Creative suggestions for a non-ugly Jazz THUMB REST?

[plasson]

How many people actually play bass without anchoring their thumb somewhere - that is, they play with their hand floating in free air, with only the plucking fingers touching the strings? Are you advocating for a classical guitar-type technique? If you have a special technique, fine, but calling the technique that most bassists use a 'deficiency' is quite a stretch. I have come across 'floating-thumb' purists regularly, but this is a step beyond...

I wasn't even aware there was such a thing as a "floating-thumb purist". Unreal.
I'm gonna start the "one string movement". After all if you need more than one string it is because of a technical deficiency.

To go back on topic, as I was building a 3D model in Sketchup for the thumb rest, I realized that there are several ways not to drill the body while still coming up with a solid thumb rest that doesn't rotate around.
You can use the lateral support of the pickups, the one pickguard screw between the pickups AND the 0.5 mm gap between the bridge pickup and the body of the bass. Of course this is almost impossible to build without a 3D printer.

But I'm also realizing that for my playing style I can get away with something like this.

Right now I temporarily attached a piece of plastic to the body to test how long my thumb rest really NEEDS to be.
It's interesting to notice how important it is that the thumb rest is well rounded and feels good to the thumb, otherwise it feels like something extraneous that I don't really end up using.

 

[Axstar]

I'm looking for something that either feels invisible (better) or that blends with the aesthetics of the instrument.

Floating thumb technique!!


I kid...

 

[craigie]

I wasn't even aware there was such a thing as a "floating-thumb purist". Unreal.
I'm gonna start the "one string movement". After all if you need more than one string it is because of a technical deficiency.

To go back on topic, as I was building a 3D model in Sketchup for the thumb rest, I realized that there are several ways not to drill the body while still coming up with a solid thumb rest that doesn't rotate around.
You can use the lateral support of the pickups, the one pickguard screw between the pickups AND the 0.5 mm gap between the bridge pickup and the body of the bass. Of course this is almost impossible to build without a 3D printer.
View attachment 3412434

But I'm also realizing that for my playing style I can get away with something like this.
View attachment 3412451

Right now I temporarily attached a piece of plastic to the body to test how long my thumb rest really NEEDS to be.
It's interesting to notice how important it is that the thumb rest is well rounded and feels good to the thumb, otherwise it feels like something extraneous that I don't really end up using.

Very nice prototyping work!

 

[Fun Size Nick]

The problem is only that you use your thumb to stop your plucking finger at the end of its travel. That's your technique deficiency, not the thumb rest. You can continue to use a thumb rest and I hope you find one that looks good on your bass to you. But I recommend that you try strengthening your plucking fingers by using the muscles of your plucking finger to stop its motion rather than relying on your thumb, which is costing you time and energy, decreasing your available dynamics, and keeping your plucking fingers from developing strength and speed.

On reading this again I am even more confused as to the technique that you're advocating. A normal fingerstyle technique has the finger plucking the string and naturally coming to rest on the next string (ie the string is stopping the motion of the fingers), or the thumb if playing the lowest string. The only way that I can think to do otherwise is either to be plucking outwards from underneath the string (like in classical guitar technique, or a much more restrained pop - that is, the 'pop' from slap & pop), or to be playing so softly that the finger doesn't hit the next string. If the OP is not to use the thumb in place of the next string when playing on the lowest string, that would mean that they would have to use a very different technique on the lowest string than on all of the other strings, which seems an overly complex way of going about things.

To me (but I am certainly no expert in body mechanics!), it seems that it would be more efficient (ie costing less time & energy) to allow something to stop the motion of the finger before using the muscles to extend the finger again, rather than using the muscles to slow, stop, and then extend the finger.

Could you help me understand what this technique that you are advocating for looks like?

 

[plasson]

Floating thumb technique!!


I kid...

Very nice prototyping work!

Thanks. I can make it available for people if they are interested, but the chances that my bass is different from most (it's not a Fender) and that my Sketchup skills suck so bad make it so that it's probably easier to start from scratch. I started from this Jazz template and then moved pickups and routings around to fit my instrument's size.

On reading this again I am even more confused as to the technique that you're advocating.
[...]
it seems that it would be more efficient (ie costing less time & energy) to allow something to stop the motion of the finger before using the muscles to extend the finger again, rather than using the muscles to slow, stop, and then extend the finger.

You are perfectly right.
Unless, like you mentioned, you played so softly as to not hit the string above the one you are plucking, but again, there is simply no way to achieve the sound I was talking about by plucking the strings that gently.
But what guts is advocating, plucking hard and then applying an equal opposite force to stop the travel of the finger, is as inefficient as can be. Some might call it a deficiency.