually knew how big they were. Seems there are a lot of Jaco fans around here, I figured someone might have a solid answer. :p As far as my above comment, I was referring to the discussion many posts ago about reaching from the 2nd to the 7th fret or something. I probably should have quoted someone, but I guess I forgot.
 
#38
yeah, well, it's an educated guess, but without actually knowing, it's about as good as you're going to get, especially since, as I mentioned, His hands were not substantially bigger than mine stretch wise, that's abundantly clear everywhere I see.

another thing to take into account in terms of his stretching is that he did have double-jointed thumbs, and while this isn't a tremendous boon, it does enable his hand to position itself in such a way so as to accommodate some stretches a little easier.
 
#39
What is a double-jointed thumb? Which joint are you referring to when you refer to it being double jointed? The nuckle or the joint that connects to the hand? When I bend my thumb at the nuckle, it can bend 90 degrees in either direction, a condition some people refer to as 'hitchhiker's thumb'. Is that was a double-jointed thumb is?
 
#40
Eargasm said:
What is a double-jointed thumb? Which joint are you referring to when you refer to it being double jointed? The nuckle or the joint that connects to the hand? When I bend my thumb at the nuckle, it can bend 90 degrees in either direction, a condition some people refer to as 'hitchhiker's thumb'. Is that was a double-jointed thumb is?
Click to expand...

it's interesting because it's not actually double jointed, it's just more movable over the same joint, but people generally refer to it as double jointed.

what you describe, jaco also could do, I've noticed the base of my thumb has a sort of double joint type peculiarity where I can snap my thumb into a kind of uncomfortable looking position, but it doesn't do anything for my bass playing. :hmm:
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back