Slap Bass

[Riley R]

Hi everyone, I was wondering if someone could tell me the difference in slap bass with an electric and slap bass with a stand up. I recently watched Walk the Line the movie about Johny Cash and noticed that the bass player was slapping his bass, he was keeping the bottom end, and yet getting these snaps out of the bass to, almost to fill in for the lack of a drummer sort of a snare sound. any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

[mpoppitt]

Slap on an upright is usually done in rockabilly music. It is a COMPLETELY different approach to playing than slapping on an electric. Here are a couple of good examples, with good players:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rV0IizvQHW0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6UFhHgzNq0

For all things slap bass, go to:

http://rockabillybass.com/phpBB/

[D McCartney]

Also see if you can find some of Milt Hinton's work. Slap Happy, indeed.

[mpoppitt]

Milt Hinton and Pops Foster are jazz guys who slap.

Here is a clip from the bassist from the Romanian gypsy band Taraf De Haidouks, whose name escapes me at the moment:

http://www.markrubin.com/tunes/solo.mp3

Most definitely not rockablly. I have never seen anybody slap faster than that guy.

[stockbass]

Originally Posted by mpoppitt

Milt Hinton and Pops Foster are jazz guys who slap.

Here is a clip from the bassist from the Romanian gypsy band Taraf De Haidouks, whose name escapes me at the moment:

http://www.markrubin.com/tunes/solo.mp3

Most definitely not rockablly. I have never seen anybody slap faster than that guy.

That's Viorel Vlad. He's just as crazy on his instrument as the rest of the members in that band.

[hdiddy]

Looks like there a new vid of Milt Hinton on youtube. Slapping comes at the very end of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgIQj4WLYaU

[WillBuckingham]

Originally Posted by mpoppitt

Slap on an upright is usually done in rockabilly music. It is a COMPLETELY different approach to playing than slapping on an electric. Here are a couple of good examples, with good players:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rV0IizvQHW0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6UFhHgzNq0

For all things slap bass, go to:

http://rockabillybass.com/phpBB/

There's also guys like Jim Singleton who use a modified electric bass slap technique on upright.

[Johnny L]

When I see somebody like Mark Rubin slap like nobody's business on upright (and I have seen it lucky me), pulling or striking the strings hard enough to hit the fingerboard seems to be essential. It's almost like using the string as a drumstick and having the fingerboard be the skin.

This may be required for electric bass slap technique too but that's definitely the goal for upright. Whatever it takes to get that, that's the key to getting that driving slap sound.

I'd almost equate slap bass with timpani to be honest.

[bassist1962]

I recently (finally) got to see Stanley Clarke on upright. He plays the same as he does the BG. Slapping and popping the same way. It is a different sound than the rockabilly slap, but was interesting. If I am correct, slap technique on both instruments came about due to the lack of a drummer.