Using the thumb fingerstyle....rant content!

[oldbass]

There's not much in our beloved bassland that pokes me in the eye but the following ..well, does.

What irritates me more than nails on a blackboard is this latest craze of ever so gently playing fingerstyle using the thumb.....in a picking mode. Aaagh!  why do u guys do it as it seems to me to make the bass tone soft, indistinct and mushy, ...how is that good. Even UB players strive for clarity. Strange indeed.

Ah..that's better. Hat, coat, door.

.

[grandad]

That's how I play or with a pick depending on how much attack I want. Tried finger-plucking but it just didn't work for me.

[M@23]

Don't know about 'latest craze'...

I love it, worked alright for Sting too!

[Rumple]

I tend to use one bass and leave my tone setting alone, using the thumb to pluck along with some palm muting gives me that old school sound on the songs that need it.

[Geek99]

I’m getting arthritis in my two plucking fingers - thumb mis probably what I’ll end up doing as I refuse to use a pick . 

 

[Cat Burrito]

I very occasionally do it if I feel the song needs it, usually on slower songs with simple root hitting the chord changes type lines where I haven't brought my upright. 

Sometimes I play fingerstyle, sometimes with a pick, occasionally with a thumb. I'm always puzzled by how players can limit techniques used by the greats. It's all just personal taste after all. 

[oldbass]

Ok guys, well Im clearly in a minority of one here...probably something to do with age I guess..but to me a, it just it just doesnt look cool and b,  sounds too subtle for its own good....I play fingerstyle only and if I want to go quiet..well I simply play quiet, if I need to dampen I do it Bernard Edwards style...etc. Different strokes I guess.

 

[paul_c2]

Don't forget, the thumb is a finger. Sometime I do it for ease (just on the E string) because if I were to try it with (other) fingers, I'd need to shift up and rest my thumb on the pickup; and if its horizontally not there, I'd need to either find the pickup (to rest on) or float my right hand around in mid-air, guessing. 

I suppose the correct solution is to buy a 5-string, since they have a 34" long thumb rest built in.

[Bilbo]

It's another tone to be used as one sees fit. Anthony Jackson uses the technique a lot.

[hubrad]

20 minutes ago, Bilbo said:

It's another tone to be used as one sees fit. Anthony Jackson uses the technique a lot.

^^This.

Should I use a pick? Why do people play with fingers? etc.

[Paul S]

Not a new thing at all - IIRC didn't early electric basses come fitted with a 'tug bar' - which was effectively a thumb rest but fitted beneath the strings - to facilitate this very style of playing? 

[discreet]

it may seem a bit weird, but probably not worth a rant. People are very different - even among bass players! - and whatever gets the job done is OK with me. If I heard some very tasty playing that was 'thumb work', it wouldn't bother me.

13 minutes ago, Paul S said:

IIRC didn't early electric basses come fitted with a 'tug bar' - effectively a thumb rest but fitted beneath the strings - to facilitate this style of playing? 

Yes, or 'thumb rest' if fitted above the strings in the 1973-on position. However, over the years I've lost serious money in Tug Bars. 

 

Edited December 10, 2017 by discreet

[AntLockyer]

Pino says you are wrong.

 

[Bilbo]

Just thinking this through. The reason I do it is because it allows me to mute all four strings whilst still allowing for some degree of facility. Pianist do a similar thing when muting the strings inside a grand piano. It's a lovely additional texture. 

[Sibob]

I do it loads, for a multitude of reasons, it's just another technique to utilise, same as finger style, slap, pic, etc etc.

As has been mentioned, it was actually the original way that Leo Fender assumed people would play the electric bass, why do you think the 'thumb' rest (tug bar) was originally below the strings? Because he envisaged that people would hook their fingers under it, and play with their thumb.

Si

[Dood]

On 10/12/2017 at 13:00, Paul S said:

Not a new thing at all - IIRC didn't early electric basses come fitted with a 'tug bar' - which was effectively a thumb rest but fitted beneath the strings - to facilitate this very style of playing? 

My post exactly. I recall watching early videos of The Shadows playing (Cliff Richard brought one of the first Stratocasters in to the country for Hank Marvin? I think) and right there on bass duties, right hand thumb and tug bar.

i use my thumb a lot. I also play electric guitar and lots of acoustic too, so I suppose there’s a cross over of techniques anyway. 

My take is simple and I say it to all my students. If I thought that playing my instrument with a dustbin lid would make the sound or convey what it was I was trying to do musically, then I would. Don’t be limited because something isn’t what everyone expects to be right.

[SteveK]

Probably not advisable as your everyday technique, but it can subtley change the tone. More importantly, It can change your approach/attitude to what you're playing.

[JapanAxe]

It's a technique I know of, but rarely think to use. Thanks for reminding me @oldbass!

[von Braun]

Or just using your thumb semi-rigid in place of a pick on the faster stuff....I just can't get the feel through a pick, don't know why.

Either way, keeps the rhythm guitarist amused....... "looks so dumb you ****!" Ah well.

[discreet]

On 17/12/2017 at 22:44, dood said:

My take is simple. If I thought that playing my instrument with a dustbin lid would make the sound or convey what it was I was trying to do musically, then I would. Don’t be limited because something isn’t what everyone expects to be right.

This. Whatever it takes to get your point across.

[oldbass]

1 hour ago, SteveK said:

Probably not advisable as your everyday technique, but it can subtley change the tone. More importantly, It can change your approach/attitude to what you're playing.

Interesting. But the audience after the sound guy has tweaked you into oblivion cant hear the difference anyway....bass is already subtle ie its not a lead instrument..so why would we try to make it even more subtle. Those who do this are literally pricing themselves out of the tonal spectrum until someday an MD turns around and says, "Im not paying the bass player he's playing so softly I can't hear him.

[gary mac]

I felt it was exactly the right way to play a few songs that were in the last band's set. So that's what I did 🙂

[Dood]

43 minutes ago, oldbass said:

Interesting. But the audience after the sound guy has tweaked you into oblivion cant hear the difference anyway....bass is already subtle ie its not a lead instrument..so why would we try to make it even more subtle. Those who do this are literally pricing themselves out of the tonal spectrum until someday an MD turns around and says, "Im not paying the bass player he's playing so softly I can't hear him.

Incorrect, the technique, playing with the fleshy part of the thumb is very useful in dub and reggae!  I use the technique to get a big fat subdued bass tone when playing with nice shiny new strings. I can go from a slap bass classic dance track to a grimy reggae tune in our set without reaching for another instrument or settings! It’s a very useful technique, Try it, your band will love it! (MIne do,)

[wateroftyne]

On 29/11/2017 at 16:36, oldbass said:

I play fingerstyle only and if I want to go quiet..well I simply play quiet

 

It's about tone and attack, not volume. The key is knowing when to use it... some get it, some don't.

[SteveK]

1 hour ago, oldbass said:

Interesting. But the audience after the sound guy has tweaked you into oblivion cant hear the difference anyway....bass is already subtle ie its not a lead instrument..

There are some very good FOH engineers out there that can work miracles in the most challenging of venues. I would never do a show with the assumption that the audience can't hear the subtleties of my playing (not that I have a reputation for subtlety, you understand  ) I assume that every miss-plucked and miss-fretted note will be spoken about by every audience member who will immediately call their friends and family, laughing about it as they leave the venue.

 

2 hours ago, oldbass said:

so why would we try to make it even more subtle.

Most likely, if I thought that the song required it.