Trick to playing on the first and second fret?

[Rabbuk]

Do you have to press down like super hard on the first and second fret when playing? Because when im play often times the sound becomes really twangy on those two. I made sure the bass was in tune. Any feedback would be sweet.
Much love,
Rabbuk

[Mudfuzz]

No there shouldn't be, if your bass's nut is set to proper height there should be no big difference [if any at all] from the first to the last.

[moro]

Your nut slots might nut be cut low enough. You can check this by fretting each string at the third fret. There should be be just a teeeeeny bit of space between the string and the first fret.

Your action is ok on the other frets?

[Rabbuk]

every fret but the first two work fine but those two sound really twangy unless you apply alot of force you pretty much have to use two fingers.

[Depth_Charge]

You shouldn't need to press that hard. I used to have the same problem on the 1st fret of E and A (but not D and G, go figure). I had 2 problems:

- I wasn't fingering the note behind the fret but on the dot/marker, or sometimes even near the nut and;

- I needed to stretch my arm out too far to reach the first fret which reduced the amount of pressure I could easily apply.

Practicing to hit the 1st note right before the fret and adjusting the strap to lift the bass an inch or two really helped, and in the meantime I worked out how to play those songs on my 5 string...funny thing was when I did that, the guys reckoned "Tainted Love (Soft Cell)" never sounded better and wouldn't let me back onto the 4 to play it

[canopener]

Setup and practice, practice, practice.

[Rabbuk]

ya my problem is on e and the a strings to so maybe i have the same problem you did.