basses on you tube...really? Slap rant...

[40Hz]

I just spat my coffee out.........

I was taught every time a bass got slapped a devil killed a kitten.

 

[DDXdesign]

I was in Sam Ash trying out a 4003w when they hit the market. I played a medley of Beatles tunes on it. When I finished the 2 salespersons told me it was a real pleasure listening to me play without slapp'n da bass. Made me feel good.

I do like to play a little slap on a bass when I'm trying it out (usually a couple bars of Aeroplane is the slappiest I can get anyhow) but looking younger than I am makes older salespeople look surprised when I'm checking out the fatter tones with Cream, Doobie Bros, etc. Couple weeks ago the sales guy was all "Is that Green Eyed Lady? What a great bass line!"

I am guilty of playing Rush and Muse tunes in the stores, though. At least I stopped playing Higher Ground.

 

[musicman666]

Im sorry but youtube review vloggers dont owe us anything and are not obligated to review a bass in a fasion that suits our own fancy. If you cant find what your looking for make your own damn video review.

 

[bass12]

I was at the Summer NAMM. This guy did not slap and played this thing beautifully. I was impressed. I was expecting slap.

View attachment 3069710

Terrible reviewer. You know he didn't play on his G# string even once?!

 

[gjohnson441496]

To play devils advocate, a Marcus Miller bass review will be slapped because it's expected. That being said the Youtube'r Allen Brown is known for his remarkable slap bass ability, but he plays finger-style in some of his reviews because he was asked to. Allen is a fantastic player in a lot of musical genre's.

 

[gjohnson441496]

Terrible reviewer. You know he didn't play on his G# string even once?!

I don't see how he plays it at all! Just watching him gave my fretting hand arthritis.

 

[toprekoms]

Never cared much for slap since Sly's bassist started the whole craze. in disco it drove me nuts. There are exceptions when its' done tastefully, like Chuck Rainey literally sneaking' in a touch of slap on the chorus of "Peg". I'm old school, and still believe that a bass is part of the rhythm section, not a separate member of a band.

 

[bearfoot]

Here's a product demo. Sort of.

Damn. You win! (overall I'd never seen an all-slap craptastic demo like that. guy never even went over the pedal, turned a knob, nothing.)

that was the $hit!

 

[Spectre Gunner]

So you're anti "anti-slap" (which is not the same as pro slap)?

I do think slap has it's place in demos. Given that I slap about 1% of the time (and that's mostly when I'm practicing), I think all demos should be 1% slap. And, to make certain I can appreciate how it'd sound if I slapped, it, I'd appreciate it if you did it poorly.

Maybe I should make a demo tape to put on YouTube. I'd have at least one viewer.

 

[MordBass]

Anybody else seeing some parallels here to the drummers that rip on double kick and try to talk about how its just showing off, and it doesnt help the song, and the greats didnt need it....... funny how those opinions are always from the guys that never got the hang of it.

 

[HolmeBass]

I agree, OP. It's super annoying trying to wade through so many reviews of basses or amp setups when all they do is slap. And I think your post is valid. You're just lamenting the disproportionate amount of slapping in reviews compared to the reality of how the instrument is played.

For those telling the OP to just ignore those YT vids, why didn't you take your own advice and just ignore this thread? Hmmm....

Because we're not complaining about this thread like he is complaining about slap-happy demo videos. To the contrary, we enjoy telling the OP how wrong he is.

 

[HolmeBass]

Never cared much for slap since Sly's bassist started the whole craze. in disco it drove me nuts. There are exceptions when its' done tastefully, like Chuck Rainey literally sneaking' in a touch of slap on the chorus of "Peg". I'm old school, and still believe that a bass is part of the rhythm section, not a separate member of a band.

Each person in the rhythm section is also a separate member of the band, unless you play in bands that have been subjected to weird surgical experiments.

 

[jamro217]

This is crazy! ... Could you imagine walking into Guitar Center, on any given Saturday afternoon, and not hear a trio of bad slap-bass played in varying degrees of the key of E and not turn and walk back out the door. ... What planet would that be on?

It would be present day earth. You wouldn't hear the basses slapping because of the idiot guitar players with the Les Pauls and cranked Marshall stacks trying to overpower the baseball bat wielding Sonor crowd.

 

[jamro217]

Every time a bass is slapped, an angel gets its wings.

Every time a drummer is slapped, everybody on TB smiles.

 

[Brad Johnson]

the thing about slapping is that whenever I meet anyone that knows nothing about bass playing or music in general really and see that i play, they always ask me to slappa the bass.

that's the target audience of many of these videos.

The target audience for bass reviews is people who know nothing about bass?





BTW I can't remember the last time anyone has specifically asked me to slap a bass. Where are you hanging out... in a Paul Rudd movie?

 

[Brad Johnson]

Just be thankful you didn't have a subscription to Bassplayer in the 90's every mag had at least one tutorial on slap, and best gear for slap, and song tab that featured slap.

Oh, the horror!


They were there for a reason... because everyone didn't share your hangup.

 

[Brad Johnson]

Yep, audiences love slap and slap has probably turned more people on to bass than any Duck Dunn groove (or James Jamerson line, for that matter) ever did. Part of the reason we have so many basses to choose from these days is that the market has expanded over the past three-to-four decades. This expansion, you can be sure, is largely due to the emergence of slap bass virtuosos/heroes like Stanley Clarke, Mark King, Les Claypool, Flea and Victor Wooten. The average person is barely able to pick out the bass line in most songs, let alone appreciate the supportive role of the bass in most popular music. "Stand at the back and pluck root notes and fifths (whatever those are) and lay the foundation so that the others in the band can sound good? No thanks! Be up front, play in-your-face bass and get attention from the audience? Well, I was going to take up guitar but, okay!".

So next time you see a video featuring a whole bunch of slapping and little of anything else, smile, nod and be thankful that we have so many great basses to choose from.

Maybe one day, in the spirit of parity there will be a rant thread about bass players who just aren't very good with fingerstyle. IME there are far more of them than bad slappers/

 

[Brad Johnson]

I agree, OP. It's super annoying trying to wade through so many reviews of basses or amp setups when all they do is slap. And I think your post is valid. You're just lamenting the disproportionate amount of slapping in reviews compared to the reality of how the instrument is played.

For those telling the OP to just ignore those YT vids, why didn't you take your own advice and just ignore this thread? Hmmm....

Do you only participate in negative rant threads you agree with? The answer's in there.

 

[Brad Johnson]

Never cared much for slap since Sly's bassist started the whole craze. in disco it drove me nuts. There are exceptions when its' done tastefully, like Chuck Rainey literally sneaking' in a touch of slap on the chorus of "Peg". I'm old school, and still believe that a bass is part of the rhythm section, not a separate member of a band.

Considering that rhythm is often a primary component of slapping...

 

[Brad Johnson]

Anybody else seeing some parallels here to the drummers that rip on double kick and try to talk about how its just showing off, and it doesnt help the song, and the greats didnt need it....... funny how those opinions are always from the guys that never got the hang of it.

Purely a coincidence.