Amazoman Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 I would appreciate your thoughts. I play/practice 95% of my time at home, I'm not in a band. The other 5% is in church when I plug straight into the mixing desk and come through the hall speakers along with all the other instruments. My amp I use at home is a small practice amp, Laney Hardcore HCM60B. When playing finger style and for most of the time this is fine. I am trying to learn 'slap', following the lessons on this site but simply cannot get the 'sound' that is on the videos neither the thumb or the left hand slap across the strings sound any good. Mine is simply a rattly thud. I have tried different techniques different striking positions, thumps with rapid recall so as not to dampen the string I know your first thoughts will be poor technique and this will be mostly true. I am convinced however that my amp is partly to blame. My guitar by the way is a Musicman Stingray. If I invested in a more powerful amp would it make a difference? Would I be able to play say a 300w amp at a low enough volume in the house so as not to disturb everyone else for it to be any good (I know that you need to drive certain speakers hard to get a decent sound from them). Are my thoughts way off the mark and the amp does not make any difference to the sound. Regards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delberthot Posted September 21, 2011 Share Posted September 21, 2011 (edited) I practice in the house with a 40w guitar amp to keep the neighbours happy and can slap away fine on it. Is there anyone near you who can show you how to do it or even find a good teacher and get a lesson on it? It may also be the setup of your bass Some would define slap as a "rattly thud" Edited September 22, 2011 by Delberthot Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amazoman Posted September 22, 2011 Author Share Posted September 22, 2011 Thanks for getting back. I am sure that my poor technique has a lot to do with it. I really have tried every combination of striking the stringsyou can think of. I would have thought that even by chance I would have got the sound that you hear on the 'you tube slap lessons' a few times. I'm not talking about playing a piece well, just a couple of notes. What I actually hear is the string hitting the fretboard or the frets rather than the funky slap sound Maybe it is the set up of the bass. I will have to take it for a check. For now I'll just keep practicing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Musky Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 I don't slap, but when I've messed about with it at low volume in the past I've noticed the same thing as you're describing - you can hear the strings striking the fingerboard above the volume of the amp. Perhaps the answer is to turn the amp up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monckyman Posted September 23, 2011 Share Posted September 23, 2011 Headphones! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dubs Posted September 24, 2011 Share Posted September 24, 2011 [quote name='Monckyman' timestamp='1316788260' post='1382950'] Headphones! [/quote] Plus the 1. If you're looking for an amp upgrade anyway then make sure you buy something with a headphone output. Something like the Genz Benz Shuttle 3 sounds like it could work for you - they come up at really good prices on here and have a decent headphone output. As you say, technique probably has an element to play in this as well. Either way, it's probably not going to be the Stingray that you're having problems with tone-wise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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