| Right hand technique with (short) fingernails.
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Hey everyone,
I've been playing more bass than I have in the past (I am playing bass in an occasionally gigging band) and as a result I've been trying to evaluate my technique. I've never studied bass in particular with a teacher, and have played more guitar, but I picked up a bass soon after starting guitar and consider myself as more than a guitarist who happens to be playing bass. I have been playing guitar for about 6 years, and bass for about 5, and have an AA in music etc.
I am an intermediate classical guitarist and feel the need to have [i]some[\i] fingernail to have a well articulated tone, as well as speed and accuracy. My nails extend just past my fingertips; I don't have huge claws like some guitarists. Unfortunately, this means that if I play with rest strokes (where my finger follows through to the lower string) my fingernail contacts the string. This is clanky-er than I'd like to sound most of the time, although I do intentionally use this sound on a couple of more new-wave-y tunes my band does, I don't like this tone most of the time.
As a result I mostly play almost exclusively with free strokes (where I pluck the string up with the finger, and do not rest on the lower string). This sounds good, and I can play most of our tunes fine this way, but it severely limits the speed I can play. I have a hard time playing 16th notes above maybe 100bpm? I use my ring finger occasionally to play 16th notes but can't play steady streams of them. I can play almost twice as fast with rest strokes, but the tone isn't rounded anymore.
Do any of you have advice on playing faster in my situation? I could try to develop a more extensively integrated technique with my ring finger to speed up a little bit. Would a ramp be likely to help? I used to have one on a bass I sold (installed by the previous owner) that I liked, but I wasn't really woodshedding at the time. I really don't want to just roll off treble electronically, the tone just isn't anywhere near the same. I've tried hilarious solutions involving medical tape. I won't cut my nails.
For what it matters, I usually play either anchored on the P pickup of my BB414 or anchored on the E string, but I tried out a floating technique after reading the thread and am pretty comfortable playing that way as well. I also tried the thumb, index, middle, ring Garrison technique thing (over the fingerboard of my fretless) and found it workable, except that my longer thumbnail sounded wildly different than the rest of my fingers.
Thanks for any insight. | 
