Why Jaco went Fretless 🐐🔥
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- Опубліковано 5 кві 2023
- In this clip, Jaco Pastorius, widely considered one of the greatest bass players of all time, explains why he decided to take a knife to his Fender and remove the frets.
To check out the full video "Jaco Pastorius - Bass Players You Should Know. Ep3" ➡️ • Jaco Pastorius - Bass ...
Florida man absolutely wrecks his electric bass and knives his way into music history
😂😂😂 That's beautiful! 😂😂😂
he didn't wreck an electric bass though. he wrecked an upright bass. did you even comprehend the video?
@@TheDinkybird92 The electric bass that he ripped the frets out of. I know it's difficult, but try to keep up.
@@TheDinkybird92 according to the video the upright wrecked itself due to humid weather
@@SecondaryHomunculus that bass wasn't *destroyed* tho. It was made into a new, working order. May need to crack open a dictionary for the word "destroyed"
Another great story that starts with “A man from Florida….”😂
And ends with “so, I got a knife…”
@@Emanresuadeen 🤣🤣🤣
Florida man removes frets from his bass guitar "because jazz."
Another great man gets murdered in Florida.
@@joepollockbass 😂
His life was so damn tragic, man. He never reached the level of success that he deserved, and he subsequently allowed his demons to take him down a bad path. A path that eventually led to him getting beat to death for starting a fight with a bouncer while he was blackout drunk. It’s such a sad example of what can happen if you let your addiction get the best of you. I’ve been in recovery for 4 years now, and I am grateful every single day to still be alive. I hope peace finds you all. ❤
Its always surprising how many great jazz musicians died from drugs, OD or otherwise.
Chet Baker, Bill Evans, etc. Miles Davis kicked heroin somehow.
@@ezrac704 It was bipolar disorder in Jaco's case.
A lot of words, here...
@@davidpeters44
Bipolar disorder, mixed with drug and alcohol addiction, yes.
Dual Diagnosis ❤️🩹
Like Eddie van Halen said "you ruin a lot of shit getting there"
Yes.
This is a good one hahaha
Still hurts how this man went out just saddens me when I see his interviews but his music makes me smile
Dude I knew he died young but had no idea he was beaten to death. That’s really tragic.
Edit: forgot to mention I looked up his biography after reading your comment
Jaco really was a textbook Florida man at his core.
Meh he’s more New York vibe really
@@AshtrayAnnie As someone from Florida who also grew up in New York, they're pretty compatible.
Miami is basically the missing burrough.
@@ChronicMetamorphosis gets even more fun when you learn that jaco also grew up right outside of Philly, which is another example of the ‘sixth borough’.
Lmao. for the longest time I for whatever reason thought he was french until I actually heard him speak.
@@zakkziegler111 maybe because Jaco was a misspelling from Alex Darqui who was French
That’s one of my favorite stories from the inside track of what helped various musicians I admire to establish their formulae. Supposedly, Bill Wyman did the same thing with one of his bass guitars, defretting it himself early in the Rolling Stones timeline. In his case, though, I think it was because he didn’t have the money for a full-blown upright.
It was cuz the frets buzzed a lot, so he decided to rip them off and replace, but he ended up liking the fretless sound
If I'm not mistaken it was because he used super light strings that kept breaking because of the frets, and after he removed them they stopped breaking.
Always impressed with people that can play fretless stringed instruments.
Upright bass blows my mind
Fretless actually isn't hard to play. People believing it must be makes it harder for them.
Practice.
man imagine how different the scene would be these days if he didnt pass so early
Imagine a 2023 reality with Miles, Zappa and Jaco alive...
@@manuelernestoacebedo Yes! Yes! I can imagine it. Jaco & Miles! then throw Zappa in the mix? That would be the hottest thing to strike the face of the Earth. Imagine if Jaco played on "Sketches of Spain" with Miles blowing that horn like he did.
Booyah baby! Bell ringer! Those two type A personalities, working together? damn bra, atrocious..
@@manuelernestoacebedo miles and Zappa would be loosing their shit over all the mumble rap and insta guitarists miming
@@justjarvis106 zappa wouldnt have a leg to stand on criticizing the mumblings of others, brother mumbled and auto-wrote himself into history. its hilarious people dont acknowledge that zappa made a shit ton of not-good music all gauzed over with ill thought out mumbles and nonsequitors. if anything zappa godfathered the process of improvisation for improv's sake, and acceptance of whatever the process yields
@@justjarvis106 you sound real bitter 🤨
Third stone from the sun... a banger
Jaco is my favorite American musician.
Thanks for this interview, man.
I have the whole thing on VHS. It was one of the last interviews he ever did.
As a drummer he's my 1 of favorites... His drum groove and teen town still gets me...Yes he played the drums on that. Plus his bass playing with weather report or joni mitchell/ Pat Methany or anyone else was just outstanding... You knew it was him after two notes.
He was great with Ian Hunter - well he was a great bass player - first I had heard him was when he was with Ian.... sure was sorry to hear he got sick and had issues....
I remember my dentist telling me about this guy, went home looked him up and was blown away.
Thought it was because the frets were like “speed bumps” for him :O
Nah, that's for less talented fretless players like me. 😂 He was just as good with frets -- it was all about the sound difference.
WE LOVE JACO FOR EVER 😢
Solid justification for doing so!
My first time hearing seeing an interview with him, but he reminds me of EVH a bit. I feel like they would’ve made a really good pair as well
Holy shit, that would have been amazing!
Can you imagine? Damn!
One of the most talented bassists of all time, dead at 36 because he got drunk and fucked with the wrong guy. Stay smart, stay safe
One of the most talented: wrong.
"The" most talented...
Dead at 36 because he got drunk: wrong.
He suffered from mental illness...
@@gerardoitaliano8046Thank You! He was bipolar and I believe had depression, my grandma is his cousin and I've heard only slight stories about him growing up as a kid because he passed away when I was 3 months old
its a bit more complicated than that, check the Documentary
I did the same thing with my late 70's Fernades Jazz Bass following Jaco's technique of removing the frets and filling the slots, it's one the best basses i have.
Jaco’s told a couple different stories about taking the frets out. I’m skeptical of this one, where humidity causes an upright bass to break into pieces.
This is late in his life… you can see he’s not altogether there.
I was scrolling to see if anybody mentioned the humidity thing. I didn't understand that part but I've never owned an upright bass. Didn't know if they were made out of paper mache glue or something 😅
@@Drivesfastlikescats acoustic instruments are particularly vulnerable to humidity and drastic changes to humidity. So it is possibly that a bass could have self destructed because the strings carry a lot of tension and if the neck buckled then it would have been in pieces. (Maybe not 100 through 😂)
@@JosePineda-jn8jk hmm, makes me consider the plight of the bass players of the afro cuban jazz movement and the humidity they mightve faced during summer haha. The neck getting pulled down by the strings I get, it was the 100 pieces like you said lol. Thanks 👋
@@JosePineda-jn8jk Maybe he forgot about it in a storage shed somewhere near the coast for a year or so, that can be hell on furniture i know lol. That case I'd believe if he said it got turned to pudding knowing FL hah
Humidity wrecks non-lacquered instruments, but Jaco is clearly exaggerating about his upright exploding into 100 bits and essentially, that is from whence the humour arose.
He said later that he’d actually purchased his Jazz bass with the frets already removed. A previous owner removed them - not Jaco. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story though 🐐 🙏🏻 ✌🏻
Why even bruv
That's not true at all. He later in his career bought a different bass that was fretless. But barely used it.
Idk what to trust anymore! 😭
@@mjblakemusic I’m talking about the famous ‘Bass of Doom’ which he played his whole career. He bought it for $90 in the early 70s. He initially claimed he had removed the frets, but later admitted that’s how it was when he bought it
@@christyherron_on ALL of his interviews, I've never Heard that. I've been a Jaco admirer for years and never heard such a story. I'm not saying that you are fabricating your story, but, you are the ONLY person that made such a statement. 👎🏿👎🏿👎🏿
I’m doing performance tonight of jacos tune “three views of a secret”. I open with a solo and then the band backs me up. I’m pretty nervous, but this video really helped build my confidence. Listening to Jaco and hearing his music makes me realize why I choose this piece to play. Thanks SBL!!
How'd it go?
@@bdlazarus it went very good! I felt very in touch with myself and I didn’t panic and play to fast. As my father would say “let them digest what they’re getting”.
Lots of compliments from friends and parents. I try!
"Necessity is the Mother of invention" said Frank Zappa maybe
Nah, Zappa said: "Out of necessity, we became The Mothers Of Invention."
@@FreeBrunoPowroznikZappa also said: “Jazz isn’t dead. It just smells funny.”
@@m.vonhollen6673 And also: “You can't write a chord ugly enough to say what you want to say sometimes, so you have to rely on a giraffe filled with whipped cream.”
Hell yeah. Just placed an order and deposit on a fretless acoustic 6 string bass. Now all that’s left is learning to play the bastard!
🤣🤣😂😂 I'm certain that you are going to well👍🏿
O cara era muito bom mesmo,o melhor do mundo
I once saw him live, and the gig started with him playing the drums, and he was GOOD. Hammersmith Odeon, Weather Report.
One of the greatest Jaco performances right here.
🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Later, in this same video he says that the fretless neck would get too torn up by the strings, so he only played his fretless on gigs.
damn that slap. wake me up
Jaco was a difficult, talented, interesting human being.
Seems to often be the way. James Brown, Stan Getz, Charlie Parker, Beethoven, every generation has difficult geniuses. Even the good guys can have trouble keeping their lives interesting, Glenn Campbell had massive drug issues while remaining mostly functional through his career, probably because being a pop singer is more boring than being the greatest session guitarist ever lol. Jaco was very likely bipolar, and it's a shame he didn't have modern meds to help.
Pennsylvania Legend
My Brother did this also. You would be suprised at how good it sounds. Ripping teeth from an instrument shouldn’t sound good but it does.
I did it with my 7-string bass because I found a used fretted that was $1000 cheaper than the fretless version.
Check out Chronos from the band Venom. He removes half the frets.
I ripped the frets from a couple of my bass guitars, it took some effort to play in tune but, once you got you, you got it. It's all about positions. From years of playing you naturally know where each note is located. Like playing a fretted bass, you don't have to look at the neck of your axe because you know the position of the notes. Same with converting to fretless bass.
What an absolute legend!
Sweet Bassline!!
As a Florida bassist, I think this is the only attitude you can have in order to make the art you’ll be the happiest with🔥🔥🔥 DIY legend, him and Brian May
The man of the hour ✊️✊️
Man.. the humidity is actually an insane factor... It killed my acoustic
Fun fact the very 1st Electric Bass from 1935 was a Fretless Bass & Jaco Pastorius was the guy who "revived" it.
Legend.
Holy smarts that's a great story
Thanks much! and Long Live Jaco
The master has spoken, a shame he didn't live beyond his youth to evolve jazz to where we can never know....RIP Jacko, your footprint is still very deep!!!🛣👀👌
The GOAT
The mad genius
🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻
Yes man🫀🎸🔥❤️🥺🫶🏿🎧🫡🤞🏿😊
GREATEST BASS PLAYER OF ALL TIME!
Not close. Les clay pool by far
ICON AF
My mentor
Genius...
He was incredible I wish I had the balls to remove the frets maybe someday
His nephew,David is super talented,world class bassist too. And he lives in fla.
Talent!
What’s that song in the video????
Why use a clip of him NOT playing his bass?
Jaco took a Fender bass, stripped the frets and filled them-covered and sanded with epoxy mulitple times by a luthier. Swapped the pickups and bridge. Boom!
didn't know Jaco played with a looper on stage !
those must have been very exepensive back then
MXR rack delay
He did a bass solo with a MXR delay pedal ("Slang") during all of the tour dates on Joni Mitchell's 1979 tour and during most of the Weather Report from 1977 to 1981.
This is from his instructional video. I believe he’s talking with Louis Johnson from Brothers Johnson. It’s worth watching though I don’t know how much it’ll help with your bass skills
Its not Louis its Jerry Jemmott but yes its from that video
@@jgmiller804 ooh my bad It’s been a while
Unfortunately Jaco was in rather rough shape at that time. At one point in the video he says "gimme a gig," but he was actually having trouble getting along in the scene and it wasn't 100% a joke.
@@chrisbardolph264 definitely. It can be sad watching it but damn it’s worth it. Are there many other videos with him like that? Maybe I’m just missing out
@@anthonydawson8080 Probably but I don't know specifically what to look for.
Best guitare bass ❤
Amazing
I wish I had known you , FL man
Love u ❤
One of my most prised positions is a fretless bass o lin made by Dan agostino (spelling) that jaco apparently owned/played, I don't have any real proof he did other than the story handed down with it but I like to think it was true
The only acceptable FloridaMan story.
Actually he got the idea from losing the audition for the Mahavishnu Orchestra to Ralphe Armstrong, who was using a fretless bass for the audition when he got the part.
I heard that too, is it true though?
@@TheTylrBllmn I do not think so. For one thing, this trip to NYC, during which Jaco jammed with McLaughlin, was after he had played with Wayne Cochrane, and the drummer in Cochrane's band recalls seeing Jaco defret a bass.
Because he was an absolute genius! 🤔🙂👍
Pass the Jaco! 🎉
"Wait, you're telling you're from Florida. I couldn't tell at all..."😄
I don't think I've ever seen an interview with Jaco.
Bro, what is that first clip from? I've been trying to find it for years and years.
I did this exact thing with a decrepit, cheap classical guitar, making it into a tiny acoustic 5 string thing with an old bass d string at the top. I didn't want to overstress the glued on bridge, so it was tuned to whatever made a good sound without being too tight haha
Sad ending for him when he was heavy on H. He would hang around campus (Berklee) hustling for cash.
Love it
I must be missing something... how is he looping in that clip?
MXR rack delay
@@citizenbxtr883 Ahh, ok. Thanks.
Ninguém Antes da nem depois...
Greatest of all time
Best, jaco pastorius... 👍
Currently a fretless player, I had no desire to defret one of my basses until I began playing for Christ, over 20 years ago. Don't forget about Boz Burrell on the Bad Company albums.
What does playing for Christ have to do with the topic 🫠
@@kane6529 What does that matter to you? 😜
@@Emanresuadeen Christ has no influence over if I play fretless or not! To each is their own
@@Emanresuadeen because it feels very oddly unrelated, but the author of the comment wrote it as though that was the reason they switched to fretless. Regardless of thoughts on Christianity, and its relationship with music, that's a weird connection to make. I'm curious too.
@@calliopeshif7581 Maybe the band's named Christ?
Humidity forced him to do it though
Is this common for upright basses in Florida?
That's cool less Claypool Specialize in playing the fretless base
There is bass before and after Jaco
I tend to think Jaco might've just gotten wasted and accidentally destroyed his upright, whether or not he remembered doing it. Humidity could split a seam, sure. But tearing the instrument apart? I mean, it all worked out in the end.
Oakland Park represent!
Jaco was the greatest Florida man to ever live
Tha ALL TIME BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!🤎🤎🤎🤎🤎
🙏❤🌹 Jaco 🌹❤🙏
I popped all the frets off my big acoustic bass because I got sick of the ratty buzzing sound.
A knife is probably the worst tool for fret removal.
Nice
When did Brenden Fraser get this good???
Angry sweaty Florida man takes a knife to his...Fender bass? 😂
Link to the first vid?
I live in West Texas. Our problem is it’s TOO DRY. I’ve had to have the frets filed down on my guitar because the neck shrunk a little. So if you have an upright bass, what’s the proper way to store it in Florida?
the most important first step is moving out of Florida
Hi. Whats the pedal that Jaco was using ? Thanks
It's a looper
MXR rack delay
I heard he used to eat fried chicken before gigs
So his hands would move faster from the grease
Which makes sense
Round wound strings are sorta “grippy”
fretless guitar is kinda cool too
Especially when played by Guthrie Govan 🔥🔥🔥
Yeah, oh tho it does sound good while played by others than Guth, Guth does a good job on a fretless guitar thats facts!@@devinebass
What song is that in the beginning
That's Jaco's solo spot from Weather Report - Live In Offenbach!
The mwah effects
Back in the good ol days when you could pay for stuff with bread. #thanksobama
He was great in Dazed and Confused.
Explanation: Florida man
❤❤❤❤❤💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼