Sliding Harmonic in "Evenflow" by Pearl Jam

nah, they're just natural harmonics...and to be able to slide harmonics, of course, you would need a fretless

 

It can be done on a fretted bass, but it's pretty hard to do, and it only works in a very limited way.

 

I saw the video for that this morning, it looked like a fretless. So yaknow

 

To play sliding harmonics, there are two ways.

You hit a natural harmonic (7th fret for example) and immediately hammer down with your left hand. The harmonic should ring OK, then you slide it around as you like with your left hand.

You hit an artificial harmonic (fret at the 5th, pluck string with your middle finger with your index straight over the 17th fret), and slide as you wish with the left hand.

They sound really nice, but be tasteful.

 

Stanley always pulled it off just fine on fretted Alembic bass.

 

Do you have an example? never heard him doing that.

 

I've seen Victor Wooten do similar moves in songs like Amazing Grace, where he'll grab a natural harmonic and quickly slide it around. But the effect sounds almost nothing like the fretless harmonic slide in Evenflow.

To the OP, yes it's just a standard harmonic on a fretless. I can't remember if he was playing a 4 string or 8 string on that one. Sliding harmonics is easy on a fretless bass, once you try it you'll see how simple it is.

 

yes I sometimes do sliding harmonics on fretted bass too, But never saw Stanley Clarke doing that. What he is doing is different, he is bending natural harmonics behind the nut sometimes, not sliding harmonics.

Here is a video of me doing sliding harmonics on my fretless Wal bass two years ago:

 

I would bet what you're thinking is a "sliding" harmonic is actually just a harmonic that's being bent sharp by Stanley pushing down on the string behind the nut. He does that a lot. E.g., that opening harmonic in the solo to "School Days"
(clip should start at 3:08)

 

I’ve learned now that Stanley did this, but because I thought he was sliding it like a fretless I learned to do it that way with some success. It had me buying lots more new strings than was healthy at the time, for that bright zing that made it easier. Stu Hamm has a video where he slides harmonics in both directions on a fretted bass.