Electric Bass - Sting

Difficulty - Beginner/Intermediate

This weeks transcription was one of the first Police tunes (along with Walking On The Moon and Message In A Bottle) that Iearned and while it’s not that difficult technically, getting ones head around the groove placement certainly can be…it took me a long time before I started to feel where the groove is placed naturally!

Sting needs no introduction but this line has all his hallmarks as a bass writer; interesting rhythmic placement, superb control of note lengths and a wonderful sound. I reached for my P bass for this playthrough and it’s funny…you don’t play an instrument/piece of gear for a while and then you pick it up again and remember why you thought it was so great…nothing sounds quite like a good P bass :)

Also in the signal chain was my Boss CEB-3 chorus pedal with the depth set slightly lower than I usually go for.

I always enjoy playing Sting’s lines, hopefully you all enjoy this one as much as I do!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Spirits In The Material World WM

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Electric Bass - Tom Fowler

Difficulty - Intermediate

Hey everyone,

This week’s transcription comes from the extremely extensive discography of Frank Zappa, and while it might not be the most well known or the most difficult Zappa track, it’s one of my personal favourites!

Zappa needs little introduction from me, his work really speaks for itself and a number of significant musicians went on from his band to form their own groups (Steve Vai immediately comes to mind).

The key part of I’m the slime is the unison groove right up top and towards the end, which bookends the two verses. I’ve looked at playing this a couple of different ways but ultimately went with open strings.

As i’m often doing these days, I reached for the Yamaha BB, coupled with the MXR M80 preamp!

Have fun!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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I'm The Slime WM

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Electric Bass - Julio Ćesar Sanchez

Difficulty - Intermediate

Hey everyone,

This weeks transcription might be coming out of left field for the vast majority of you but stay with me, it’s a fun one! I was introduced to Ska-P by a friend at university and this particular track has stuck with me ever since! As you might have guessed they’re a Spanish Ska band, complete with a full horn section.

Planeta Eskoria is the title track of their album of the same name but this version comes from the Incontrolable live record and the whole band absolutely kills it throughout. The bass line particular has lots of fun moments throughout (if you have an envelope filter, you’ll be wanting to plug it in!) and there are various little things i hadn’t noticed before I sat down to transcribe it properly.

I wanted something quite articulate for this playthrough so I chose my Fodera, both pickups on in dual coil mode! I also added in my MXR M80 with the overdrive switched on though with less saturation than I usually blend in.

Hope you all have fun with this one!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Planeta Eskoria WM

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Electric Bass - Fred Brown

Difficulty - Beginner/Intermediate

Hey all,

This weeks transcription features an artist I was first introduced to by the great Jonathan Maron. Gwen McCrae isn’t perhaps as well known as some of the other great American singers but she certainly deserves to be and for us bass players, her music is a real pleasure to both transcribe and play!

Funky Sensation isn’t the trickiest of her tunes to play but the groove itself is a real gem! It’s one of those songs where at first glance it’s very repetitive, but when you dig into it and pay attention (particularly towards the end) there are lots of little variations in there!

The original sounds like it was recorded on a P bass with flats so I chose my Yamaha BB (especially as the TI flats have now settled really nicely!).

Hopefully you enjoy digging into this as much as I did!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Funky Sensation WM

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Electric Bass - Norman Watt-Roy

Difficulty - Advanced

Hey everyone,

This weeks transcription is one i’ve been planning for a little while now, an absolute classic within the bass repertoire and a tricky line to nail down. Norman Watt-Roy’s line on Rhythm Stick is one of those seminal tunes that you get a real sense of satisfaction from working through so have some fun digging into this!

As with tunes like Hysteria, a lot of this is about getting the plucking and fretting fingers organised, especially with the little shifts around the fingerboard between the verses and the choruses. The TAB is my own suggestion for this but other solutions are possible!

The tighter spacing on my Yamaha BB5000 definitely helped with this tune, and the only other thing in the chain was my MXR M80.

Enjoy!!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Rhythm Stick WM

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Electric Bass - Nigel Harrison

Difficulty - Beginner

Hey everyone,

This weeks transcription features another band I was introduced to by my parents (my mum rather than my dad this time!), Blondie and this track is from their classic album Parallel Lines. Nigel Harrison laid down several notable lines on this record but Heart Of Glass has always been the one that stood out for me.

Part of the reason is the disco-esque octaves you hear in the choruses, another would be the shifts to 7/4 (prog nut here!) as well as the overall feel of the line! Lots of fun to be had digging into this song!

Signal chain was P bass - Cali76 compressor - interface, nothing fancy!

Enjoy!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Heart Of Glass WM

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Electric Bass - Mattias Larsson

Difficulty - Beginner

This weeks transcription is a tune i’ve not looked at in a minute but it randomly came over the radio while I was driving to a gig recently and that reminded me how much fun this line is to play!

At face value, it’s basically the same groove idea in two different octaves! The challenge is nailing down the line and executing it over and over again without making mistakes ;) We used to play an extended version of this with solos and we had plenty of room to stretch out but the basic studio version is a great example of being able to execute an anchoring idea over and over again with consistency.

I’ve been really enjoying using my Yamaha to record recently and I grabbed it for the lovely, wide low end its giving me now that i’ve got a set of TI flatwounds on it! Full signal chain was Yamaha - Cali76 compressor - MXR M80 - Interface.

Have fun!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Cake By The Ocean WM

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Electric Bass - Noel Redding

Difficulty - Beginner/Intermediate

Hey everyone,

This week’s transcription goes back to one of the first cover band’s I ever played in, as well as a movie introduced to me by my dad (Wayne’s World 1 for those of you with longer memories!), Jimi Hendrix’s Fire.

Hendrix obviously needs no introduction but it was only much later when I was digging into Hendrix’ background for a university assignment that I learned that the other members of The Jimi Hendrix Experience were British rather than American, including his bass player Noel Redding!

A lot of the bass lines for Hendrix’ work are firmly in the supportive role (to let Hendrix be…well…Hendrix!), but there are some little details here and there that change…sometimes there is a slide, sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes the idea is a quarter note, others it’s a set of 8ths! The basic ideas and form aren’t too hard to get down and for those more advanced, you can aim to nail down the entire tune.

I had to go with the P bass for this track, and the only other thing in the chain before the interface was my Cali76 compressor!

Enjoy!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Fire WM

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Electric Bass - Deon Estus

Difficulty - Beginner/Intermediate

NOTE: To play along with the record and not have your tuning jar your ears, set your tuner to 445hz!

Hey all,

This one falls under the heading of ‘learned but never learned properly’. I was watching a video about the late great Deon Estus (who not only played on this record but also played many of Wham!’s great bass lines) and decided to go and do a proper transcription!

I’m quite glad I did because (as with a lot of the music I transcribe here) there are lots of fun little details in there to chew over! The little scale runs Deon puts in in the pre-choruses, the slides and subtle bends and the supreme control of note length! In fact, i’d say that getting the note lengths right is somewhat key to nailing the overall tune, more so that the individual pieces of vocab!

I’ve been really enjoying the way my Yamaha records with the new TI flatwounds so I grabbed that for this recording too! Also in the chain was my Cali76 compressor and the MXR M80, straight into the interface/garageband where I added a little reverb!

It’s a fun and accessible tune to play, I hope you enjoy digging into it!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Faith WM

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Electric Bass - Dave Hope

Difficulty - Intermediate/Advanced

Hey everyone,

This transcription comes after something of a recent prog rock deep dive I took and one of the bands I went back to (alongside Genesis and King Crimson) was Kansas. I feel they sometimes get a little overlooked in the Prog discussion but the Song For America record is (to me) full on progressive music! I wanted to transcribe something for you all that WASNT Carry On Wayward Son, and I settled on Lonely Street.

This track serves as a great introduction to progressive music, featuring a time signature of 11/8 and some little fiddly lines in the choruses (though nothing too outrageous). If you’ve never played prog rock before, this would be an excellent starting point!

I’m no great pick player (though I’m sure Dave Hope is using a pick on the record) so i’m using fingers but something to really pay attention to is the switch between a palm muted sound and an open sound.

Chose the P bass for this going through my MXR M80, drive engaged to add a little grit to the sound!

Have fun!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Lonely Street WM

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Electric Bass - Jerry Knight

Difficulty - Intermediate

Hey everyone,

Hope you’re all well! This week’s transcription is one i’ve enjoyed playing in various bands for some time but have never sat down to properly transcribe in full. Bill Withers’ music is full of great bass lines but if we’re talking essential bass repertoire, this tune is it.

As with a lot of his tunes, the devil is in the detail. Jerry Knight is on sparkling form on this recording and things like note lengths, note placement, the variations between the bridges…lot’s of little things to look out for but ones that really make the line!

Having just gotten my Yamaha fitted with flatwounds (and back from having a new volume pot fitted), I decided to put it straight to work! The only other thing in the signal chain was my MXR M80 to add a little low end to the sound, then straight into the interface.

Enjoy!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Lovely Day - WM

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Electric Bass - Flea

Difficulty - Intermediate

Hey all!

This week’s transcription goes right back to when I first started playing bass in 2004! A lot of players of my generation were introduced to the Chilis via Californication or By The Way, my own introduction to them (and to Flea) was through Mothers Milk and The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, which leads me to this tune - Funky Crime!

While not as frenetic as songs like Get Up And Jump or Skinny Sweaty Man, Funky Crime has all the hallmarks of Flea’s earlier work with the Chili’s, moving between 16th fingerstyle lines and a section of percussive slap.

I’m not sure whether Flea was using his Stingray or his Spector NS-2J for this cut, but for my own playthrough I selected my Fodera Monarch, pickups in dual coil setting, tone control wide open and treble boosted, going through my Cali76 compressor into my interface!

Have fun!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Funky Crime WM

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Electric Bass - Guy Pratt

Difficulty - Intermediate

Hey everyone,

This week’s transcription is a tune that has seen something of a renaissance in the last couple of years (both on radio and on the function/corporate scene) and one i’ve been called on to play multiple times, Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Murder On The Dancefloor featuring Guy Pratt (of Pink Floyd/Madonna/Tom Jones fame) on bass.

The song itself is relatively straight ahead pop but the bass line really shines, something that quite surprised me when I first played it! There are lots of little nuggets in there, little slides up to notes, ghost notes, switching between short (staccato) and long (legato) articulation…the devil is most definitely in the details here! Guy also adds subtle variation to the line here and there, double plucks on certain octaves for example!

I chose my Fodera for the playthrough mainly because I was hearing something bright and punchy (possibly a J bass) on the record, so it’s set in single coil mode, a little bass boost and the tone control 50% open. The only other thing in the signal chain was my Cali76 compressor, after which it went through the interface into the computer.

Enjoy!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Murder On The Dancefloor WM

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Electric Bass - Brian Weaver

Difficulty - Intermediate

Hey everyone,

Hope this finds you all well. For this weeks transcription i’ve revisited a band (and an album!) that were a real staple of my late teenage years. Paramore. I’ve not been as into some of their more recent music but Riot! is an album that has stayed with me down the years, both for the attitude and songwriting and (more recently) some of the bass work!

While Jeremy Davis was Paramore’s bass player in the early 2000s through to 2015, I’ve read (on pretty good authority) that it was in fact session player Brian Weaver that played bass on the record, and there is some excellent bass work, from That’s What You Get to the classic Misery Business…the whole record has excellent rock bass playing on it. Which brings me to this tune. Fences.

While it isn’t my favourite track on the record (that goes to That’s What You Get, which I might also transcribe at a later date), Fences definitely has the most ‘forward’ bass line. It’s mostly a rapid quarter/eighth note walking line but keep an eye out for some of the triplet figures. I’ve transcribed this for 5 string but it’s possible it was recorded on a 4 in drop D…I’m not sure, some of the figures are a little tricky to fret in standard tuning but they would shift two frets up in drop D…answers on a postcard! It’s also RAPID at 200bpm, so take your time with it.

Signal chain for this was my Yamaha BB5000 (front pickup, treble rolled on) into my Cali76 compressor and then the MXR M80 to add a little grit.

Enjoy!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Fences Full Transcription WM

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Electric Bass - Bernard Edwards

Difficulty - Intermediate

Hey all!

For this week’s transcription i’ve gone back to one of my all time favourite players, Bernard Edwards, who not only laid down incredible bass lines with Chic but also with Sister Sledge, Diana Ross and Riptide among others. His work really does speak for itself and I never get tired of listening to him play.

This track is one of his best known, Le Freak from the album C’est Chic and there are all kinds of little gems within the line that I love coming back to! The verse groove is something like my musical comfort food, and that 8th note bass break is something I LOVE to play live. Things to look for? Articulation, note length and time feel, three things that define what makes Bernard sound the way he does. His articulation in particular is extremely punchy (helped by his Musicman Stingray) and his feel is very much ‘up on the toes’ rather than really laid back.

As I don’t own a Stingray, my Fodera in dual coil mode was the closest I can get! Full signal chain was Fodera (dual coil mode, both pickups, passive tone rolled on) - Cali76 compressor - Audient interface - Garageband.

Enjoy!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Le Freak - Full Transcription

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Electric Bass - Chuck Rainey

Difficulty - Advanced

This weeks transcription is taken from one of the classic albums of the 70s, Steely Dan’s Aja which features (among a genuinely incredible line up of musicians) the great Chuck Rainey on bass. This particular tune is the one I always end up listening to from Aja, and it was a real pleasure to sit down and transcribe it fully.

Practicing a slap line on a P bass with dead roundwounds was a real challenge (i’m used to slapping on bright rounds with tight string spacing) and something to pay attention to when working on this tune is switching between plucking technique and slap. Something to note is the variations within the main groove, and when ghost notes are introduced, I’m almost always raking back across the strings (you can check the TAB to see which string i’m playing the ghost notes on).

It’s an intricate line, but a rewarding one and a great way to get inside the playing of one of the all-time session greats!

Enjoy!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Peg - Full Transcription

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Electric Bass - Don Ciccone

Difficulty - Intermediate

Hey everyone,

This week’s transcription takes me back to my first cruise contract on the long-gone Carnival Imagination and our Soul/Motown set. I was introduced to a lot of great music by the MD for this set, and this track is one where the groove has stuck with me ever since!

Written by The Four Seasons (and indeed their best-selling single), it features Don Ciccone on bass (and vocal!) duties, which not only includes a rock solid groove but a fun little 16th line at the tail end of the instrumental section. Sitting back a little on the beat is important to get the main groove (and in particular the ghost notes) to sit just right. Take note of the little differences in the verses and the instrumental sections, just enough to differentiate and add variety to the line!

This one was recorded on my P bass, tone open around 20% into my Cali76 compressor and into the computer!

Enjoy!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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December 1963 WM

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Bass - John Paul Jones

Difficulty - Intermediate

I’ve had a couple of requests for some Led Zeppelin recently so here is one of John Paul Jones’ best lines, Good Times Bad Times!

I hadn’t listened to this particular song for some time but what struck me immediately was how busy John’s bass line is, there is a lot going on to say nothing of the fun bass fills at the tail ends of Choruses 1 and 3!

There is nothing massively tough about the line, what’s going to require attention are the little variations within the lines (they aren’t always the same!) and staying on top of John’s sense of time. This was a lot of fun to work on and i’ll be bringing more Led Zep to the transcription vault in the future!

John’s sound is VERY big and round in this cut so I’ve gone for my P bass, tone rolled all the way off and run through my Cali76 compressor!

Enjoy!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Good Times Bad Times - WM

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Electric Bass - Mike Rutherford

Difficulty - Beginner

For this week’s transcription i’ve gone into the Genesis back catalogue and while i’ve got a much longer song in the works, this line is a little more accessible and shows some of the little details that are part of Mike Rutherford’s bass playing.

Mike is one of those players that tends to have gotten overshadowed by some of the giants of prog rock (Geddy Lee and Chris Squire being the two big ones) but he comes up with the great bass lines. In this particular tune, it’s the articulations that really matter, specifically note lengths and the little slides to and from notes in the intro/chorus grooves!

Signal chain for this track was P bass - Cali76 compressor - MXR M80 - Audient interface

Enjoy!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Misunderstanding Full Transcription

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Electric Bass - Sting

Difficulty - Beginner

Hey everyone,

This week’s transcription is an absolute classic from Sting and The Police, Walking On The Moon from the album Reggatta De Blanc. This line is a masterclass in how simple ideas can be exactly what the track needs, and that verse groove is one I imagine a lot of you would recognise within a couple of seconds! The verse groove is also an excellent study in lines that don’t land right on beat one, the line landing on the and-of-four which gives it it’s distinctive rhythmic feel.

I’m fairly sure that the record tempo was altered very slightly in the production process because I had to tune my bass to 441hz to get it more closely in tune. The light chorus on Sting’s bass also contributes which I added in using my Bass CEB-3.

Full signal chain is as follows…

P Bass (tone rolled on around 40%) - Cali76 Compressor - Boss CEB-3 chorus - Audient interface - Garageband (platinumverb plugin).

This is a song i’ve enjoyed since my dad first introduced me to the police, I hope you enjoy digging into it too!

You can request a Transcription below. I also offer a bespoke transcription service. I charge £40 for most transcription requests; more complex transcriptions are on a case-by-case basis, and I will provide a specific quote at my own discretion. If you pay for a transcription, you will receive a copy without a watermark.

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Walking On The Moon Full Transcription

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