Sorry for the repeated cover of a song recently done, but heard @Barney do it not too long ago and my wife really loves the song, so committed myself to learning it for her, and posting for you all as well.
So this song had a few interesting challenges to learn. I first watched Barney’s performance, then checked some tabs on both Songsterr and Ultimate Guitar and YouTube. So, basically the song is in E minor pentatonic, and most tabs show it played on the low E string (notes: E G and A), but numerous covers on youtube are playing it an octave higher - and Harry’s cover on YouTube even plays a Gb instead of a G, but whatever).
Another interesting challenge for me was keeping the bass groove slow while everything else is cooking along, since I mostly play metal originals with a guitarist (oh yeah, we have a second guitarist and drummer now - had 2 sessions with them, we seem to be clicking nicely musically so far).
Third challenge was, when I would play it as written on the tabs, it sounded to “boomy” but, the octave sounded a bit too high to my ears - so did a little research, in live performances the bass player in one live performance was playing a short-scale bass and then that difference in tonal quality made sense. I suspect maybe the original was recorded on the higher octave with a octave pedal? I’m not sure exactly. Anyways, I wanted a fairly punchy and dirty tone for it, so this is what I came up with. I took some liberties playing the high octave for the first verse and chorus, then for second verse played as the tabs indicated on the E string, switched back to A string for the chorus, and finished 3rd part on the higher octave. Added a little fill before the second verse and finished the song with a little flourish for fun.
Fairly simple and fun song to play, I enjoyed this one (minus a couple timing mis-steps in the beginning… the minute the camera goes on, it really messes with my brain).
Equipment:
Bass: Ibanez EHB1505MS
DI: Universal Audio Volt 2
DAW: Reaper
Pedals: Darkglass Harmonic Booster → Darkglass Microtubes Infinity → Line 6 HX One → Zoom B1Four - directly in, no amp sim (the Microtubes has built-in cabinet emulation).
RipX to create stems from original song and remove bass.
So, without further adieu - The Black Keys “Lonely Boy”