From the course: Electric Bass Lessons: Advanced

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Pinch harmonics

Pinch harmonics

- One other thing that I do that I get a lot of requests for an explanation is pinch harmonics. I got it recently from Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, who I also got Hammer on strum me. He's the first guy I ever saw do hammer. That was back in 1974. (plays bass) Sorry. (plays bass) ZZ Top song and I took it from there. Pinch harmonics basically are a guitar player's domain but we can use them in bass as well as a little bit of a nuance added effect, what have you. What I basically do is I am plucking with this finger nail. (plucks string) While I have the soft part of this thumb against there. And I pull off the soft part of the thumb right at the moment that I pluck. (plucking strings) So it's kind of all one motion. (plucking strings) And in a way I'm kind of pinching the base string in between these fingers so (plucking strings) Cool so it's a way to get a little of an extra tonality out of the bass when you're (playing bass) Just a way to get a little bit more out of your bass…

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