Can you slap on an acoustic bass guitar?

I have seen it done, probably on YouTube, I can't remember; plus upright players use that as part of their technique although I'm not sure if it's the same hand position that you would use on a bass.

 

you can, however in my experience it sounds like ****.

 

I know the bassist from the Violent Femmes uses an acoustic bass as his trademark instrument, and I've heard him slap and pop on a few songs (can't think of the names of the songs at the moment).

 

you can slap anything. i could slap random people walking down the street if i wanted to...it just might not go over too well.

in all seriousness. ive never seen/heard anyone do it successfully. <--that includes me.
and by successfully i mean producing a pleasing sound.

 

Of course you can.

 

Of course you can slap and pop on it. It just doesn't sound at all like Marcus or Victor. Popping with a piezo pickup is gonna be on the poopy side of tone because it both overloads the preamp and the pickup is sensitive to high frequencies that a normal magnetic pickup can't even read. The setup tends to discourage slapping because light gauge strings don't produce enough sound with an ABG.They usually are strung with some pretty tight strings to maximize their acoustic sound.

 

You can, physically, slap and pop an ABG without doing damage. It may (and almost certainly) not sound like generic slap and pop. The most likely sonic result would be slop and poop.

 

Yes you can. My friend just recorded his album and he wrote it all on acoustic bass. His site should be up next week and if you get a chance, look into it. He tears up an acoustic bass slapping the crap out of it. Great player. His site is www.BrianBuracker.com

Peace,
Chris

Correction. The site is up now!!

 

Listen to Jonas Hellborg's "The Silent Life" to hear some serious ABG slapping...

Mike

 

just checked out his site. i dig it. it's kinda... what would the DMB sound like if dave were a bassist and not a guitarist. after "no spend" january is over i might order it off itunes.

 

I think the OP is asking about mere humans slapping on acoustic basses.

 

I learned to slap on my victor bailey acoustic. Personally I love that bass and I don't think it sounds bad at all. It just might hurt a little more if you pop where the hole is because, for me anyway, I found that more of my finger pulls against the string than on an electric and it has more potential to rip you're fingers up, especially when you don't have great calluses yet.

 

I have no experience with acoustic basses, but that last sentence made me laugh!

 

Ive done it before.... it didnt sound very good though.

 

+10000 to Jonas Hellborg examples. Look him up on youtube, I'm sure you'll find a video of him ripping it up on an acoustic!

 

hear hear.

There's a time and a place for everything, and that's not one of them.

Cheers,
Cameron

 

Absolutely! Slapping on an ABG with new(er) roundwound strings sounds better IMO than many basses (eg.. my P basses or my old Gibson SG RI).

It won't be a Jazz or a Stingray, but IMO ABG's have that high end thump and sounds pretty cool.

I wouldn't gig one and play funk or RHCP, but around the campfire or at an informal jam I definately can get funky on an ABG.

 

Technically...

 

slapping to create a percussive sound is done on acoustic instruments all the time...however, the technique is a bit different than a solid-body electric...

I don't own an ABG, but I do "slap" on my acoustic guitar...I attack with a lot less velocity and really don't let the notes ring out, I just do it to get a pseudo-snare drum thing happening.