Are You a Soft or Hard Player?

[SgtHulka]

Fingerstyle over the pups I'll dig in a bit more, but playing over the lower neck it's normally a speed/flexibility that demands economy of motion, but I always slap/pop extremely hard. I even have some blood on the neck to prove it!
View attachment 4331454

Call me a pervert, but I love that neck. I see sex images in it.

 

[SgtHulka]

Question for the light touch folks like me: do you prefer heavy or light strings?

I used to play super thick flats but have switched to very low tension flats recently.

I use 95 E-strings. I prefer to let the amp do the dirty work.

 

[Element Zero]

Yes

 

[Rib 13]

Medium Rare......with sautéed onions

 

[Dincrest]

During my time in a punk band, I used to pluck and dig pretty hard because the music, the band, the shows, and everything about it was high energy and adrenalizing.

Nowadays, I favor a lighter touch. Not feather light, but I'm conscious about clanking and digging. Everything plays and sounds smoother.

 

[Diminishedfilth]

I play relaxed on songs I’ve known for years. I might dig in at the start/end, or to emphasize a change, but most of the time I like playing the rest of the song like we just reached cruising altitude.
I do have a habit of playing hard on songs I’m not familiar with, though. Almost as if I’m trying to convince the rest of the guys that “yeah, I know what I’m doing here.” Even if I don’t notice this happening, I can tell when my fretting hand has metallic string indentions on my finger tips.

 

[BassBrass]

After a number of years playing 2 hours daily of trumpet exercises out of thee Arban and Clarke, my right hand fingers started out very strong. If I Have to use a soft touch for a tone, I will, but my natural instinct is to extract as much sound out of a slab of wood & steel strings as I can. I play chords sometimes and they have to "ring out". ...you have to attack the trumpet too (but not show it) to extract sound by buzzing into a g. d. piece of pipe.

 

[Koshchei]

Having seen people spraying and smearing their DNA all over their bass necks and bodies in this thread, I'd have to say very softly.

When I was first learning guitar, I'd practice until my fingers bled, and I'd mistakenly consider it some sort of achievement. Ultimately, it was gross, hard to clean up, and basically ruined a set of strings, which put me out of pocket for money I didn't really have at the time. It'd also take a day or two to heal, kind of negating the extra effort I felt I was putting in.

 

[Altitude]

When Marcus wrote that article about Jaco, he made the infamous statement that has led to countless debates about whether Jaco was capable of improvising over changes (of course he was, listen to his wonderful solo on "I Shot the Sheriff" with Bireli Lagrene as just one example).

But right after that, Marcus told a story about how Jaco taught him to play harder to better articulate the notes. Here's the text on both subjects:

One night he said to me, “Man, you think you’re good ’cause you can improvise on chord changes!” I said, “Man, I was just trying to play on chord changes like you!” Then he said, “Do you know about ‘cutting’ the string?” I wasn’t exactly sure then what he meant then. But when I hear tapes of myself then, now I know exactly what he was talking about. My finger attack was soft and my notes weren’t articulated clearly. I’ve gotten much better with that over the years.​

Jaco played pretty far back, which does make it easier to dig in without affecting the tone as much.

 

[radbass]

There are some players known for playing very hard such as Geddy Lee of Rush and Chris Wolstenholme of Muse (have to include the band names because at least one person will say they've never heard of them). A large part of their sound is the way they play very hard and either bounce the strings on the frets or come close to it most of the time.

On the other hand, some players such as Jack Casady of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna and Gail Ann Dorsey, mostly known for her work with David Bowie, who barely waft their fingers over the strings and let the amp do work.

Where do you fall in this spectrum?

 

[radbass]

I don’t know about Casady playing with a light touch. He makes it look incredibly easy, but he plays with very high action and the strings bounce off the frets at the end of the neck with every note. That’s where that percussive sound comes from.

 

[Kipp Harrington]

I'm an older guy (56)... it behooves me to play with a moderate attack.

 

[ClusterFlux]

 

[bigdaddybass12]

I am heavy handed. For a few years I played keys, I was heavy handed there also. I try to lighten my touch..

 

[Mo cowbell]

Depends. Usually too hard though. I remember playing a few tunes with a former band and the new basssist was WAY better than me. The thing is, he had a Ric and when I played it the strings kept hitting the poles of the front pickup.

 

[Joe Nerve]

I was a very hard player up until a few years ago when I started playing short scales tuned down a half step. Sometimes in drop D.

It took a while but I lightened up a great deal. I once feared that if I lightened up I'd lose the growl and edge I had playing hard, but I learned that didn't happen. I can still play hard, and love to. I can now however play lots softer too. Learning to lighten up has really helped my sense of dynamics. Made me a much more versatile player too.

I can now nod up and down as opposed to back and forth when people say - our sound is in our fingers . For the most part, it really is.

 

[logdrum]

Hard. Bad habit from playing upright.

I also play upright and yes I do have to dig in there but it appears that I am on the softer side on electric if Geddy Lee is the metric

 

[fdeck]

I have to be softer on electric or I'd break the thing.

But also, the shorter scale length, lower action, etc., calls for a lighter touch. That, and the electric bass deserves its own voice.

 

[Peeved T-40]

I use a 1.14mm pick most of the time and dig in as hard as I can. I love that growly, rock sound. It's not perfect for everything. some bass lines are just better with fingers but even then, I tend to play pretty hard. I probably wear myself out more than I need to but it's just how I play

 

[Jeff Scott]

I didn't notice, did anyone mention Gary Willis? (Okay, now he's been mentioned).

Over the years I thought I was getting pretty good at playing with a lighter touch until the second time I saw Tribal Tech (very early '00s). After the show, Gary and I were talking and I asked if I could check out his, then, brand new, signature Ibanez. Soitenly, he said. Man, I could bare get any clean notes out of that bass; the action was so low. Wow, I had some more work ahead of me!