The Birdwatcher
(Got this one just in time! I cut my 1st finger on my left hand right where it contacts the string when playing. Outside of gigs I haven’t fancied playing this week, however, a commitment has been made. On with the show.)
Continuing on with the influenced by James Jamerson theme, this tune is JJ on speed/caffeine/energy drink (delete as appropriate). I don’t know a lot about American band Vulfpeck but this tune caught my ear a few years ago and I’ve just got round to looking at it. It’s played in a very precise, articulate style that I’ve done my best to emulate. I’m no Joe Dart however. This one is a challenge, there are no drums to rely on for your timing and it’s full of semiquaver pushes and odd phrasing. The middle section is a welcome break! Take your time and learn each 8 bar section individually. There are very few repeated bars so really dig into the transcription and make sure you’re getting all the intricacies. A good whack of compression will help with getting the right sound.
(When learning this tune, pan to the left and you’ll hear just the bass, with the keys on the right.)
I recorded this on my 2000 American Standard Jazz Bass, upgraded with Aguilar 60s pickups and a Badass III bridge. Both pickups at full and tone rolled off by about 60-70%. I went into my my Markbass Compressore and set the threshold very low so all notes were compressed. I set the ratio at around 1:30. Super squishy. I DI’d out from my Tech21 VTbass DI with a SVT ish sound a bump up in the mids. I added compression using the vintage FET setting in Logic so just the peaks were compressed with a fairly low ratio and bumped the EQ at around 200hz.
Thanks for reading. If you like the song, make your own video and tag me on social media, @jproudbass on twitter and instagram.
Till next week.
Jonathan Proud 