how hard or softly you pluck

[Stewie]

There is a huge difference in the sound of an upright played like you mean it, and one played lightly through an amp. I play mine hard for the good thump sound, buyvthrougj an amp. I’ve always played my Fenders with fairly high action and a heavy hand. Either technique works, but the final tone is very different

 

[logdrum]

You can still have high action and play lightly on the plucking hand. Latin jazz and salsa folks that play the Ampeg baby bass or a regular upright use Spirocore solo gauge which are supposed to be tune in F#, but they tune them regular but they have high action. I started use light flats 95 and raised my action a bit on one bass and the sound is great. Of course I am floored how Gary Willis sounds. Looks like low action and feather like pluck technique.

 

[Sands]

I find a lighter touch with TI Flats creates a great tone and significant opportunity for expressive articulation (a bit lighter to a bit heavier). But my hands are XXL + so my light touch is probably a bit heavier than some.

I’m not playing acoustically so the heavier play is just not necessary. I also play electric and acoustic guitar and those instruments I finally realized respond very favorably to a light touch. Similarly, well somewhat similarly, the TI Flats seem to respond at least as amazingly to a light touch as a heavier one.

 

[Plain Old Barry]

I used to pluck very hard. I ended up needing carpal tunnel relief in both hands, not 100% bass related, but it was part of it. I had to stop playing for a few years, as even after the surgery it took a while to get feeling back.

Once I started playing again, I drastically changed my right hand technique, letting the amp do a lot more work. It took more than just plucking lighter, as more gain means also needing more care to play clean, muting unused strings, etc... In the end, I'm a much tighter player now, and I can easily hang for 3 1/2 - 4 hour sets one of my bands does.

 

[mrcbass]

I started with a pretty heavy engine. I'm working on developing a lighter touch for a lot of reasons:
1. Easier on the fingers for those multi gig weekends
2. Able to play a bit faster with lighter touch
3. Tone actually get a bit punchier (I know, not intuitive)

For the record, I count Jamerson amongst my top tier influences

 

[edot3021]

For some reason I can never get that masculine sound. Do you all think it might be my bass? I've never checked it. Do I need to take it to a luthier?

 

[micguy]

I generally try to rip the strings off the bass...at one point (often a chorus or something) in a set of music - that's my "11". Everything else is scaled back in terms of how hard I pluck - most of my dynamics comes from playing technique, though I do use the volume control for some things. I play church gigs, where we go from a flat out roaring rock band level to underscoring - playing softly underneath someone who's talking or praying softly. Control of dynamics is very important in what I do; a bass with hum or buzz is useless to me.

 

[jdjk7]

i started out under the huge umbrella of Motown master James Jamerson!
we never ever changed strings. always heavy gauge, very high action . and me and many of us aimed for the Mountaintop of motown bass sound .
so my original bias was pulling hard on strings .
it created an aggressive “masculine “ sound that i’m not convinced can be replicated with low action .

related : string bass players were at the beginning ( 1960’s ) of using pickups and amps
and i recall as they lowered action and played with less force - using
amp to create the sound - there was something not quite the same , as the older school bass heroes of the 1940-1950’s. Imagine playing a string bass with NO AMP!!

ok fast forward half a century to now
i’ve lowered action and use round wounds of course ( Thank you Jaco )
but i’ve never experimented with playing with much less force in the right hand. allowing a much turned up amp to create the sound .

and i correct (i’m not up to date obviously ) in saying Gary Willis is a guy who follows this approach ?

Have any of you thought about, experimented with, much lighter touch in plucking hand - as i’m
considering ?

now mind you, i have a less than positive impression of those string bass players ( acoustic bass ) who
lowered their action and turned amps way up. it always felt like a cop
out. though some of the blazing tempos they played , makes a low action lite touch sensible ! No disrespect to string bass players - ok?

still, my mind is open to learning-
to me being able to switch from hard pulling on strings to moderate to light touch, all have sonic potential. you sound differently with each approach .
but i have not done this light approach

about 30 years ago i’m sure i went to a more moderate touch versus the old super high action approach on elec bass

thanks for listening

Well.. I don't really find much of a difference. I play basses with low action and high action. The thing is, your action doesn't really influence how hard or soft you can pluck so much. For the sake of argument, that's all right hand stuff. Action mostly affects how hard your left hand has to work, and how fast it can potentially be. Technically the lower your action is the more likely a hard pluck is to bring on some fizz from strings hitting the fretboard, but the gauge and give of your strings is also a factor there, plus the geometry of the neck. I have a bass with rather low action that only fizzes out on my hardest notes.

Yes, there is some leeway, and with playability, everything sort of affects everything else. But in this case I don't find there's much of a difference. Where setting the amp is concerned, I personally prefer to keep it sort of balanced. I don't crank the amp much, but I also don't play super hard to compensate. That being said, I think the sound of strings played hard can sometimes be much more pleasant, even if it is murder on my plucking hand.

I use varying dynamics in my technique, but I also vary what technique I'm using just as much. I might have a song where for one part I'm plucking way up over the neck, switch to thump the strings for a break/fill, then switch to a pick for a chorus part. I like to have options, because sometimes what sounds best can change. I've gotten real good at plucking strings or even slapping them while keeping a pick in my fingers...

 

[Isaac_James]

For some reason I can never get that masculine sound. Do you all think it might be my bass? I've never checked it. Do I need to take it to a luthier?

Have you been oiling your fretboard with testosterone infused mineral oil? Have you attached a set of novelty testicles to the strap button on your bass? Try these and you'll get a very masculine sound, I'm sure.

 

[edot3021]

Have you been oiling your fretboard with testosterone infused mineral oil? Have you attached a set of novelty testicles to the strap button on your bass? Try these and you'll get a very masculine sound, I'm sure.

I'll check Reverb or Amazon. I had no idea. You all are the best.

 

[Sands]

I used to pluck very hard. I ended up needing carpal tunnel relief in both hands, not 100% bass related, but it was part of it. I had to stop playing for a few years, as even after the surgery it took a while to get feeling back.

Once I started playing again, I drastically changed my right hand technique, letting the amp do a lot more work. It took more than just plucking lighter, as more gain means also needing more care to play clean, muting unused strings, etc... In the end, I'm a much tighter player now, and I can easily hang for 3 1/2 - 4 hour sets one of my bands does.

That is amazing and great to hear. Well done! Congratulations!

 

[Sands]

I’m not sure what is meant by masculine sound. I’m 6-9 275. Every sound I make is masculine, hopefully.

 

[fretlessman71]

I’m not sure what is meant by masculine sound. I’m 6-9 275. Every sound I make is masculine, hopefully.

You need to buy my 36" scale TV pickup bass...

 

[micguy]

I’m not sure what is meant by masculine sound.

What sound do guys make proudly, that women are ashamed to do in public?

Hint: What you ate a few hours ago can helps you achieve masculine sounds.

 

[tmvt]

I use a pick and play all rock from harcore, punk and all sub genres of modern rock. Last bass I played was borrowed and they sold it with the action I played and the person that bought it said holy poopie how did he play that and I'm guessing he saw me play with it and liked what he heard.

I don't play super technical basically doing a rhythm guitar track, lots of 8ths notes and carrying the main progression when the guitar does other stuff. I'm very heavy handed but go as hard as I can without it becoming a problem with creating unfavorable sounds. So I'm guessing the high action on the last bass helped as I could hammer on that string without any fret noise etc becoming a problem and the note was always clear and full.

I guess that my playing overall is pretty physical between having to have a crazy strong fretting hand and hammering hard with my picking hand. So its a trade off and doesnt make playing crazy technical material and walking around the fretboard easy.

When I worked live production and would go out to gigs I was always admired the basses bass and they would see me and start up a conversation with me about it. They would see how much info I knew on their bass and my knowledge about bass design, maintenance etc and would usually end up having me throw it on and give it a try. Lots of high end basses with very low easy playing action and I could definitely see how I would have to hold back from my normal playing to play a bass like that so again trade offs.

Long story short

ACTION HIGH - harder to play less unwanted noise and you can hit harder

ACTION LOWER - Easier to play and potential for more noise so you have to play softer.

So play within the limits of the bass based on action.

 

[Smooth_bass88]

depending on the music, gig, session etc. it varies. prefer medium action so I can dig in ZERO fret noise.

 

[Sands]

What sound do guys make proudly, that women are ashamed to do in public?

Hint: What you ate a few hours ago can helps you achieve masculine sounds.

LoL

 

[dbsfgyd1]

i started out under the huge umbrella of Motown master James Jamerson!
we never ever changed strings. always heavy gauge, very high action . and me and many of us aimed for the Mountaintop of motown bass sound .
so my original bias was pulling hard on strings .
it created an aggressive “masculine “ sound that i’m not convinced can be replicated with low action .

related : string bass players were at the beginning ( 1960’s ) of using pickups and amps
and i recall as they lowered action and played with less force - using
amp to create the sound - there was something not quite the same , as the older school bass heroes of the 1940-1950’s. Imagine playing a string bass with NO AMP!!

ok fast forward half a century to now
i’ve lowered action and use round wounds of course ( Thank you Jaco )
but i’ve never experimented with playing with much less force in the right hand. allowing a much turned up amp to create the sound .

and i correct (i’m not up to date obviously ) in saying Gary Willis is a guy who follows this approach ?

Have any of you thought about, experimented with, much lighter touch in plucking hand - as i’m
considering ?

now mind you, i have a less than positive impression of those string bass players ( acoustic bass ) who
lowered their action and turned amps way up. it always felt like a cop
out. though some of the blazing tempos they played , makes a low action lite touch sensible ! No disrespect to string bass players - ok?

still, my mind is open to learning-
to me being able to switch from hard pulling on strings to moderate to light touch, all have sonic potential. you sound differently with each approach .
but i have not done this light approach

about 30 years ago i’m sure i went to a more moderate touch versus the old super high action approach on elec bass

thanks for listening

My technique varies with the material played. As for the height of the strings. If somebody needs enough clearance to pass an inflated football under their strings, it’s their choice. Frankly, I don’t get why anybody with a properly set up neck would want action any higher than it needs to be.

 

[ryco]

Depends on the style and band.
If it's the hard rock band I tend to really dig in and play really aggressive. (Rounds)
The oldies/blues/RR band def assertive with force. (Flats)
Jazz trio tend to play pretty soft but still with a lil attack. fretless (Halfrounds)

I don't even really think about it. The fingers just seem to pretty much know what to do.
I am a digger tho. Playing finger style have had people ask if I'm playing with a pick = assertiveness + tend to play more up towards the bridge.

 

[Iandavis23]

I would like to say I’m on the lighter side, it all depends on what the song calls for I suppose. I like to have the room for a heavier attack though when needed.