Artist – U2
Electric Bass – Adam Clayton
Difficulty – Beginner/intermediate
Honestly, I sometimes feel that Adam Clayton gets something of an unfair canning among the bass community. Yes, some of his lines and simple and agreed he seems to change signature instruments more often than there is a day in the week, but his lines underpin some of the most recognisable rock songs from the last 30 years. I’ll be putting out some of his other lines (which will be ideal for those of you just getting started as bass players) but this line, Vertigo, is one that I’ve always enjoyed getting into, and there are little details that I feel are important if you want to get right inside the music.
First thing is the switch between hammering on and articulating the D-E right in the first bar of the groove, It’s a small detail but it really contributes to the feel and contour of the line! Another is the shift in octave when the line moves between the A and the G in bars 6 and 8, before I transcribed it properly I’d always just played it in the lower octave (a classic case of me learning, rather than Learning the line) and switching between them does make a difference! Also pay attention to the accents in the pedal figure in the bridge (letter E), those accents really make the line rather than playing it as straight 8ths!
To me Adam is using quite a driven sound for this so I used my P bass (tone 100% on) with the MXR M80 with more of the driven signal added to the blend.
Full signal chain is P bass (tone 100%) – Cali76 compressor – MXR M80 – Audient interface – Garageband (platinumverb plugin).
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.
Members can download the full transcription below no watermark
