slap bass

[cris the man]

as ive seen in videos , mark king and sometimes les claypool and other slap gods play slap bass in a very verticle position , on the other hand my bass teacher plays very horrizontal , i play diagonally but it seems verticle reigns superior , whats the best position?

[Alun]

I'm assuming you're talking about thumb direction? If so, then ultimately it comes down to what works for you. If you're into double thumbing, then horizontal works best as your thumb is parallel to the string,.

Only thing I'd say with diagonal is that you need to be be careful that the tip of your thumb doesn't catch adjacent strings accidentally.

Cheers,
Alun

[cris the man]

[quote name='Alun' post='89084' date='Nov 15 2007, 07:11 PM']I'm assuming you're talking about thumb direction? If so, then ultimately it comes down to what works for you. If you're into double thumbing, then horizontal works best as your thumb is parallel to the string,.

Only thing I'd say with diagonal is that you need to be be careful that the tip of your thumb doesn't catch adjacent strings accidentally.

Cheers,
Alun[/quote]

ah right , thanks

[queenofthedepths]

[quote name='Alun' post='89084' date='Nov 15 2007, 07:11 PM']Only thing I'd say with diagonal is that you need to be be careful that the tip of your thumb doesn't catch adjacent strings accidentally.[/quote]

This also applies to horizontal, right? I prefer to play horizontally on the lowest string, where I've got plenty of space, but to avoid catching adjacent strings, I can't really do this on higher strings (especially when I've got a low B string), so I play vertically then

Edited November 15, 2007 by queenofthedepths

[Alun]

Depends how we define horizontal and vertical I guess

I think of horizontal as parallel to the string which for me is the least likely to catch adjacent strings as I'm clumsy!

Cheers,
Alun

[queenofthedepths]

Ah yeah, gotcha... I was for some obscure reason referring to horizontal as perpendicular to the string and vertical as parallel - not sure where I got that strange idea from, since I don't play upright or anything... but yeah, perpendicular for the lowest string and parallel for the others