Right hand positioning

[la bam]

A weird title, but where do you all positioning your right (plucking) hand when playing?

Being a p bass player near all my life I find it really comfortable between the pickups and bridge. However when I've moved to a jazz I just found the pickups in the way, so much I completely lowered them. 

I recently had a year back with a p bass - very comfortable. However I've just bought my first double humbucker bass and find it really difficult to find where to play. Over the individual humbuckers is difficult because I keep whacking them, and in between is very short space.

Last night I tried much closer to the neck, above the highest humbucker and it took some getting used to as my frtting hand stayed the same but my right arm was much more closer to it than usual. The sound was fantastic though, much more rich and punchy than where I normally play.

[steve-bbb]

 i think you just answered your own question  😁

[CameronJ]

When you say the pickups are in the way on the Jazz, I guess you mean the pickups are preventing you from digging in as much as you want to?

Personally the only time I have a problem with pickups getting in the way under the strings is when doing any (rare) slaps or pops in a song. Otherwise, I actually prefer playing over the pickup as a kind of limiter for how much I dig in. My first 5 stringer was an Ibanez BTB33 Volo which has dual humbuckers and a ramp between the pups so it effectively has one uniform block beneath a large proportion of the potential plucking area. I think having that ramp ultimately improved my technique and made my right hand a bit more efficient/economical.

[Reggaebass]

2 minutes ago, CameronJ said:

When you say the pickups are in the way on the Jazz, I guess you mean the pickups are preventing you from digging in as much as you want to?

Personally the only time I have a problem with pickups getting in the way under the strings is when doing any (rare) slaps or pops in a song. Otherwise, I actually prefer playing over the pickup as a kind of limiter for how much I dig in. My first 5 stringer was an Ibanez BTB33 Volo which has dual humbuckers and a ramp between the pups so it effectively has one uniform block beneath a large proportion of the potential plucking area. I think having that ramp ultimately improved my technique and made my right hand a bit more efficient/economical.

This 100% 🙂

[CameronJ]

Also forgot to add that I mostly play P basses and variations thereof - PJ, PM etc. which tend to have the pickup where I naturally want to pluck anyway.

The only non-P type bass I own is this:

As you can see the pickups on this bass act as a ramp too. It’s a joy to play!

[Reggaebass]

I play over or just in front of the neck pickup because I like the tone , but I don’t normally touch the pup with my fingers,  but I did buy a jazz once where someone had set the pickups way too high and they did get in the way, I just lowered them and it was fine 🙂

[tony_m]

It varies depending on the bass, and the tone I want. With my split-coil CV60s P, I usually anchor my thumb on the pup, and pluck directly over it. With my Jazz, I either anchor on the neck pup and pluck over it, or rest my thumb against the body and pluck halfway between the pups to give a slight variation to the tone. With the single coil '51 P , anchoring on the pup isn't an option due to the pickup cover, so I rest my thumb against the body and pluck either in front of the cover for a deep, bassy sound, or behind the cover for a bit more twang - I also tweak the tone control a bit, tending to have it slightly more open if I'm plucking in front of the cover than if I'm plucking behind it. 

[Lozz196]

Generally, as a Precision player, between pickups and bridge.

[Steve Browning]

Hook my thumb onto the pickup cover.

[paul_c2]

I would like to think I'm fairly normal, in that I usually - for comfort reasons - need to rest my thumb on something (for want of a better term) "sticky outy", so if I'm playing the E string then it needs to be one or other of the pickups (Jazz bass, normal) or perhaps the pick guard much closer to the neck. And if its the A, D, or G string then its the next string up ie my thumb rests on the E string when playing the A string.

Of course, the above means I can play the A, D or G string anywhere along its length, but I'm self-restricted to where I play the E string. Which can be an issue.

To (partly mostly) get round the issue, and I am aware of the incoming flak, I sometimes adopt a technique where I don't rest my thumb beyond the four strings, instead using the thumb as another finger (it is a finger....right?) to play eg the E string.

Hope it makes sense.

[NikNik]

On fretted, predominantly thumb anchored over rear pup but sometimes I'll 'float' the right hand closely over the strings.

 

On fretless,  same technique but occasionally I will pluck with the inside of the index finger over the 'board. This is good for approximating an Upright sound.

[dmccombe7]

No matter what bass i play i usually rest my thumb on pick-up cover but on some occasions and depending on the song i will just play with a floating hand or use the E string as a thumb rest if playing the D & G strings.

P bass usually on the pup cover.

J bass usually on the neck pup cover, same with double humbucker style

P/J or P/MM i tend to rest on the neck pick-up cover

on rare occasions that i play my fretless i move between the different pick ups or the edge of the neck and play very close to the fret board or over the board

So many variations but i've never played a bass i couldn't adapt to.

Dave

[itu]

I just move my right hand to get the sound I want. Closer to the 12th fret for thicker and closer to the bridge to get brighter sound.

[stevie]

On 07/04/2019 at 10:48, CameronJ said:

Also forgot to add that I mostly play P basses and variations thereof - PJ, PM etc. which tend to have the pickup where I naturally want to pluck anyway.

The only non-P type bass I own is this:

As you can see the pickups on this bass act as a ramp too. It’s a joy to play!

Forgive my ignorance, but what is it?

[CameronJ]

1 hour ago, stevie said:

Forgive my ignorance, but what is it?

It’s an MTD Kingston Super 5

[jacko]

On 07/04/2019 at 09:34, la bam said:

A weird title, but where do you all positioning your right (plucking) hand when playing?

 

depends what tone or attack I want.  back at the bridge for a bright / sharp attack, end of the fingerboard for phat slow grooves. Somewhere in between for anything else.  i doubt I'd be able to play the wide variety of tunes I do if i stayed in one place.