Hitting strings soft vs hitting strings hard

[maxiegrant]

I think it's pretty hard for players who've learned to draw the sound out of an acoustic instrument to abandon that harder touch to play like Gary Willis.

Yea -- it's a question of dynamics. The bass has tremendous dynamic range. My personal feeling is that putting the action super-low and playing with a feather-light touch is cheating myself of the true range of sounds the instrument can make.

I was taught to pluck with two fingers, and trained on a French bow, which requires some strength in very fine muscles.

 

[fishdreams]

My personal feeling is that putting the action super-low and playing with a feather-light touch is cheating myself of the true range of sounds the instrument can make.

I completely agree-I want room for soft and loud, and the setup should enable that.

Plucking a string bass makes it pretty clear indeed: if you don't hit the bugger, there's no tone. Hearing Charles Mingus play, is hearing a nuclear assault on a gut string bass, and that's a frightening virtuoso right there. Jack Bruce for example translated this style of attack to bass guitar. Works pretty well for him.

I like a bit of attack. I always play fretless these days, but I don't like 'mwah' on a fretless, which I find to be the result of low action making too much string touching the fretboard, creating a mushy and color-less tone that I find impossible to intonate clearly and with intent. So I have a relatively high action on my fretless with stiff strings (no TI flats for me.)

It's all about finding the right instrument setup (action, amp settings etc) for what attackwise works for you. To each his own.

 

[sammyp]

all depends on the dynamic of the tune ..but if i'm playing rock or blues i like to hit as hard as i can without getting "clank" ...so that's not real hard plucking!

 

[sammyp]

Of course a 100W amp isn't that much, but you're probably going to get blisters anyway. As your finger tips get tougher, you're going to be able to play with a softer touch while you're actually playing louder than you are now, if that makes sense. Maybe your fingers are just too sensitive.

It's early here, so I'd wait for a more educated answer.

isn't it funny ...my fender deluxe reverb 22 watts will cut any guitar gig but ya need near 400 watts for bass!?

 

[john grey]

A bass (guitar) frequency is reproduced by moving a larger cone or many smaller ones. In magnetic voice-coil speaker design that takes more juice. Lower frequencies are reproduced by moving more air via typical designs: it's only logical that more power is needed. Piccolo & Tuba concept.

The longer I've been playing the more my touch changes. I have some calluses but not too many. When I started I had quite a lot. There's no question I can move with more precision with a more "controlled touch" which very often means a lighter one. There would be no way that I could play the things I do now, playing the way I did in my first few years.

 

[Trailight]

To me, it depends on the music I am playing. When I started playing bass, I didn't have an amp so I had to hit the strings hard to hear what I was doing, after a long time doing so, it ended up being a part of my "tone".
I think it's very subjective, do what feels right and what is comfortable to you. The beauty about music is that there aren't any rules and if they are, they are meant to be broken (of course, with taste).

 

[kanonfodr]

I'm a heavy metal bassist so I like plenty of clank in my tone: I run my action low and fast while beating the crap out of my strings. But I can still manage a light touch for some songs we play (I find that moving my hand closer to the bridge where the strings have less play helps as well). Ultimately it's your tone, man, and if it's working for the music then roll with it.

Peace,
Greg

 

[Slammin]

To me, it depends on the music I am playing. When I started playing bass, I didn't have an amp so I had to hit the strings hard to hear what I was doing, after a long time doing so, it ended up being a part of my "tone".
I think it's very subjective, do what feels right and what is comfortable to you. The beauty about music is that there aren't any rules and if they are, they are meant to be broken (of course, with taste).

That is what happened to me after I got married and started having kids. I played for years w/o an amp since I didn't want to wake anyone. The result=not having to EVER worry about getting blisters again, lol. Actually, the bass I learned on weened me of that problem alot too because it was so crappy and I didn't know anything about setting it up (I was 7 and didn't get a new bass until I built one in HS), but now my fingers are strong and hard.

So, I do play harder than most, but when I need the soft n fluffy, I use technique.

Playing with my new Peavey Cirrus/Alembic - YouTube

I use the fleshy part of my thumb, ring and pinky fingers when I want less attack. My index middle fingertips are way too calloused to get any kind of mwah whatsoever, but I can take the edge off when needed.

As someone else pointed out though, adjusting your bass, amp and whatever effects you are using in advance so that you can make the changes to your bass knobs on-the-fly is key too. But, the real key is technique. Mine isn't perfect, and is always evolving, and that is what is so much fun about playing bass to me. It is a delicate instrument.

 

[Inersphobia]

I have a question that relates to this. I am just starting to learn, and I am getting a buzz when I move my finger off the neck. It sounds fine while it is still on, but the only way to stop the buzz when I am moving to a different fret is to mute the string. Am I plucking too hard? It doesn't seem practical to mute the string when going up just one string. I keep my pluck hand thumb one two strings lower than where I'm plucking, (eg., so if I'm plucking g string, my thumb is on a in standard tuning). Is it practical to keep your thumb only one string lower? I have been trying that, and it feels like it's really slowing me down. I end up muting the string w/ my alternate pluck finger before moving to the next string, and this seems like a bad habit to develop for speed reasons. I notice the problem diminishes when I play softer. I'm using a crate practice amp, w/ beyerdynamic dt770 headphones. bass is a used warwick corvette. I have to turn the volume knob and the amp all the way up when I practice...I think I might need to put something between the amp and the headphones to give it more juice because the headphones are 80 ohms. The rare times I play w/o the headphones, I don't notice the problem as much. Oh, and I have my mid hi and hi set pretty low on the amp, so I don't think that's the problem.

Edit: I feel like an idiot. I was sitting around thinking about this problem, and I realized what it was: I'm just taking my finger off too slowly. Buzz is gone.

 

[henry2513]

Great examples of playing with a light touch, tons of dynamic range - from balls out aggression to a light ballad.

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Gary Willis - Very Early - YouTube

All done with a light touch.

I'm learning how to play this way now, it's a complete pain in the ass because I was already a relatively advanced player. Sitting for 3 hours for a couple of weeks playing at 40 bpm to teach your right hand to relax is beyond boring.

I feel like I've had to start over square one as he also incorporates his ring finger and I'm learning to do the same now.

Is it worth it? Absolutely, I'm getting to the point where there are certain things I'm doing now that I couldn't play with with just using middle and index so I can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Benefits for me

- Cleaner technique
- Overall faster speed and more facility - I can play 8th notes crossing strings at 200 + BMP all day.
- Pain free and injury free (biggest benefit and probably the best reason to play this way imo)