i know there are a couple different types of harmonics, but i don't know them all. all i know the type of harmonic where you put your finger over the fret, and pluck the string. there's also the harmonic where you do the same thing, but pluck the string in front of the fret. any advice is appreciated.
i'm not an expert on names of em, but i play em quite a bit. natural harmonics are the easiest just lightly touch the string in the correct spot with ur fretting hand and pluck the string with right hand.(assuming ur right handed) artifical harmonics is for example fret the fifth fret on the G string and lightly put ur right hand thumb just over the 17th fret on the G string and pluck behind ur thumb to sound the harmonic. but since u can easily get a natural harmonic of the same note u probably wouldn't play an artifical one on the fifth fret, try it on the 11th or 13th. just put ur thumb 12 frets higher than the fretted note. but like jaco does in portrait of tracy he does one on the A string fretting the B and stretching his pinky over the Db fret and just touching the string there and right hand plucking. just gotta experiment to find those odd ones like that. tapped harmonics is a cool simple one to do, just fret a note on for example the G string A 2nd fret and tap right on the fret at the 14th fret of the same string another fun thing with harmonics is just pluck a natural one and bend the string behind the nut to get the tremelo effect. another is pluck a harmonic and hammer on that note and slide it and bend, pretty cool.
Pinch harmonics on bass are awesome, especially with distortion. You have to use a pick and hit the string so that the skin of your thumb hits the string immediately after the pick, sounds awesome.
I can pinch the string between my finger and my palm, it sounds cool on teh 7th fret G with distortion. trapt harmonics are fun, get a normal harmonic, pinch it down to the board and slide it or bend it or do whatever you want with it, its trapped where your finger is. uber cool with distortion.
Or you can pop harmonics, by popping a note and lightly touching the string with your palm just as you pop it.