Some Slap advice.

[K9Jay79]

This question is about slap technique. I've been toying with slapping since I got my equipment a few months ago. It's kind of weird. I remember playing with the basses at the store. It was mostly the 4 strings. I would just mess around slapping the E string, and I had no problem making that slap sound, no matter what fret I was on.

I ended up buying an Ibanez SR-505 (5 string) with Bartolini pickups. I can get the slap sound out of the B string about halfway up the neck, and out of the E string to about the 4th fret. Anything higher than that on those strings almost always harmonics out. I've tried slapping faster and getting my thumb off of the string faster. I've tried moving up and down the neck, to try and stop it. I've also tried striking harder and softer, and played with the angle I strike it at.

I started wondering if it was in the way the bass was tuned. I have no idea if that's possible, but it crossed my mind. I called the sales rep that plays bass that sold me my equipment, and he kind of chuckled a bit and told me that it was a technique issue. Now, I immediately believed that. But I'm also a pretty fast learner, and after spending hours watching youtube demonstrations from everyone and their mom, and still not getting it right, you start to get just a tad frustrated.

Do you guys have any advice or reason for this?
Another thank you in advance!

[Deacon_Blues]

If you get mostly harmonics out you're likely slapping over the fretboard. Try to slap a little closer to the bridge and see how the sound changes.

Also remember that the space between the strings is lower (usually) on a 5-string than on a 4-string, which makes the slapping slightly more difficult as you need to be more accurate.

If nothing seems to help, check out how your bass is setup and let a more experienced bassist take a look at it. If they can slap on it, so can you...

[BullHorn]

The Ibanez SR500-506 is an AMAZING bass guitar (It's in my wishlist ).

Slap somewhere around the pickups, where it's not too tight (at the bridge) and not too floppy (at the neck). Practice just slapping on open strings. Makes sure you finger doesn't stay on the string after the slap, otherwise the string will be muted.

Anyway, you have an AWESOME bass. Try giving it to an experienced bass player and see how much this bass can rock. If not, perhaps something is wrong and you might need to set it up. If I were you, I'd just go to a music store and get one of the guys there to play on it.

I'm sure it will work out. Awesome bass!

[K9Jay79]

Hey thx. I guess I'll do that. It's about a 40 minute trip, but alas... I will go lol. Yea, I love my bass. I was tossed between the 4 and 5. A lot of people said go 4, but I knew I'd eventually wish I had a 5. I think I was right. I also got an Ampeg SVT-HLF410 cabinet and an Ampeg SVT-Pro3 Head.

My dad was an awesome drummer back in the day. He was extremely technical. Well, we pulled his drums out of the crawl, and spent about 3 weeks polishing the heck out of em. We found out that now he's a an extremely rusty technical drummer. Anyways, I knew I was starting from the ground up, but I wanted to spend the money and get stuff I thought I'd be happy with for years to come. So far, I'm ecstatic. I've just always been a fan of flea type stuff, and I'd like to figure out what I'm doing wrong. I will definitely go make that trip. I'll probably take some lessons soon too.

[dlb1001]

Might want to check on Todd Johnson's forum. He has a couple of videos on how to deal with 5 string and 6 string basses. In fact, just ask him a question to see if he has any ideas.

[need4mospd]

String spacing is a bit tighter on the SR505 than most basses. I wouldn't recommend that bass for a beginning slapper.

[K9Jay79]

Originally Posted by need4mospd

String spacing is a bit tighter on the SR505 than most basses. I wouldn't recommend that bass for a beginning slapper.

I agree with that already. I sorta knew that when I tried the Ibanez SR 4 string next to the SR 5 string. There was a considerable difference in spacing. That was the one thing that made me hesitate with buying it. I feared I may not be able to slap on it. But, I'm not worried about it being difficult for a beginner to learn on. I just want to know if it's my problem or a technical problem with the bass, or the way it was set up or something. I will spend endless hours trying. I just don't want to keep trying just to find out that I just needed to take the thing in to have it adjusted.