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What do these "ramp" things do


thepurpleblob
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Matt Garrison also utilises his ramp with his 4 finger style of playing (thumb, index, middle, ring in that order). I should imagine it would help if you were a practitioner of this method as the spread of the right hand is concentrated over a larger area than the standard 2 fingers. I can't say I've had experience with ramps but they look interesting. I am a believer that good touch can be achieved without one as well though.

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[quote name='visog' timestamp='1330027836' post='1551775']

Over-playing, particularly to compensate for poor volume or monitoring is potentially very damaging to your hands.

[/quote]

Oh dear! If I didn'y play like a ton of bricks, I doubt I'd feel anything! That's me stuffed then. Mind you, a quarter of a century of manual labour has left me with hands that look worse than my Grandmothers.
Do they do ramps for work? ;)

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I often play with my thumb resting on the neck pickup - depends on the bass really. Don't enjoy the feel of playing right over the bridge pickup.

Tried a bass with a ramp fitted recently and found myself moving my plucking hand around a lot more. Felt a bit 'alien' but I think I could get used to it.

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Like you I play with a downward stroke rather than across the strings so a ramp is about the last thing that I need on my basses. I cant play over the pups and suspect you have a similar style. Personally Id try a cheap thumb rest. Try double sided tape at first. Not ideal but you would get the idea and could alter where you would want to place it as it depends on the size of your hands as well. You would then have more flexibility. If you were happy with it then you could buy a decent quality rest in chromed brass or wood of your taste if you wanted. Apart from hinging your wrist by using a thumb on the edge of a pickup this is the best alternative. Some pickup formats can make it awkward to use the edge of the pup anyway. Hope this helps. All best

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Economy of movement and effort. It limits the distance your fingers are going to travel downwards between the strings, making moving the fingers to the next string or pluck quicker and/or easier. When digging in, the attack transient in comparison to the note that follows is much greater, and can lead to........... look, I'll let [url="http://garywillis.com/pages/bass/bassmanual/theramp.html"]Mr Willis[/url] explain.

I have heard some bass players who really dig in get stunning sounds, so a ramp is definitely not going to work for everyone. I prefer the ramp in place though:

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[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1330204368' post='1554207']


Really?!? Is there any evidence for this?
[/quote]

Blisters? I used to get them frequently from digging in too hard when playing long stints in a metal band. Since using ramps on both my Shukers, they help me keep my playing in control and ive not had a single blister for years now.

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For me the ramp is about consistency. I like my dry bass sound to be controlled and rounded. (that's before i throw any ugly distortions on!). The ramp allows your fingers to hit the string at the same height every single time and thus if you're playing with a three+ finger technique can help smooth things out a bit. I'd call it a 'smoother' rather than a 'compressor'. Sure it stops me from digging in too hard, but i can still retain wide enough dynamics from my instrument too.

Ramble over!

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[quote name='dood' timestamp='1330299064' post='1555520']
For me the ramp is about consistency. I like my dry bass sound to be controlled and rounded. (that's before i throw any ugly distortions on!). The ramp allows your fingers to hit the string at the same height every single time and thus if you're playing with a three+ finger technique can help smooth things out a bit. I'd call it a 'smoother' rather than a 'compressor'. Sure it stops me from digging in too hard, but i can still retain wide enough dynamics from my instrument too.

Ramble over!
[/quote]

That's not a ramble at all.
I can achieve the rounded tone you describe, but have to deviate from my usual technique and resultant "spiky" sound.
I play with two fingers, but use the third - as taught by my (short-lived) teacher - to damp the string above and play right "through" the string into the one above (can you tell he liked golf?)
I like the tone this gives - and a very "big" initial transient that definitely announces your presence and can really lock in with a drummer at slow to moderate tempii. Trouble is, speed it up a bit and the string isn't where it ought to be after you last "attacked" it. It's still busy vibrating, so it's like trying to throw and catch a ball on a bit of elastic - really fast!
The other issue is that your strings die because the cores lose their elasticity and sound like mush.
Perhaps I need low action/a ramp on some basses and a high(er) action/no ramp on others? Bit of a catch 22 otherwise...

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  • 2 years later...

I use floating thumb whereby I slide my plucking-hand thumb across the strings for muting. A downside is that I tend to be constantly pushing the strings down with my plucking-hand thumb which then means I'm prone to bouncing the strings off the last fret if I get a bit excited. So, using this floating thumb technique, the last fret acts as a sort of ramp, reminding me to strike the strings more softly. Also, I find that this floating-thumb technique means my plucking hand wrist drops so I can get a good contact between the side of my thumb and the strings. This then means I'm hitting the strings from above, rather than plucking the strings, and that again can lead to strings bouncing off the last fret. Maybe a ramp would force me to pluck rather than strike, but the last frets seem to do that job for me.

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