Lightness of touch

[Wasnex]

That does seem unusual.

Only if you assume playing light is best for every person in every situation.

 

[Swerve]

I had an issue after playing flats exclusively for 5 years where when I went back to my previous 45-105 rounds they felt too floppy and buzzed a lot. Ended up using heavy gauge rounds for a while before realizing I needed to adjust my technique back to a lighter touch.

 

[WestyBassBob]

Only if you assume playing light is best for every person in every situation.

I do not. I think it has more to with the fact that novice bass players sometimes pluck the string as if it’s sb acoustic bass

 

[AK Bass Guy]

You'll know when your hands are under control when you can play very loud all the way down to very softly . . . . without touching one knob on the bass or amp.

This 100%. Just because it’s an electric instrument doesn’t mean it isn’t a dynamic instrument or has a limited dynamic range. Playing any instrument with greater dynamic range will result in a greater range of sounds. As they say on the DB side tone is in the hands.
Dynamics are one of the tools any ensemble can use to easily make their music more complex or in general terms “more dynamic”.

Since standardized music notation, good ensembles and composers have made use of dynamics.
Here is the dynamic chart.

That is a lot of musical complexity from just how loud or soft you play.

 

[StyleOverShow]

...if I were to really work at it, I wouldn't need ibuprofen before a gig.

My norm is Calcium and Ibuprofen before each gig, cramping and general aches.

I have used a bass loaded with flatwounds after a hard playing gig to ease the pain....

 

[Jazzdogg]

I agree in theory, but for me there is a slippery slope between getting a sound I like and playing too loudly; people might think I'm a closet guitarist. I'd much rather be asked to turn up than to turn down.

I learned the hard way that using a limiter can save my ears and loudspeakers from the damaging transients that often accompany n this approach.

I dislike plucking a string and getting so much sound that I am preoccupied with controlling the beast.

 

[stretch80]

It's a playing philosophy I also try to adhere to -- but in my experience, real world situations often won't allow me to play with as light a touch as I'd want. With a well-dialed in in-ear mix, it's no issue. But whenever I have to use external monitors, there's always some kind of volume battle going on with drums or keys. "Just turn up" is not really a solution after we've already gone through soundcheck, the drummer is then going nuts all of a sudden and the keys player thinks we need more left hand in the mix than usual. I don't want to be the culprit that messes it up even further, but there's always a kind of "right hand creep" happening. So the headroom I'd try to keep in reserve just goes poof.

This is my experience, exactly. And my own onstage exuberance contributes too.

 

[tremor100]

Pretty sure the video your refering to is Gary Willis. I watched a video of him way back when he was a young chap and he said exactly what your echoing where he cranks his amps but barely touches the strings to get improved dynamics and evenness.

I could never do that because im pretty agressive with fingerstyle but if you already have a light touch it makes sense i guess that the least energy and motion is the most efficient.

 

[Hurricane Jimmie]

So Anyway, I think I've always had a very light finger touch when playing.
When I hear of someone needing to re-fret their bass because of wear, I'm a little amazed. I guess some music styles require more physical energy than I've ever had to exert.
But I am pretty lazy.

 

[OlyWhite]

Danny Sapko is cool.

Michael League is cool.

This video is relevant.

 

[Bass Motifs]

I suspect the studio pros mostly use a light touch. Controlled and focused. Don't know how that would work on stage for rock.

Having "soft" hands and good relaxed technique helps. I'm trying to go lower action. I can still get a clear transient and dig in for some grind when needed. I'd say "light" is preference, but "soft" is good technique if that makes sense.

Check out this guy, super relaxed hands:

 

[Symphony2040]

Yup! This is a principle that I’ve lived by for the last 5 years or so.

Actually, in addition to a light touch, I have also adapted to using light gauge strings with VERY low action. So low to the point where if you push too hard, you will get some buzzing. As crazy as it sounds, this approach has completely changed my playing and how I approach the bass. It also made me realize that I was playing TOO hard before, to the point where I was overworking my left hand.

I am also able to get a level of dynamics out of the instrument that was difficult before when I was playing with a heavier touch and higher action. As you could imagine, transitioning from standard plucking to tapping is much easier/cleaner as well.

 

[songwriter21]

Yup. Many bass and guitar tracks you hear on classic recordings were done with the gain and volume maxed out and the bassist in another room.

John Entwhistle is the guy to study for this technique. He played with a very light touch but also insanely loud and suffered hearing loss. By the end he apparently played by feeling the notes more than hearing them.

One needn’t go deaf to get this though.

I'm not sure he played all that lightly. He did play with insanely low action, though.

JE was one of loudest bassists I've ever been fortunate enough to catch live. Stanley Clarke is the other.

Steve Harris also plays with a lighter touch and crazy-low action, and very heavy-gauge strings.

 

[shirojiro]

I suspect the studio pros mostly use a light touch. Controlled and focused. Don't know how that would work on stage for rock.

Having "soft" hands and good relaxed technique helps. I'm trying to go lower action. I can still get a clear transient and dig in for some grind when needed. I'd say "light" is preference, but "soft" is good technique if that makes sense.

Check out this guy, super relaxed hands:

Yeah man
Tone, feel, groove.

When I get excited I dig in too much. But sometimes I want that grindy, bouncing off the frets sound.

But I’m a better player if I soften up.

 

[ajkula66]

Steve Harris also plays with a lighter touch and crazy-low action, and very heavy-gauge strings.

The only way to do it, IMO/IME. The combination of these three factors is the key.

Whoever picks up just about any of my basses or guitars finds themselves in the Land Of Buzz. Not me.

I wasn't always like that, though. However, once I bought a Steinberger L2 ~40 years ago I realized how imprecise my technique was at the time and how much unnecessary effort I was putting into playing. That bass was just like a magnifying glass for my mistakes and my first venture in the world of light touch/low action. I sold that L2 after a couple of years but the awareness stayed with me.

There's another aspect of the story. During my very long hiatus from playing bass I also suffered a right wrist injury that never healed properly. Once I went back to playing I realized that both slapping and playing with a pick were simply out of the question for any extended period of time due to the pain incurred, so I went for an even lighter touch and I'm loving it. I did use a pick briefly for a couple of electric guitar parts on the album linked in my signature, but even there I'm probably 90% fingerstyle nowadays.

I want my action even lower and my touch lighter and am working on accomplishing that every day.

My experiences only...

 

[Hillie]

I'm self-"taught" and play like lumberjack on steroids. Small amps, loud bands, not knowing better and also kind of liking that "digging" in sound. But this:

The tone I was getting was sensational. It had a thump to it that I don’t normally get. Counter-intuitive, I know, but it’s true.

Convinced me to try it. I'll just get started on playing light and opening the volume up so the amp provides enough noise to not wear my hands out too fast. Because it sucks for endurance.

I also hate noisy players, all that sloppy string noise, buzz, etc, not for me. So I'll lower my action even more and get cranking. No wait, get touching.

Question for the lighthanded players: I've seen some very light touch players that had all that fundamental sound, but nothing energetic for me. That whole digging "aggression" seemed to have disappeared. What can I do to retain some of that? Compression and back to the heavy handedness? Hand position closer to the bridge and just a little more dig?

 

[Paul New]

I’m not a big fan of the light touch trend. My goal is to try to emulate my double bass attack, and I get closest to that with a medium action and digging in with a lot of meat. Light touch and various other approaches are also in my repertoire.

 

[mambo4]

Perhaps it is time for me to experiment with a different approach.

There is useful variety of tones between a "bridge pluck" and a "neck pluck"
I've been known to sweep some steady 8th note plucking from one extreme to another
to create a slow 2-4 bar change in timbre as I approach a chorus or whatever
kinda like a filter modulation pedal might create

not as obvious as a dedicated pedal, but effective.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

You'll know when your hands are under control when you can play very loud all the way down to very softly . . . . without touching one knob on the bass or amp.

Unless you’ve dialed up compression as part of your tone

 

[mambo4]

. That whole digging "aggression" seemed to have disappeared. What can I do to retain some of that?

The speed of your plucking has influence on how aggressive you sound.
Not how many notes but how fast each individual pluck is - the attack
Not as obvious as really digging in , but effective

I generally dial in aggression on my gear
I set my gain on the edge of distortion, so I can dig in a little and get some hair/fuzz on it
( a Genz Benz Streamliner helps )

I have enough difficulty plucky as accurately as I'd like
Don't want to add physical exertion to the equation

All of this is of course easier said than done...
practice, the eternal solution