Please help me with this Reggae technique.

[DBFIU]

I am trying to play the song "2 AM" by "Slightly Stoopid". It is reggae and the bass sounds staccato, it is choppy and it makes the bass sound even bouncier and better then it really is. I love this effect and I am having a hard time doing it, I think he is playing 16th notes and I can't silence the strings fast enough.

What do I do?

Here is the song.

 

[DBFIU]

at 5:30 his hand is almost flat against the bass, his plucking hand. So strange, completely opposite to what I was taught. I practice floating thumb all the time, this is totally different. Should I learn this?

 

[lz4005]

If you're trying to understand reggae bass from an academic perspective you've already lost.
It's feel, not technique. Learn how to feel it.

 

[DBFIU]

If you're trying to understand reggae bass from an academic perspective you've already lost.
It's feel, not technique. Learn how to feel it.

Damn dude... That's deep.

Like Yoda deep...

 

[Shabz]

Pretty sure he is asking mainly about that fast staccato part
I had a little experiment and found two potentially viable ways of getting it
1) Fast left hand muting between each note. I'm pretty close to being able to use this method at that speed, it's certainly within reach with some practice.

more likely though i think is:
2) A plucking technique probably with 3 fingers where the next finger lands before it is needed (to mute the string)
If you work on this technique it shouldnt be too hard to build up to speed with it. This sounds nice and even, a lot better than using the left hand muting above

with two fingers its hard to get the mute finger in position in time(although it might be possible if you worked at it), hence number 3 coming into play.

Also note the bass on that song has a pretty extreme low-pass filter so there is no string noise at all

 

[DBFIU]

Yea I notice that too shabz thanks again for your input, you are really good at reverse engineering bass lines lol


I noticed this bass line has no high end at all, its all bass, I think thats also why it sounds cleaner like you said, there is no string/fret noise.

Here is a guy playing it, I am not sure what his right hand is doing though because its cut out of the video.