How to straighten fretting wrist for lower register?

[rustinstrings]

I know this has been somewhat covered before but I can't find a proper adjustment.
It started with left hand pinky pain on saturday, so I started watching my posture practicing unplugged in front of the mirror using mp3 player for band material playback. Then I noticed a horrible angle of my wrist during the verse of one song which is a repetative line involving frets 3,5,6 on B string and frets 6,5,3,1 on E string.
Picking comfort aside, I experimented various strap lengths and neck angles.
The closest I got to a straight wrist was lowering the bass around waistline and having the neck/tuners at ear level. Even if we ignore the neck dive (which I understand can be solved by using different strap) the wrist angle was almost straight but still not looking healthy - it seems that in order to have a straighter wrist I'll need not only to adjust height and angle, but also move the bass sideways to the right (!), something that I'm not sure is possible.
I'm playing spector performer DLX5 and using a common Levi's non-leather strap. Is fixing my wrist angle even possible? Should I start thinking about changing bass or should the right strap help?

[mambo4]

Take this with a grain of salt, since i don't play a 5...

First: are you standing or sitting? either way, practice like you gig...

Generally a straighter left hand angle results from raising your bass, shortening the strap. for the lower frets you may have to trade off wrist comfort with arm fatigue from holding your left hand out from your body. Your elbows (R and L) should be close to a 90 degree bend (the say...)

Another thought is to finger differently:
3,5,6 on B string = 3 on B and 0,1 on E

6,5,3,1 on E string =1,0 on A and 3,1 on E

and finally, maybe switching to 124 fingering rather than 1 finger per fret in the lower registers might help.

edit: I thought your strap horn might be short, but googled your bass model and it seems comparable to the usual fender length...

[rustinstrings]

Thanks for the alternate fingering suggestion. It really helped playing current line more easily after raising the strap as much as possible. I just need to get used to the sound of open strings.

The reason I was going for lower strap and amost upright neck was because it allowed me to do one-finger-per-fret patterns more easily in that area, but still no straight wrist even when slinging the bass ridiculously low.

The higher strap approach still has limitation when alternate fingering is not possible. For example, afterwards I tried to play July by Katatonia (C minor shape, involving root, b7, b6, 5 notes) and it was still painful. I guess sometimes you have to retune the instrument or change the song pitch.

[Gawd]

I find that one finger per fret doesn't go over to well in the lower register. imo it's better to use a 1-2-4 fingering on the lower frets, and than switch to one finger per fret past the 5th fret.

[mambo4]

Glad to be of help.

using open strings can take a bit of getting used to. without finger meat absorbing some vibes, they tend have a lot more overtones going on. The biggest drawback is that, since you cant stop the note by simply raising your left hand fingers off a fret, open notes tend to ring longer than one might like. I use frequent left hand and right hand muting to stop the open strings.

As an adjunct to using a 124 fingering, realize that there's no shame in simply moving your left hand around to help your fingers reach in those lower registers. I do this all the time, often using my thumb's point of contact with the back of the neck as an anchor , I can slide my palm up 3 or 4 frets beyond what my pinkie would normally reach. (an idea i picked up form a Carol Kaye article way back inna day)

I was struck by how much of this left hand sliding up and down the neck was going on when I saw such greats as Rocco Prestia and Ray Brown (even tho Ray was of course on URB). Rocco seemed to slide his left hand mostly when dipping below the 5th fret and generally stuck in position above that, from what I recall. Oddly, his right hand barely seemed to move -a light, fast touch.

[EADG mx]

Your strap hold your bass at the same height you'd have it sitting (up straight, of course).

Try keeping your left arm a little further from your body.