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Tap harmonics?

H

Hippos Melas

Apr 9, 2009
337
7
Milwaukee, WI
#1
So I've searched and read several ways to do tap harmonics. The most common response is that you should fret a note then tap the octave above it to get the harmonic. However, I'm interested in how to do tap harmonics like this guy does in this video:



He's obviously not fretting all those notes...his left hand hardly moves. :confused:
 
#2
Just as you can get several harmonics from an open string (octave, 5th, octave, Maj 3rd, etc), you can tap the various harmonic intervals for a fretted note. That's what the guy in the video is doing.
 
#7
Hippos Melas said:
I can't seem to get good quality tone out of my tapped harmonics. How do you do them properly?
Click to expand...
If you want harmonics to really jump out at you, it helps to run some gain and/or compression.

If you want to do the same thing at lower gain levels and without significant compression, you'll generally have better luck emphasizing the bridge pickup. Single-coils seem to help, too. A Jazz Bass with the bridge pickup "dimed" and the neck pickup rolled off is generally pretty easy to ping.

Hippos Melas said:
Boosted treble won't be an issue at all.
Click to expand...
FWIW, I've found mids to be just as important as highs. Listen to anything by Jaco, for example. He generally has his treble turned way down and his mids emphasized, yet he has no trouble with harmonics. You don't need tons of highs to get that clean, crisp ring.
 
#9
LanEvo said:
If you want harmonics to really jump out at you, it helps to run some gain and/or compression.

If you want to do the same thing at lower gain levels and without significant compression, you'll generally have better luck emphasizing the bridge pickup. Single-coils seem to help, too. A Jazz Bass with the bridge pickup "dimed" and the neck pickup rolled off is generally pretty easy to ping.

FWIW, I've found mids to be just as important as highs. Listen to anything by Jaco, for example. He generally has his treble turned way down and his mids emphasized, yet he has no trouble with harmonics. You don't need tons of highs to get that clean, crisp ring.
Click to expand...

I have a Musicman Sterling HH...I guess I'll run it in single coil mode on both pickups for starters. Or just run one pickup alone and boost the mids and treble. I was more inquiring about form though. Where do I tap: on the frets, just behind them, etc?
 
#11
Hippos Melas said:
Any tips on actually getting them to ring out though? I can't seem to get good quality tone out of my tapped harmonics. How do you do them properly?
Click to expand...

You are probably killing the harmonic by not performing the strike quickly enough.

Practice quickly tapping the string with a sufficient amount of force directly on top of the fret-wire and doing it quickly enough so that you allow the harmonic to ring out without dampening it unintentionally.

I typically do this with my pointer and middle finger coming down at the same time with my wrist moving slightly. Middle finger gets the job for a single harmonic, the pointer is added for another (if needed), the ring finger for another (if needed).

Not sure how else to explain more explicitly. You will know it is right. It won't take that long to get the the technique down. Not sure how useful it is but it's fun to play around with.
 

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