Basses for tapping

[Annoying Twit]

I don't know how to tap. I've seen people do it, and can move my fingers in approximately the right way, but it sounds all kind of wrong.

What I would like to know is:

If I can't tap, then how do I know if a particular bass is 'good enough' for tapping? Does a bass need to have certain properties, e.g. super-low action, to be suitable for tapping? If I find that my current basses are not suitable for tapping, then how would I know what sort of basses are, and if I was thinking of buying one, how would I recognise one as being suitable?

Apologies if this is a stupid question, but I think I am objectively clueless here. So I'm asking as step 1 in the process of addressing that ignorance.

[Jellyfish]

Low action makes it easier to tap and higher gauge strings (or rather, higher string tension) give the notes more clarity. I think that you'll also find tapping easier on a bass with a flatter radius.

Other than that, it may be down to technique as all the basses I've ever owned have been great for tapping. Personally, it took me plenty of practice to get even sounding notes as I found that the differences in strength between fingers made some notes ring out louder than others. You may be best off doing some simple exercises like using your left hand, finger 1 to tap the 'A' on the E string (5th fret), then finger 3 to tap the 'E' on the A string (7th fret). Then you can add in the octaves (12th frets) on those strings with the right hand and just do quarter notes until they sound even.

[Annoying Twit]

I gave it a try, and the result was cleaner notes than I've had before. I'm not quite sure what I was doing even more wrong before, but now things look more promising. I've got no hand independence though.

[Jellyfish]

Practice!

Seriously though, there's a book from Mel Bay called '50 Two-hand Tapping Workouts for Electric Bass'. I used to use it all the time and it's a brilliant little book, especially for things like hand independence. I remember there being an exercise early on in the book that has you tapping up a major scale in your right hand and the relative minor in your left. Sounds great, but is difficult to do.

[andydye]

[quote name='Jellyfish' timestamp='1381172609' post='2235417']
Practice!
Seriously though, there's a book from Mel Bay called '50 Two-hand Tapping Workouts for Electric Bass'. I used to use it all the time and it's a brilliant little book, especially for things like hand independence. I remember there being an exercise early on in the book that has you tapping up a major scale in your right hand and the relative minor in your left. Sounds great, but is difficult to do.
[/quote]

This one?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0786658819/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1381172885&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX110_SY165

[ambient]

A flat fingerboard is useful.

I've always preferred lighter gauge strings too.

[Annoying Twit]

This thread was mainly inspired by me seeing this bass for sale. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161122827223?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649"]http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1423.l2649[/url] I found some videos of a Pinoy bassist tapping on it, and wondered if it being good for tapping (which I wasn't convinced, but clearly tapping is possible), and if so, then a strategy might be to buy it instead of my current 'improve my Shine SB26' project. However, having done a tiny bit more tapping practice on my basses, it appears that the Shine is not so unusable for tapping that I really need to swap it.

Tapping is something I'd like to be able to do in the future, and if I did decide to switch six string basses, then it would have been with the intention that this would prepare the ground for future tapping. But, at present I think I have more basic skills that I need to refine, so won't be putting a lot of effort into tapping right now. The book recommendations etc. are useful, and I might buy the book so that it's sitting on my shelf waiting for the right time.

One thing I found in switching from 4 string to 6 string while trying tapping, is that even with the very primitive things I'm doing, I found 4 strings quite restrictive. In that I seemed to end up trying to use the same string for both hands. 6 strings gave me more options.

As an aside, the fact that most second hand basses are sold on ebay is a bit frustrating. If that Aria was in a shop, I'd most definitely try it out in case I find that I just really like it much more than my Shine. I could message the seller and ask to test it, but I don't feel it would be fair to take up the seller's time on this unless I was much more serious about it.

I do want to have a fretless bass around to try out. Given that I want to tap in the future, should I be looking at more strings? Something like this: [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Dean-Edge-6-String-Fretless-w-EMGs-Trans-Black-Electric-Bass-Guitar-/400585541525?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item5d44c24795"]http://www.ebay.co.u...=item5d44c24795[/url] (Though, there are certain bass sounds I like and others I don't, and I'm worried about the EMGs there). Or, as with what I'm thinking about fretted basses, do I eventually need to plan to have both four and six string fretless basses. (I've decided that I want both for fretted).

That leads to a more relevant sub-question: What are the advantages and disadvantages of different numbers of strings for tapping?

BTW: The fingerboard on the Shine seems quite flat.

Edited October 9, 2013 by Annoying Twit