Slide on bass

[JonathanPDX]

Victor Wooten played slide on his bass on the song Miss You. He brought a slide on that tour and would add a overdrive to make it pop, usually on a tenor bass (ADGC) with regular light rounds on it.

It took some digging but I found a live clip on YouTube:

 

[Passinwind]

@Passinwind What sort of things do you do with the way the bass is set up to make it more slide friendly?

A less obvious one was on my old Travis Bean fretless, for right hand slide "bowing", where I raised the A and D strings a bit to mimic an URB's curved fingerboard.

 

[Les Fret]

A less obvious one was on my old Travis Bean fretless, for right hand slide "bowing", where I raised the A and D strings a bit to mimic an URB's curved fingerboard.

sounds interesting. How do you bow with a slide right handed? Any examples?

 

[Fynn]

I once played some slide licks using my Apple Pencil on my Godin archtop.

It worked surprisingly well!

People argue about glass vs metal vs ceramic. You're out here doing it with plastic!

 

[Passinwind]

sounds interesting. How do you bow with a slide right handed? Any examples?

No video, but this very old clip was done that way:




Among other fun things, using the slide in your right hand lets you create sliding forced harmonics in any key you choose, by stopping string lengths like a capo with your left hand.

 

[vvvmmm]

#3 is 3 string (DAXD, this time bass) Cort headless into a The Brick to a 160XT, paralleled witha Meek VC3Q:

https://vlayman.bandcamp.com/album/beanie-a-3p

 

[Les Fret]

Among other fun things, using the slide in your right hand lets you create sliding forced harmonics in any key you choose, by stopping string lengths like a capo with your left hand.

Thanks. I use slide a lot. But I still don't fully understand what you mean. I don't really hear it in the recording

 

[Passinwind]

Thanks. I use slide a lot. But I still don't fully understand what you mean. I don't really hear it in the recording

All the "lead" part is slide bass, but the distortion may make hearing the harmonic content pretty hard, I guess.

 

[SteveCS]

...
I feel like I have to apply way more pressure on bass with a slide, compared to guitar. Is that just a thing, or am I doing something wrong?
...

Just as with slide guitar, I feel like a higher action, possibly to the point of "unplayable by normal means", might be of benefit?

 

[Fynn]

Just as with slide guitar, I feel like a higher action, possibly to the point of "unplayable by normal means", might be of benefit?

That could very well be. I guess if that's what is needed, then I would have to make a dedicated slide bass,

 

[Passinwind]

That could very well be. I guess if that's what is needed, then I would have to make a dedicated slide bass,

I've never found that necessary at all, although I don't tend to set up my fretless basses with super low action for so called normal playing in any case.

 

[vvvmmm]

There's a thing called a "nut riser" made to lift the strings on a guitar for slide - I use one on one of my for-slide basses and it works well.

 

[ABrink]

I have very occasionally used a slide on bass, I find it works best with a bit of distortion. In this video I use a metal slide and roundwound strings.

 

[edwinhurwitz]

I got the idea from an ancient Grateful Dead/Warlocks reel to reel bootleg recording, Phil Lesh was using a wine bottle back then IIRC. A friend made me the brass one back around '77 or so, I think. Took me a very long time to get things past gimmick stage, I remember one sound man in a very legit big Seattle club back in the mid-80s yelling at me: "is this actually what we're gonna be hearing tonight?" and a bandmate telling him to chill, because yeah. He ended up being highly complimentary of the whole band after our set too...go figure.

I'd love to hear that bootleg!