Hints on touchstyle playing?

[oniman7]

Being new to the bass, I've been doing some experimenting with the way I play to figure out what I like. One time, when just messing around, I came up with a riff that involved tapping with my right hand, removing it, and very quickly hammering with my left hand (let me change notes faster than the typical tap-pull off, and with a different sound). I did some research and found that this was very similar to touchstyle playing. Can someone enlighten me on some of these concepts?

[Rockingbird]

Low action is a must for fast and fluid touchstyle. Wider string spacing also helps, at least down at the bridge.

[oniman7]

Well, if all goes well with my current project, I may make a second, and have it set up to play touchstyle (the first bass being standard, the second being a standard set up to Drop C) and possibly get different strings on it. I can't remember if it's the flat wounds or taper wounds that are supposed to be good for tapping?

I must say, though, that I've tried with the (almost abnormally) high action on my ccurent bass, and I find it easier where the action is not incredibly high, but higher than the first fret, where it almost touches the board.

[beelzelboss]

I hate to be a noob, but is "touchstyle" when you play by tapping only?

[Beginner Bass]

As I understand, touchstyle is when you use both hands to play pitches, instead of just one, so I guess so.

Also, I would suggest rounds for such playing, as the better treble clarity will work better for chordal work. But on the flip-side, flats would reduce fret noise, which may be a problem when having to strike that hard.

[oniman7]

It's sort of tapping. You don't always play the same pitch with two hands. As far as I can figure, it's used a lot for playing notes/ chords with a pitch above them (3rds, 4ths, 5ths, octaves, etc.)

[stringtapper]

There are different tapping methods that vary depending on style and texture. Check out the Wiki on Tapping.

What is known as one-handed tapping is the shredding style that Hamm and Sheehan generally use, while two-handed tapping is used more for polyphonic playing (i.e. playing like a piano).

I generally use the Free Hands method developed by Emmett Chapman. There is a history of tapping before Emmett of course, but he was the first to develop a method for playing an electric stringed instrument polyphonically (and also created an instrument for doing it as well, the Stick!).

For instruments that are not made specifically for tapping (e.g. Stick, Warr Guitar, etc.) you really want to have as low action as possible if you're going to use them strictly for tapping.

[Codymb]

Touch style can be very useful. I use it quite often in my playing. I definitely recommend trying to learn this technique as it could drastically change your approach to the bass. It certainly did for me.

I would love to talk to you about it and give you pointers but I'm not sure what you're asking for. Specifically what do you want to know?