Is there such a thing as "bass thumb"?

[Slacking Zac]

You are either:

Locking your thumb while resting it on a pickup to get leverage on the strings

Or

Playing way too hard

Either way, relax your arms and wrists more.

This was 100% it for me. I was locking out my thumb to rest it on the pickup before I learned to pick it up and bring it with me to thumb mute. I had to go back to beginner exercises and consciously focus on relaxing it.

Sad to say, while going to see a Dr. is the 'right' answer, the medical opinion is going to be to just stop what is causing the pain. Until you fix the technique, the answer is going to be 'don't play bass.'

 

[Naigewron]

Is this somehow related to the bass? Has anybody had this experience before?

Yup, I experienced this a lot for my first couple of years playing bass. Like others in this thread have commented, it was definitely because I was resting my thumb on my pickup, and putting way too much weight on it.

I've since moved to floating thumb technique, and never had any issues since.

So my advise is that if you absolutely need to rest your thumb on your pickup (or somewhere else), make sure that you're not actually letting your thumb carry the weight of your arm. Your arm needs to hold itself up, and the thumb is only resting there because it's a convenient way of anchoring your hand and having a reference for where your hand position is.

 

[wiscoaster]

I had x-rays and saw an orthopedist today. My bass thumb is osteoarthritis. It's with me for good, unless I get surgery, but that may negatively affect my ability to play. So, Tylenol 3 times a day for the foreseeable future and some pain. 50 years of doing this has taken its toll.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it only keeps getting worse. I exhausted all non-surgery options until I reached the point where there was no other way to continue playing, and pretty much anything else I needed my left thumb to do. You'll reach that point too, sooner or later, and my advice to you is to just find the best hand surgeon you can find and get it over with. For me, it's been three weeks now, and each day I pick up one of my basses and try to play a few notes. It's not there yet, but it's noticeably getting better each day, and I really don't think it's going to be nearly three months until I'm back to "normal" like the doctor said.

Also, Tylenol is very bad for your liver.

 

[seescottrock]

Speaking from experience, OP, the faster you learn to not anchor your thumb at all, the faster you'll feel better.

 

[edwinhurwitz]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it only keeps getting worse. I exhausted all non-surgery options until I reached the point where there was no other way to continue playing, and pretty much anything else I needed my left thumb to do. You'll reach that point too, sooner or later, and my advice to you is to just find the best hand surgeon you can find and get it over with. For me, it's been three weeks now, and each day I pick up one of my basses and try to play a few notes. It's not there yet, but it's noticeably getting better each day, and I really don't think it's going to be nearly three months until I'm back to "normal" like the doctor said.

Also, Tylenol is very bad for your liver.

I'm aware of the dangers of tylenol, as are my doctors. For other reasons, my liver function is monitored.

I don't think I would be able to get my insurance to cover the hand surgery right now, but I will start my search.
I'm very glad you found a resolution!

 

[Slacking Zac]

I'm aware of the dangers of tylenol, as are my doctors. For other reasons, my liver function is monitored.

I don't think I would be able to get my insurance to cover the hand surgery right now, but I will start my search.
I'm very glad you found a resolution!

I ran into this with my ankle I needed fused, and my neighbor that needs a knee replacement is in the same boat. They really want you to be at the point where you can't take it anymore before they operate. My surgeon told me 7 years ago to just use it until I couldn't, then they would do something.

 

[Sid Fang]

As an older dude myself, I have a lot of sympathy for folks having repetitive motion issues and joint problems related to bass technique. But I find the talk of stress/force on a thumb anchoring on a pickup a little odd. I do use my thumb touching - barely - a corner of a pickup, as a spatial reference. But having paid to have sweat-damaged guitar pickups rewound, and having fought with damaged pickup mounts, I've always been paranoid about damaging the bass with too much/too heavy contact. It hadn't occurred to me that I was also protecting my thumb.

 

[wiscoaster]

.... They really want you to be at the point where you can't take it anymore before they operate. My surgeon told me 7 years ago to just use it until I couldn't, then they would do something.

The flip side of this - from the patient's point of view - is also that the longer he waits, the more difficult the surgery is, and the longer the recuperation time, and the more physical therapy needed. That, of course, is more money in all the providers' income streams. I was thinking from that point of view, but this experience has changed my opinion. Now, I'm thinking that if it's inevitable anyway, do it sooner rather than later and just get it over with.

My "bass thumb" today three weeks after surgery:

and at this point I'm thinking it's only a matter of days before I can at least play some simple arpeggios. Matter of fact, just a while ago I tried fingering a G scale from low G and got through the entire scale, but not without some minor discomfort, so it's not quite there yet.

If I had daily bit the bullet, continued to rely on anti-inflammatory pain meds and cortisone shots, and waited longer for the surgery, perhaps more bone would have needed to be removed, the surgery more extensive, and the recuperation slower and more lengthy. I'm glad I did it when I did.

A successful surgery will enhance ability to play; playing with pain detracts from it.

Of course, without health insurance, I can see there's really no choice to be made.