Best bass for slap?

[ru4serious]

oh whatever you do, don't go with a P-bass. I can't slap on one of those to save my life.

 

[jjl5590]

my favourite bass to slap, and one that i currently own, is an Ibanez EDB-500. Simply brilliant. I prefer it to a Stingray or Musicman anyday

 

[4stringprodigy]

By far, my favorite bass to slap with is my 1980 Kramer Stagemaster Imperial. It has amazing tone for slap, like it was built just for it. Most Kramer metalnecks actualy have nice slap tone. My DMZ5000 is a sweet slapper as well. The only Kramer I have been disappointed by is the metalneck flying V. Another nice slapping bass is the Lightwave VL, and most MTD Kingstons are nice too. I played a really nice ESP LTD B series bass once too.

 

[nostatic]

P-basses, Gibson EBs and any single-pickup-in-the-neck-position bass won't sound as good though.

Umm...err...

 

[StingrayVB]

This has to be one of my favorite slap tones ever. actually makes me pretty jealous and sort of wish i had this Warwick instead of my Stingray.

 

[woody357]

One word "Bongo"

 

[yellofury]

This has to be one of my favorite slap tones ever. actually makes me pretty jealous and sort of wish i had this Warwick instead of my Stingray.

 

[Dan Knowlton]

Yep, it is that one that everyone mentioned!






Or maybe it depends on the player.

Dan K.

 

[Rickett Customs]

I know 2 that weren't mentioned:

Status and Carvin.

 

[DizzyExiled]

I know 2 that weren't mentioned:

Status and Carvin.

LB-70 w/ j-pups sounds great imho.

 

[Calaverasgrande]

I am a little biased but
MUSICMAN!
I have a Stingray and a Sterling. If you cant get a good slap tone out of those you need lessons.
The Sterling/Stingray 5 have that neat switch that lets you tailor the bite a bit by switching from series to parallel or SC.
They also have the eq. Smile curve it!

ps gotta say until I picked up a sterling I thought the Ray was the be-all end all of slap bass. The Sterling is a serious little funk machine!

Also gotta disagree about action. I think slap basses kind of work better with some relief and a medium high (higher low?) action. Need some space for the strings to bounce right!? Though of course if you do right hand hammers than you want something lower.

 

[devilock76]

Another here saying it is subjective, bass feel is a big part for your technique, also I have found strings, and electronics to play a big part in tone shaping for slapping.

And I find a P bass great for slapping, partly because I have large hands and the P-neck just feels good to me. Also I like the tone of a full on split coil pickup slapping.

That being said if I was to buy another bass particularly for playing more slap stuff, I would give serious consideration to a Stingray.

Ken

 

[guitardefector]

Anyone have an opinion on the best slap bass? I have a Zon and it is among the best I have tried (though the Legacy Elite model I had was better than the one I have now), but I don't get to try a lot of different models around here.

From my stable, the "best" ones are:

Fender Jazz(a no-brainer)
Peavey Fury(a real surprise??)

...and my personal favorite, the Ibanez SR300(under $300)

however, maple fretboards usually give the best slap sound IMO.

 

[Jim Dep]

oh whatever you do, don't go with a P-bass. I can't slap on one of those to save my life.

Somebody forgot to tell MarlowDK. I love the sound of a P-Bass well thumped.

 

[Langueta]

I own both tobias growler and a stingray. I like the feel for slap of the musicman but more the tone of the growler. You can get similar modern slap sound like marcus miller, the musicman is more vintage and agressive

 

[thmsjordan]

I figured I would throw in my $.02 here. I am not saying its the best for slap but the P bass is getting a little dissed here as a good slapper. Lest we forget Mr. Freddie Washington who has been happily slapping along on a P bass for many a year now:



Given this, I can agree that there are some real nice sounds to be had from the basses mentioned here, no doubt. Many of them may indeed be "better" for slap. But lets not put the P bass in the case on this one. It sounds just fine to me when I smack it around.

 

[Jim Dep]

The Boz Skaggs video was nice. That's a great P-tone sitting elegant in the mix. Classic funk/soul sound.

 

[Time Consumer]

One word "Bongo"

Thats what I was gonna say, that or Lakland cuz I play 5's and if you wanna slap on a 5 bongo or lakland are one of the few great options.

 

[Jim Dep]

I figured I would throw in my $.02 here. I am not saying its the best for slap but the P bass is getting a little dissed here as a good slapper. Lest we forget Mr. Freddie Washington who has been happily slapping along on a P bass for many a year now:



T

I compared Freddie's P-bass tone to a video found next to it with another bass player doing the same bass line using a Jazz bass with the neck pick up only. The Jazz just can't quite get the classic P tone (and visa versa).

I had the same experience going from a P bass to a Jazz back in the 70's. For some grooves, I really missed the P-bass.

 

[Hugh9191]

Despite what most people here have said I find a P bass excellent for slapping. I find P bass necks very comfortable to play on and I can get a very full tone when slapping on the P.