I posted a blog on this over on MySpace a while back. Since then, I had reverted to wearing the bass very low - which on a lot of levels was actually more comfortable, since you can move the bass neck into more of an 'upright' position thereby changing your pickhand position and so on. However, I had only been practicing a bit like that and tended to record sitting down. Then I subbed for a blues band for a few rehearsals, playing mostly Jack Bruce-esque aggressive fingerstyle and the back of my right/picking hand just killed me. It was like someone had hammered some rusty nails in there, before prising them back out out with more rusty nails. Now I've reached a compromise and have it at a mid-height which seems to do the trick (for fingerstyle, slap and pick).
Obviously things like body type (yours and your bass's!) have to be taken into account and not everyone is suited to way up high or way down low.
Here's that blog:
How low does yours hang?
Current mood: Postal
There are many important factors in the unsubtle arts of electric guitar and bass playing. Tone. Chops. Overplaying. Underplaying. But by far the most important to get Just So is, obviously, how low should I wear my guitar/bass? Months, I've been hung up on this.
Since sometime in the mid-90s, there's been a lower-is-cooler logic that, shamefully, I must have bought into along the way. Kurt Cobain, it seems, wore his low. And yet history tells us that Hendrix didn't, so Kurt Cobain can f*** right off, yes? Similarly, bass-players who are cool (Flea) wear theirs low; bass players who are so uncool it must sting to be near them (Mark King) wear theirs high, right? But what about Phil Lynott? Cooler than a fridge full of jazz, but a waist high Precision-wearer none the less.
So, I finally hitched my bass and guitars back up to a more playable height a few months ago, using the Hendrix/Lynott argument, backed up with a dash of Jeff Beck, Edward Van Halen and Les Claypool. But then gradually, night after night, they started slipping down again, a little at a time. It just looks cooler - and looking cool, I think we can all agree, is far more important than playing well. Social conditioning, folks; join 'em.
Then I saw a clip of cheeky teen popsters McFly on the telly. They wear their guitars *way* down low like Sid Vicious with an acute curvature of the spine. McFly.
I now play with my guitars strapped to my face.
Obviously things like body type (yours and your bass's!) have to be taken into account and not everyone is suited to way up high or way down low.
Here's that blog:
How low does yours hang?
Current mood: Postal
There are many important factors in the unsubtle arts of electric guitar and bass playing. Tone. Chops. Overplaying. Underplaying. But by far the most important to get Just So is, obviously, how low should I wear my guitar/bass? Months, I've been hung up on this.
Since sometime in the mid-90s, there's been a lower-is-cooler logic that, shamefully, I must have bought into along the way. Kurt Cobain, it seems, wore his low. And yet history tells us that Hendrix didn't, so Kurt Cobain can f*** right off, yes? Similarly, bass-players who are cool (Flea) wear theirs low; bass players who are so uncool it must sting to be near them (Mark King) wear theirs high, right? But what about Phil Lynott? Cooler than a fridge full of jazz, but a waist high Precision-wearer none the less.
So, I finally hitched my bass and guitars back up to a more playable height a few months ago, using the Hendrix/Lynott argument, backed up with a dash of Jeff Beck, Edward Van Halen and Les Claypool. But then gradually, night after night, they started slipping down again, a little at a time. It just looks cooler - and looking cool, I think we can all agree, is far more important than playing well. Social conditioning, folks; join 'em.
Then I saw a clip of cheeky teen popsters McFly on the telly. They wear their guitars *way* down low like Sid Vicious with an acute curvature of the spine. McFly.
I now play with my guitars strapped to my face.
