Good one, @Lanny 
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āSugar Pie Honey Bunchā (I Canāt Help Myself) was originally recorded by the Four Tops in 1965 for the Motown label. The bass line it true James Jamerson and brings out front the melodic bass style that he was so well known for.
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Doesnāt get much better than that, @Lanny 
Youāre really cranking 'em out, my friend! 
All best, Joe
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very nicely played !!! the bass line is pretty cool but not easy at all, you played it really well.
about constructive criticism here is what comes to my mind :
- Big Red does the job, itās a pretty nice bass ! but it does not sound really āvintageā, what I want to say is that it sounds pretty smooth and clean. it sounds good and the tone works well with the song and the mix, no problem at all. but if you want to push the Jamerson thing, I think you could go deeper in the dark side of the bass. just an idea if you want to experiment with Motown sounds the foam trick is interesting too, itās pretty easy to try and I find it gives a nice vintage behavior to a more modern bass
- I read that Jamerson played in a very āuprightā style, plucking with only the index. thatās some kind of primitive modern bass playing, somewhere between very classic upright and all the current stuff we do now. But playing with only the index does not sound the same than alternating, and here again there is some Motown signature. maybe worth a try ?
- I also read that Jamerson, in his upright-style playing, was using open strings as much as possible. I think about it seeing you have several 5th frets in your fingering, I bet Jamerson would have played those notes with open strings instead. again it wonāt change the face of the world but thatās a part of those small things that makes a bass player sound different than the others, so, here again maybe worth a try ?
'hope it helps !
again, nice cover, Iām impressed by your playing !
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Thanks Joe!! Sure felt good to strap on Big Red, even though it weighs much more than my Ibanez!! Really a fun and upbeat song to play!
Keep on Thumpinā!!
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Thanks @terb! So so much appreciate the input!! It was truly a FUN song to play a cover to!! Great idea on the foamā¦ This is something that Iāve tried to experiment with in the past by inserting foam āpeanutsā (even used an old sock) under the strings just behind the nut. Worked pretty good for some of the old country (Johnny Cash) double bass stuff but I didnāt think of using it with my Ibanez with round woundsā¦ Itās a great idea!! Iām gonna have to try that with my next Jamerson Motown song to see what tones and sounds I can get - I would prefer using my Ibanez with the round wounds anyway, but just couldnāt get away from the damn āscratchā I get when I was moving all around the fretboard (certainly much easier and less noticeable on my Telecaster)ā¦
Yea, I read that too and I tried my best to keep with that style, but after numerous (and I mean numerous) practice takes, the pad on my index finger felt as if it were ran up and down a gahdamn gourmet box style cheese grater!! I guess thatās just one of those things that made Jamerson the KINGā¦ His true style (and obvious leather finger pads) are something that is very difficult to emulate. Maybe in time??..
Iām a little questionable on this one for where Iām at right now with my playing styleā¦ Open notes (at times) for me are very hard to control when it comes to proper muting. Some songs I will play both open and fretted depending on when I pluck the note and what note follows itā¦ What I mean is that if I cannot get a good clean sound out of an open note that is followed by a fretted note that is close toā¦ sayā¦ a fifth fret note, Iāll use the fifth fret note in order to control the sustain before moving to my next note I play. This became totally evident to me when I was playing the cover to āWe Gotta Get Outta This Placeā where I found that using both a fifth fret āDā note and an open āGā worked best for me when it came to note control. Again, Jamerson was the KING and could do way more with his style than I could ever dream of in my lifetimeā¦
Again, REALLY appreciate the feedback! This is the stuff that helps us all get better!!
Keep On Thumpinā!
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yeah I understand the thing with the muting and open strings. I like using open strings but I agree, sometimes itās not very manageable and a goodāol 5th fret fingering works better. well all those stuff are just ideas in the motown bass style, obviously everyone has to find what works for him and the music he plays, thereās no rule really.
about the foam, I used a sock too to mute strings in the past, but here I was talking about putting a foam block under the strings near the bridge (and not the nut) to lower the sustain. whatās interesting is that it gives a more percussive attack, yet very dark and deep. I used this trick on my cover of Axe by the Steel Woods (the dark country song where I played outdoor with a straw hat). Also whatās interresting is that old basses often had factory-mounted foam pads, the Precision and Jazz Bass had these, and the Ricken 4001 had equivalent muting things. it was not a tweak or a hack at the time, it was more a standard thing on early electric basses ! and so itās a part of this vintage era bass sound. whatās cool is that it costs nothing and it is easy to remove in seconds. the foam pad I use is a part of an old chair seat : $0 tonal option
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Cool @terb!! Iāve gotta try this trick!! And I do vividly remember the straw hat outdoor cover that you did last year!! Iāll have to try one outside this spring when the weather gets a little more stable (and warmer)ā¦
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haha yes, the Outdoor-cover is again one more sub-category here 
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You could also probably get the 304 to sound more vintage by using one of the presets that boosts mids and roll the treble off a bit. āFingerā or āSoloā and turn the treble down a little more?
Sounded great to me though 
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Great suggestion @howardā¦ Iāll have to give that one a tryā¦ I do tend to play all of my instruments āflatā and work a little more at perfecting my finger style and playing technique in order to accentuate the sounds and tones that I look forā¦ (from my acoustic/classical guitar playing past I guess)ā¦ Iām thinking that the half rounds on the 304 may have proven to be a little to āsmoothā, and if I can work at getting the slight string āscratchā that I get with the Ibanez 500 with round-wounds under control (more practice, much more practice), I āmightā be able to better replicate that Jamerson sound that Iām after???.. Who knows, but this is how we all learnā¦
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this is how we learn but anyway the 304 did the job, thatās fine, nothing to regret !
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Hell @terb, Iām an old retired dude!
I gave up āregretsā years ago!!
Keep On Thumpinā!!
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Very well played, @Lanny! Thatās not an easy bass line to pull off (consistently), but as far as I can tell, you did a flawless job here.
One thing I know I would struggle with (apart from consistency over the entire 3 minutes) is a lot of extra string noise (scraping etc) given the fast changes and the fast movements up and down the neckā¦ I canāt hear any of that in your playing! Now, it could be the half rounds (which I have no experience with), but I would say itās more likely that you have good technique 
One of my areas for improvement, for sure!!
Other than that: I can see you and @terb had some interesting discussion about tone and open strings - perhaps this could encourage some others here to post āalternateā versions of this song/bass line, featuring other tone options and other fingerings!?!
And, finally: please give us other shmucks with a day job a chance to keep up with you - otherwise, we might have to rename the thread to āLannyās coversā
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Thanks @joergkutter! The bass line wasnāt hard to learn, but the quick changes were challenging. I doing several recordings and listening specifically to my bass line without the song playing, it was obvious that the half-rounds were most definitely the way to go.
Your suggestion to post or try other versions is a good one! Iāll go ahead and post the sheet music that I played to in case others may want to try and tackle the song using a different style. Personally, I tend to shy away from any online tabs and when ever possible always purchase the sheet music to learn any song by (a carry over from my guitar days)ā¦
As for renaming the threadā¦ 
This will always be @terbās baby - besides, if I had to reply to all the posts on this thread like he does, Iād never have the time to learn a new song!
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Thanks Eric!! Kinda makes playing āBillie Jeanā a bit if a āCake Walkāā¦
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Hereās the sheet music to that I used to play this song. As @joergkutter mentioned, maybe someone else may find āalternateā versions??
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If you were me, and you wanted to try your hand at some covers but didnāt have a lot of time to go down a learning rabbit-hole because baby, and you had at your fingertips Audacity, GarageBand and Ableton (Live Lite), which would you choose?
Also, any tips for organizing a count-in when youāre playing over an original song?
Thanks!
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