Double Bass Bluegrass setup! Slapping! But also bowing?

[The Biz]

My 2.6 cents (0.02 in USD).

Fixed my typo. I was greatly exaggerating the exchange rate.

 

[Reiska]

It's tough, in my limited experience (I have used plain guts my whole life), to get a good gallop going on low action. Plus higher action gives your slap dynamic range.

My 2.6 cents (0.02 in USD).

+1

I`m primarily a pizz / arco player and my main instructor has been pushing me to use pretty physical approach both pizz and arco, to sound as strong as possible and having presence in the mix and on stage. However, high -ish action and gut strings give a huge dynamical pallette when plucked, bass sounds like a bass throughout it`s range also when played quietly.

 

[DoubleMIDI]

Other strings have different tension, higher string tension results in more pressure onto the top. But a higher bridge does the same to the top without the need for higher tension strings.

With Whackers, naked gut or low tension synthetic core like Silver Slaps or Psycho Slaps you are at the lowest end of double bass string tension. Almost anything else gives you higher tension.