Song: Mr. Big Stuff
Artist: Jean Knight
Album: Mr. Big Stuff (also on Pure Funk and a ton of other
compilations)
Bass Player: ?
Tabbed by: John Prather (jnprather@aol.com)
Member of the Bass Tab Archive Tabbing Army ~
http://www.basstabarchive.com
In response to my Lemon Song tab, I got an email requesting
this song so I figured what the hell...
The only really tricky thing about this song is that it's
way way out of tune... I *believe* that it is tuned a bit
SHARP of standard tuning... Conventional Wisdom would
dictate that the song is tuned down a half step but it would
have to be tuned down more than a half step and from looking
at the chorus and other parts of the song I believe it's just
slightly Sharp... to play along with this transcription, take
your open D string and tune it to the root note from the
recording. Tune the rest of your bass to the D string and go!
It's basically impossible to tell if he's using the open D
string for the bulk of this song or if he's fretting the same
note at the 5th fret of the A string. My hunch (and how i'd
play it personally) is that he uses the open D string.
This is the main line that starts the song and is played most
of the time:
G|----------------------------------------------|
D|----0----0-0----0-4---5--5--5--7--7--7---5----|
A|----------------------------------------------|
E|----------------------------------------------|
When the singer is singing, the bassline alternates to this:
G|---------------------------------------------------------|
D|-----0---0-0---0--4---5---5--5---------------------------|
A|-----------------------------------0---0----2----4-------|
E|---------------------------------------------------------|
The entire song alternates between those two lines except for
the one chorus/bridge/interlude/whatever you want to call it
that comes in at 1:23... it goes as follows:
G|---------------------------------------------------------|
D|----------------9--7-------------------------------------|
A|------------9---------9--7--7--------------7-------------|
E|---7-7-7-----------------------4--5--5--7-----5---7------|
G|---------------------------------------------------------|
D|---5-------------------5---7--7------7---7---7---5-------|
A|--------2--2--3--5---------------------------------------|
E|---------------------------------------------------------|
I believe this transcription to be pretty accurate. If there
is a descrepancy there may be a wrong note or two in the
chorus (the part played over G) but I think it's dead-on.
As always, feel free to contact me with comments/corrections,
etc.
Have Fun!
Artist: Jean Knight
Click to get the code!