Pablo Elorza: Recording Fretless Bass and Getting that Jaco Tone

The last time we featured Pablo Elorza, he gave us an in-depth look at the popular Jaco Pastorius tune “Continuum”.

Our friend Sylvain Gros-Desormeaux shares this one of Pablo demonstrating how to record a fretless bass and achieve that Jaco sound.

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For more on Pablo’s Deep Into Electric Bass Classics, visit his website.

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Share your thoughts

  1. good stuff. Multiple tracks also adds a bit of natural chorus effect which is very sweet on a fretless. Octaver has been a part of my arsenal since I first heard Pino Palladino in the 80’s…love it. Also splitting my signal with octave on one side and envelope follower on the other is a nice combo for fattening things up and funkifying it.

  2. thanks guys! one more time thanks!

  3. No habla but nice playing… and we share an idol :-)

  4. Muy bueno Pablo, sos un maestro. Me gustaría preguntarte algo, ya que veo que vos también lo usas. Cual es la función de ese agregado entre los dos mic? Saludos genio.

  5. Edwin

    Sweet! Great tips. Thanks a lot.

  6. Kyth Trantham

    That may be an effective way to ‘cheat’ Jaco’s sound, but I’m pretty sure it’s not the way he did it. His description was that he split the signal with a slight delay to get the ‘chorusing’ effect.

    • Hi Kyth! Yes, that is the way He do it live but if you listen carefully tracks like Continuum or other studio tracks from Weather Report, you will listen this kind of over dubbing.
      Cheers!