18 cents... changed my tone & cured my GAS. Ramp & Thumbrest alternative

[Tunaman]

Awesome idea someone shared with me... Adding a self adhesive bumper to my pickguard as a thumb rest! Now I can play exactly where I want over the strings The tone changes really dramatically. I was always stuck playing wherever my pickup was. I was able to take it off try a few positions, angles with no problem

If you look real hard its a black square right above my bridge pickup



Comes in 3 colors... costs 18c, sticks well & leaves no residue

Mouser bumper

Here are a couple of options...

3M Bumper PDF (Different Options)

I opted for the SJ-5018 which is .23" high, just about the same height as the pickup. The round version SJ-5003 is an option too.

I was going to look for a more aggressive bass but I like the tone off this bumper. If I had a single bridge pickup, I'd put a bumper closer to the neck to warm up my tone.

Pretty cool... so before you go pawning your bass, give this a try & you will be surprised how much tonal variety your bass bass have

[musicman666]

Will it work for Metal?!?
Seriously cool. Wish I had known this before I drilled a thumb rest next to the bridge! Now you let the secret out!

[TechJunky]

Quite inventive! I typically tend to play near the pickups out of convenience and comfort, but sometimes focus more on tone specifically and find a killer spot right between the pups that's hard to play. This would be great for that! Thankfully, one of my basses has a slanted j and humbucker fairly close together which gives me enough area to find the sweet spots with ease.

[mjac28]

Originally Posted by musicman666

Will it work for Metal?!?
Seriously cool. Wish I had known this before I drilled a thumb rest next to the bridge! Now you let the secret out!

LOL How about funk country or classic punk?

[MiJaKo]

What's the longest you've played since you attached it? I'm intrigued but I think it would irritate my thumb by the time I was halfway through a gig.

[Tunaman]

Just put it on today, I'd imagine the round guy would be less irritable although changing the angle makes it customized to you unlike the hard plastic pickup.

[Bryan R. Tyler]

I'm guessing you mean thumbrest alternative rather than ramp alternative

[Tunaman]

Youre right Bryan but I was actually looking into ramps too.

No drilling, no residue, costs nothing... pretty neat trick to change your tone so easily

[Tunaman]

Used it for a while last night, comfy!

[unclejane]

Originally Posted by Tunaman

I was going to look for a more aggressive bass but I like the tone off this bumper. If I had a single bridge pickup, I'd put a bumper closer to the neck to warm up my tone.

Pretty cool... so before you go pawning your bass, give this a try & you will be surprised how much tonal variety your bass bass have

Sorry, but I can't see anything here? Are you talking a ramp-like thing between the pickups?

If you're talking about a thumb rest, I'd be curious how you're dampening the strings if you're keeping the thumb locked on the side of the bass anyway?

I've built ramps of various kinds over the years out of pieces of wood using sanding blocks and sticking them between the pickups with double stick tape or foam sticky pads. It takes some skill with a sanding block, but if you can score a radius block from somewhere you can make a really precise one.

I pluck over the pickups on my basses exclusively so don't use ramps anymore, but a proper ramp is actually not much more expensive to make (maybe a few bucks rather than cents lol). And they really make a nice feel if you play in lots of different positions...

LS

[Stinsok]

What is the original purpose of these bumpers?

[bongomania]

Originally Posted by Stinsok

What is the original purpose of these bumpers?

That's what electronics salesmen used to call "LRF support".

Little Rubber Feet.

[timber22]

I've used these "rubber feet". They work great.