Bass Players: About that Right Hand Technique...

[Jumpbass]

@Dinsdale

Sorry, wasn’t intending to brag - more of a weak joke. Believe me, my upright skills are nothing to brag about. I picked it up a few years ago, to play bluegrass/fiddle tunes with my fiddler-wife. After playing bass guitar 25 years earlier in college. (Rotosound Bass Boomers were my preference then, IIRC…) My daughter the bassoonist has my last remaining bass guitar.

You really hit it on “guitarist playing bass” phenomena. Sometimes during a jam I’ll intentionally play as little as possible - and those are generally the best jams. A majority of the time, when I’m doing something “fancy” on bass, it is for my personal enjoyment, rather than out of a belief that it improves the music.

I envy you the tuba. Lately I’ve been listening to Mexican banda music in the car. Love the tuba - and the bass-forward mix. But again, I (and the guys I play with) don’t need THAT to clutter up my bluegrass thump.

I didn’t mean to bust your chops, just teasing.
Oh dear- bluegrass tuba. Is the world ready? Those banda guys are scary. Fast and loud. I swear that their horns straighten out every time they play them.

Where would you ever get another?

Well, you don’t have to kill him. Get him in the leg or something. Tell him that it will get him more chicks.

True, it was more of an observation, done while listening to some moderately orchestrated pop stuff (Let’s Active’s Big Plans for Everybody, for example.) It would really just be a cool little thing to have in the toolbox, not something to drag out at every Monday night blues jam.

Another question, for middle and index finger playing - keep alternating when moving down a string, or rake off with the same finger? It does seem best to do one or the other. It seems like a little discipline here would go a long way, but I can see how both ways kind of make sense.

WRT picking, it just seems kind of limiting. Using the fingers and thumb seems a lot more …organic? personal? hands on? I could also see myself digging in too much with a pick. I could probably use a compressor to offset that, but why not just use a lighter touch to begin with?

Yep, I’ll pull out some tapping or something during jams, too. That’s the right venue. Makes Mustang Sally a bit more entertaining… for me.

When changing to a lower pitched string, I rake down. You should be comfortable starting with either finger anyway.

Don’t learn to rely on a compressor. I use one when I switch to slapping to even things out, but not on a regular basis. As I said, I’m a klutz with a pick, but I find that holding it lightly and playing lightly gets be better results.

Have you heard of the Willis Ramp? It was developed by Gary Willis from the fusion/prog band Tribal tech. It’s a block of wood that goes under your strings between the pickups at the same height as your pickups. It limits how deep you can dig into your strings. The idea is that you should let your pickups and amp do their job- you don’t have to play hard, even though sometimes you want to. My bass has big soapbar pickups, so I use those. It helps me play more quickly and evenly.

[cornflakes]

@scabpicker

If you mean down as in pitch: The finger that just played is usually already resting on the lower-pitched string after playing the first string. If you don’t play the string with it, I’d like to know why you’d do such a thing.

Bingo. Going down scales, I’ve been trying to use the same finger when moving to the next lower pitch string. I catch myself sometimes keeping a rhythm of index finger for ones and threes and middle for twos and fours, kind of like how drummers maintain a right hand-left hand rhythm, even through rests. This somehow seems logical, though maybe unnecessary. No matter which, I’d like to get a habit going now instead of having to break a habit later.

Sounds like the consensus is to rake down.

I agree about the compressor. I’ve just heard a few shows where most of what you hear of the bass sound is the pick (this is part of why I don’t want one.) Thinking about it, the sound was off in at least one of those shows in a way that made it seem that the soundman set up for an empty house and the band ended up drawing–everything at stage level was quiet, but the bassist’s pick and the cymbals came through clear.