Slapping question

[basshead56]

Hi guys, just wondering about the height steings should be off the fretboard for real slap style playing.
The reason I ask is that yesrerday I found a Ramirez bass (baby)in an odds and ends music store. On first inspection it seemed really similar to my baby clone but with a different scroll. Also it had steel strings on it i asked to have a go and found that the strings were practically sitting on the fretboard. It played beautifully and i found my technique even altwred slightly; I played harder withoit any effort at all. Didnt have to dig in even remotely-by comparison, u could drive a train under my strings and I wonder if this is why I find my right hand tends ro stiffen up during or after a half hour or so of practice?. So I'm considering shimming the neck on my bass to get the same effect and hoping that my weedwhackers will sound even better. Any thoughts?

[Rabbie]

To slap you need high action. As a matter of fact real low action does not suit the double bass at all, in any style. Bear in mind that the action at the fingerboard is only of very relative significance and it all depends on hight at nut, string type, string tension, bridge curvature, in short general bass set-up as well as your technique and stamina. To over-simplify and answer your question: some people can slap steel strings with low action around 7-8mm. This low action would not suit wackers or guts as you will have no acoustic volume. Personally I use gut strings and action around 1.2-1.3cm. Very high for most people, but I like it and I can be heard even without an amplifier (up to a point of course). That's how the old players did it, since you asked about classic slap tone. Some modern psychobilly guys have different setups which rely on amps a lot more, but I really don't know about that. Gee that's a long answer sorry my friend.

[Rabbie]

Thinking about it, I could have just answered in one sentence: if you cannae fit your fingers between the strings and the fingerboard, you cannae slap. That's all really.

[PaulKing]

Rabbie is right, but wrong at the same time.
Both approaches work for different people .

The classic way is high strings (10-15mm or more), gut or nylon, easy to grasp with fingers, lots of string movement for acoustic volume, and any sense of attack from those weak but lovely organic strings. Makes for dynamic, aggressive punchy percussive sound .. Bounces and drives. Also the low tension means any less height and you'll get string buzz.

But the other strategy works well enough for amplified psycho and more modern styles. Steel strings, don't need as much room to move, don't need as much energy to sound. Means you can get away with less physical attack, can afford lower height, so long as you can develop a technique that gets enough finger purchase on the string. I think the price you pay is that the steel click becomes relatively loud compared to the pizz note (which is what you want for psycho), and also the overall sound becomes less dynamic and bouncy, more of a mechanical noise. But with good eq, you can manage a perfectly good amplified tone.
I think it's harder to play dynamically that way though, there's little difference between a gentle pluck and a right old tug, as it were.

Edited December 1, 2013 by PaulKing

[thisnameistaken]

I just set up the bass for the strings - for guts or gut-a-likes you need a higher action, but I don't think it makes a difference whether you're slapping or not, a suitable setup is a suitable setup.