tapping

[air_leech]

hey,

anyone has an idea what bands to boost or cut on my EQ or in what ratio should I blend the bridge and neck PUs when tapping?

[stephanie]

Sorry no advice for you. I am just a beginner, but I was really wondering what you mean by 'tapping'?

Thanks,

~Stephanie

[air_leech]

hi Stephanie.

Tapping is a technique applied to bass and guitar in which you use both your right and left hand to fret notes on the fretboard, this allows for really fast licks to be played.
instead of plucking you "hammer" or "Tap" the notes, meaning you fret the notes by 'throwing' your finger onto the desired fret with a bit of force for them to produce a sound, this also results in an intresting sound. if you still can't visualize how this is done, check out one of those 80's Van-Halen videos, Eddie pioneerd the tapping on electric guitar and is often seen in those videos tapping during solos.

if you want to listen to some good bass tapping you should first and foremost listen to Metropolis by Dream Theater (Images & words album), there is a beautiful bass tapping solo in the middle of the song. next you can listen to Stu Hamm and Billy Sheean who are very accomplished with this technique.

I hope this helped.

[embellisher]

Eddie Van Halen may have popularized tapping, but I heard an old studio out take of Jimi Hendrix trying something similar, and Billy Gibbons has been fretting notes with the picking hand ever since he saw Jimi do it in the late 1960's.

And Rik Emmett was doing the full blown arpeggiated tapping 2 or 3 years before Eruption was recorded.

[rickbass]

I stay with the "smile" on my EQ and keep the neck pup dialed in. But then again, Entwistle is my "tone" idol for rock, so what would you expect me to say?

Your gear is going to determine a large part of an "answer" to this.

[air_leech]

hey Emblisher

I said he pioneered it, I didn't say he invented it.
anyway I have no clue who is Billy Gibbons and who is Rick Emmet, but still thanks for the info.

btw, do you happen to know what EQ curve is the most suitable for tapping?

[Oysterman]

Steve Hackett invented tapping. And I use the same EQ curve for tapping as I do with fingerstyle and slapping - virtually flat with a bit bass boost.

[air_leech]

thanks Oysterman.

hmm...are you stalking me?!

[embellisher]

air_leech, I use the same setting I use for everything else, totally flat, except maybe a little tweaking for adjusting to the room I am playing in. For live playing, I always boost the mids a tad to cut through.

Billy Gibbons plays for ZZ Top, and Rik Emmet used to play for Triumph, now plays solo stuff.

I love Eddie Van Halen, he is one of my favorites, but both of these guys are better guitarists(IMHO) and both of them were tapping before 1977.

Oysterman, I am curious, I did not know that Hackett tapped. When did he start?

[Oysterman]

Originally posted by embellisher
Oysterman, I am curious, I did not know that Hackett tapped. When did he start?

I'm not sure, although it ought to have been sometime in the early 70's...?

If you read the short text on Hackett att http://www.allmusic.com you'll see:

Hackett is credited by some with inventing the two-handed tapping technique of guitar soloing later virtuosically popularized by Eddie Van Halen.

So maybe it's not 100% sure that he was the true pioneer, but that's what I've always heard.

[JMX]

Harvey Mandel was doing it in the 60s, so did Emmett Chapman (Chapman stick inventor)...

I mostly use the neck PU only and boost highs and lows a little w/ a bit of chorus thrown in. Both PUs on full sounds great too, though, but doesn't cut through the band that well.

[Christopher]

I keep an even mix of neck and bridge pickup, cut the lows below 100 Hz and the mids between 650-800 Hz. This gets rid of excess boominess and honk; otherwise I have trouble balancing note volumes on different areas of the neck. (For me, notes low on the neck have the boominess; high ones have the honk).

[Deicide666]

Just a note on info from allmusic...I've been to the site and the information there is sometimes unreliable/incomplete. So just take it with a grain of salt.

[Oysterman]

Originally posted by Deicide666
Just a note on info from allmusic...I've been to the site and the information there is sometimes unreliable/incomplete. So just take it with a grain of salt.

I take all info on the web with a grain of salt. Sometimes two.
However, I've been told this story by many different sources, who're not Internet-based. If Hackett wasn't the "inventor" of tapping, saying he is must at least be a very common (the most common?) misconception. The only other possible inventor I've heard of before is Eddie Van Halen, but that ought to be bull. I always blindly thought "Hackett", but now when Mandel and Chapman are mentioned, I don't know... the earliest tapping that I've heard come from Hackett on Genesis' "Nursery Cryme" (I think it was that one). There.

[embellisher]

Oysterman, what year was Nursery Cryme recorded?

[Oysterman]

1971