Letting the strings (tone) ring on high speed, fingerstyle

[gerison]

Hi out there!

Since this is my first posting in this board let me first stress out I really appreciate your efforts.
I hope I will be good enough to even give some advice to others by myself soon.

But first I have to solve a problem to which I actually have an idea of a solution, but it doesn't really satisfy me (higher action)

I'm working with my Band on "One Day Remains" from Alterbridge.
It has plenty of 16th notes at 136 bpm.
Since I'm a fingerstyle player I switched to three finger technic to be able to play this tempo by keeping the groove as well.

And here comes the problem:
My bass has a really low action; this has never been a problem to me, I always have a decent clear sound and ringing notes.
But everything above 120 bpm produces a completly undefined tone, If i can say so. The notes don't ring. It seems they have no time to develop "body" before the next finger strikes the string again. Additionally the string buzzes like hell on the frets, what they don't if I play at lower tempos.

I play with the fingertips, striking the string, let me say, like a piano player, coming from above with a slight plucking motion at the point of time where I hit the string, using the first two joints of the fingers mainly, and have really short contact time on striking.

I would appreciate if anyone can give me advice how to get a decent tone at that speed.

so long
geri

[fullrangebass]

I understand what you are talking about (I, too, love the percussiveness of the notes played like this).

Once the set up change direction is out of question (understandably why), IMHO the most direct solution would be change of pickups. The sound should have more low, low mid emphasis to compensate for the "percussiveness" of the technique.

[nysbob]

Why not try raising your action a little?

It's not going to effect how quickly you are playing with your right hand in the slightest, and might help out a lot sonically.

Personally, I can't stand super low action - it stifles the natural dynamics of my playing.

It's a lot quicker and less expensive than changing out your pickups...worth a try IMO.

[mrhardy]

The answer is fairly simple, practice.

If your playing in first position move up the fretboard to the "A" at the 7 fret, as a starting point. The strings have more room to move in this area. This will accomplish the same thing as raising your strings and playing in first position.

It is a pretty simple line, and you should be able to play with two fingers. It is a little fast but not so much that you should need three fingers to play it.

[dcallred]

Play closer to the bridge. Closer to the neck gives a rounder boomier sound, closer to the bridge has less bass but cleans up the tone and you can play faster because the strings don't vibrate as far.

[debassr]

Why not play it with a pick?

[TFunkadelic]

Lighten up your technique.

When I was first beginning, I had this same problem and I first tried raising the action to compensate. It helped some, but didn't really get me where I wanted to be.

Playing with very low action enables you to play faster, cleaner, and with less effort. It also, however, requires you to refine your technique and this is something that takes heaps of practice and attention. You get fret noise when you play faster because you're playing harder as the speed increases (your technique is becoming sloppy, basically).

Playing with a very light touch seems to leave the fingers of your right hand in contact with the sting for a shorter duration of time, which in turn allows them to ring out more clearly.

[gerison]

Thank you for all your comments and proposals!

I agree, playing close to the bridge gives a dramatic increase in speed but mainly at the expenses to sound. As I play a Stingray Replica my pickup (I'm used to play right above it) is allready pretty close to the bridge. I tried to play several times right behind loosing all the low end of the sound.

I didn't play pick so far, tried it and noticed that I would porbably invest the same amount of time ot keep a decent groove with the pick as i would have to invest in a decent three finger technic, wich I could use right after "one day remains" for all the other songs I play. Actually I'm allready playing almost everything with three fingers and I have to say I enjoy it, though I have to admit i have to emphasise getting the same sound on each finger.

I watched the most recent video of Billy Sheehan; his Advanved Bass Technic video. To me he might be the reference of constat high speed playing. In this video he explanes that he had the same aforementioned problem.
He solved it, as fullrangebass allready mentioned, by using coverd pickups wich make not any noise wehen they'r touched by fingers or the string itself, he put's them close as possible below the strings so that he can actually tip on the pickup and therefore plays faster. He as well cut's the high end, emphasising the middle to even more reduce buzzing strings...

But I agree with, TFunkadelic, practice... I'll try hard though I believe that the loss of attack by touching the strings more and more slightly will not satisfy me on the long run...
maybe practice and pick up exchange will do the job for me...

so far thanx for your ideas..

so long
geri

[John Wentzien]

When you pluck the string, instead of striking it--try "releasing the string"-- Kind of like a bow and arrow. slighty pull the string and let it go...