You could glue a small piece of thin foam or rubber to the top edge of the pickup where your thumb hits. If it is a microphonic problem a softer surface could lessen it. Self stick felt is another good option. If it is a grounding/shielding problem... get it fixed.
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How to avoid resting my thumb on pickups?
- Thread starter GroovinUSA
- Start date
It’s worth getting the floating thumb technique in your arsenal regardless of the pickup noise. It frees you up to access a whole spectrum of sounds available by plucking at different locations between the neck and bridge.
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
Sometimes I'll actually rest my thumb on the binding or neck edge because I'm playing with the right hand far enough forward to do that. I do that alot with my Fender Kingman ABG because it puts my fingers right over the sound hole., and well there are no pickups to use to rest my thumb with on it. And that position has transferred over some to my electrics.
Have your thumb removed, if you're really committed to becoming a better bass player it's the only way.
This. Floating thumb is a good thing regardless of what's happening here. It makes for more consistent technique since the distance between your thumb and your plucking finger remains about the same no matter what string you're playing on. Fast runs are much easier to nail once you have this technique down, and it's not as difficult to get into as you might be led to believe.
...however, your issue might be of a different kind. I use floating thumb, but the "sweet spot" on my bass is right over the pickup. Sometimes my fingertip will hit one of the polepieces and make a static pop. Your options in this case would be: Play away from your pickups, get different pickup covers, or put some electrical tape over the polepieces of your existing pickups.
The groove doc stated one of the most important things you'll ever learn if you care about efficiency. You can also use your forearm to mute the E if you don't care about looking uncool.
The thumb rest there will force playing the bass close to the neck termination whereas the position of the thumb rest on ‘70s Fenders requires a long palm for playing anchoring the thumb there, decidedly more than what I can provide ...New pickups?
Anchoring on the pickups is fairly standard technique for many players- as I have witnessed here and on many other forums and instructional videos.
Perhaps a thumb rest/tug bar-type contraption? (Tug would be on G-string side) $3.49 plus shipping on Ebay.
My first no-name Fender Clone had one of these, way back in 1984. It was probably a decade old when I took possession. I didn't understand ANYTHING about bass technique at the time (not drastically different than the present) However I seem to recall that I sort-of figured how it worked. ( Photos from random ebay listing)
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On the other hand the pickup cover will force you to play “behind” it using the floating thumb technique and at a location where a P-bass or a jazz bass can produce tones with a substantial amount of pleasant mids .. this is the way James Jamerson used to play his P-bass, so this technique can’t be deemed as being uncommon and/or fruitless
OP, are you noticing a pattern here?
So far none of my pickups that I can rest my thumb on the pickup make any noise, but a number of my basses that don't have a pickup within reach, I've had custom thumb rests made to match the body or pickguard.
When i first started playing bass i used to rest my thumb on the pickup but found it a bit limiting because the pickups weren't in the places a i wanted to pluck the strings. i have somehow developed a method that works for me and keeps the B And E strings quiet till i need to play them. visually it looks like the picture below if you can imagine the picture upside down. My thumb rests on the B string and little finger rests/hooks lightly on the lower edge/underside of the E string . this leaves the remaining three fingers free for the remaining strings. when i play the E string the little finger either moves underneath the B string or off the strings. B strings, only the plucking fingers are in contact with the strings. The little finger in my case excluding playing the B string acts like a pivot point for my right hand.when playing faster phrases i tend to use the floating thumb.Invalid Link Removed
I play Ibanez /gWB1005 which has a piece called ramp, covering all the space from my bridge soapbar till the neck. Maybe you can install that ramp between 2 jazz pickups and you got a height for the thumb to rest.
You need to have your bass checked by a competent luthier!
There might be something wrong with the electronics and it might fail completely in the middle of a gig.
There’s nothing wrong about exploring different techniques, thumbrests and pickups but you need a bass that’s not broken.
There might be something wrong with the electronics and it might fail completely in the middle of a gig.
There’s nothing wrong about exploring different techniques, thumbrests and pickups but you need a bass that’s not broken.
