Tony Breaks a String ...

[Altitude]

Not double-tracked, but played through a slapback delay set to 16th notes.
So Tony's bass part -- which he played with more-or-less conventional thumb slaps and finger pops -- is
"BOMP-BOMP-BAP-BOMP-BOMP-BOMP-BAP-BAP"
but the delay makes it sound like "BOMP-a-BOMP-a-BAP-a-BOMP-a-BOMP-a-BOMP-a-BAP-a-BAP-a"

Fully agree with your description of the technique. Ian Allison did a similar review on a SBL post.

I still think the yellow album cut is double tracked. Here is why:

- the slapback is considerably more audible on the low notes than on the high ones. Questionable if it’s there at all on the high notes.
- the EQ sounds different to me between the low and high notes.
- there’s some reverb on the high notes and little or none on the low notes.

Mostly to my first bullet - Ian Allison plays the line in his SBL video. It sounds great like everything else he plays, but you can plainly hear the slapback on the popped notes. That just isn’t there on the OG studio version.

The way you (and Ian) describe is surely how Levin has played it live a thousand times since. Except he’s playing it with funk fingers on this tour, who knows why.

Here’s the video, skip to 3:30. There’s also footage of Levin playing it. Again, you hear the slapback plainly on the popped notes, but it’s not there on the studio cut. Double tracked.