I think it's just a particular British/Euro recording technique, coupled with pick playing. Could it have been John Paul Jones on a session? Here is something similar, always been one of my favorites(with that sound), especially in the bridge at 1:45...
JPJ or perhaps Herbie Flowers? And yes, there was a brief moment in time when Jimi Hendrix opened for those guys and Engelbert. Speaking of Herbie Flowers, here he is getting busy on a Scott Walker solo track, brilliant stuff...
Back on topic, curiously, there was a European/German variation of tick-tack bass, called "knack-bass", best demonstrated by a jazz guitarist turned bassist, Ladi Geisler, on many easy listening hits in the mid-60's by German bandleader Bert Kaempfert...
(your call is important to us, please stay on the line...)
Here is a Geisler solo track in a Ventures/Shadow mode...
Kaempfert was also a producer/A&R guy for Polydor; technically, you could say that he was The Beatles' first producer as he supervised the Tony Sheridan/Beatles sessions in Hamburg.
As far as the Geisler sound is concerned, I've always wondered if John Entwistle picked up on it(along with the documented Duane Eddy influence); here on this Who deep cut, the bass is way upfront with that picked stacato sound(ironically, this was recorded at Owen Bradley's studio in Nashville)
