Strings for slap/rockabilly etc.

[nrector]

I'm sure you have all seen this one a hundred times, but i just saw the "Hot club of Cowtown" out of Austin last week and couldn't keep my eyes of the bass players amazingly crisp and effortless seeming right hand slap technique: very melodic, very musical.
I've been playing steel strings for jazz and some acoustic funk, Latin, blues and early country for awhile now, but this was an inspiring show and being new to town and without a band at the moment, I think I'll take a shot at rounding out my skill set with some rockabilly slap techniques. My question then, of course, is should i just go cheap and get some weedwackers and put them on myself or do i need to take my bass to a luthier and add an adjustable bridge for higher action and perhaps pick up a better set of strings that have more crossover application in case i need to play a few jazz or acoustic gigs in the meantime?
Any insight would be appreciated, Noah

[Plays_For_Dog]

You don't want a high action for slap. It will make your tones more flat and less lively. More like a thud then a pop. Don't want them too low for fret buzz, but the sweet spot is just out of fret buzz. That way you get plenty of room strings to vibrate tones cleanly, but close enough where they can bang into the frets at full force when your thumb b*+ch slaps them in place. If the strings are too high, the tension of the string being in tune will slow it down before it can bounce off the fret, and thus it won't sound as bright and crisp.


And use round, steel strings. I like Ernie Balls.

[moles]

Might wanna avoid roundwound Ernie Balls for this particular application...

NRector, if you want to just try out the technique, and aren't sure if you want to go all in yet, I'd put on something low-ish tension but skinny enough to fit in your bridge slots. Eurosonic/Presto lights or ultralights, Innovation Silver Slaps etc. Lots of string info available by searching - you might want to look in the Strings forum or the Rockabilly though.

Whether you need adjusters will depend on how high your string height is now, so that's something to take into consideration. A good place to start might be just swapping your G and D out for wackers, and see how that works out for you.

[nrector]

maybe some space plastic for the d and g would be a nice transition and still allow me to do the bridge setup myself.