PETER GABRIEL / Tony Levin - Sledgehammer / ISOLATED BASS

[Bart Funk Bass]

This is something different...

 

 

 

[Piers_Williamson]

23 minutes ago, Bart Funk Bass said:

This is something different...

 

 

 

great choice.  Wasn't that his fretless Sabre with an octaver?

[Bunion]

Plus a plectrum and lots of compression 

[Maude]

I thought this was his famed Funk Fingers, or whatever he called them. 

[drTStingray]

It pre-dates the ‘funk fingers’. I think it was on a Cutlass 11 (Sabre with a Modulus graphite neck). Whatever, it sounds excellent - and as on one or two other occasions with isolated bass parts, has shown I’m playing slightly more notes than TL did in the linking sections in the cover version we do. I use my Classic Sabre (mahogany body) with an octave pedal for the track - it sounds very authentic!! 
 

Thanks for posting this @Bart Funk Bass - it is a great example to demonstrate P basses with flats were pretty much anathema in the 80s and 90s!! 

Edited September 19, 2021 by drTStingray

[SICbass]

11 hours ago, Maude said:

I thought this was his famed Funk Fingers, or whatever he called them. 

They featured on the track Big Time (also from the So album). On the album version, Tony Levin played the left hand and Jerry Marotta drummed the right. Needing a viable way to simulate this live, the funk fingers were invented.

I seem to recall him even having a three string bass built for this purpose, when playing the song live, allowing more space between the strings.

Edited September 19, 2021 by SICbass

[Bart Funk Bass]

Music Man Cutlass Fretless with 2 humbucker pickups

[SteveK]

Great to hear all the imperfections: String squeaks and rattles etc.

I wonder how many of today's young producers would let it go.

[Lozz196]

Agree, as has been said it seems it’s the imperfections that make these parts sit so well in the tracks. 

[Bart Funk Bass]

 

[BreadBin]

Simpler than you think, looser than you think. 

Such a great part, sounds like he is using rounds too.

[SteveK]

1 hour ago, Lozz196 said:

Agree, as has been said it seems it’s the imperfections that make these parts sit so well in the tracks. 

Yep! At the risk of over analysing the part - It's interesting to note that all those string squeaks add to the rhythm of the bass track, some of them aren't necessary (as in, consecutive notes that aren't any distance apart), but they clearly help Tony Levin get into the groove of the track and give a great performance. Afterall, that IS the main objective of a bass player, or any musician🤘.

[White Cloud]

One of my all time favourites, thanks for sharing!