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Non-permanent thumb rest?
- Thread starter Randy S
- Start date
I've had success with this stuff. Used it for my most expensive bass. No damage to the poly finish. Tape is very thin so your thumb rest or finger ramp is not elevated unnecessarily high. And no backing layer to remove. Thumbs up.
Edit: Those dummy screw heads? Brilliant idea.
M. M.
Edit: Those dummy screw heads? Brilliant idea.
M. M.
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Nice solution! When I first saw what looked like screw holes into the bass I was bummed, smart way to do it with dummies.
I use both floating thumb and movable anchor techniques. I also use the neck as an anchor for finger style, play with a pick and occasionally slap when I want a different sound. I contributed to the discussion here because the tip about the 3m tape helped give me another option for anchoring on my Ric. This thread isn't about playing with a crutch.
Their is a product called the bass buddy which is plastic rests of different shapes that are held on with some type of 2 sided tape. I use one on my Kala Ubass. Works fine but kind of ugly.curved piece of black plastic I think it was around 10.00.
I'm sorry, I guess I took it the wrong way. I thought you were trolling a thread about installing temporary thumb rests by telling us to learn new techniques so none of us "need" thumb rests anymore... Wait? What were you trying to say exactly?
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How about an alternate opinion regarding floating thumb and thumb rests or ramps? I have been practicing the floating thumb technique for years...ever since I took a class taught by Todd Johnson at our local community college.
I've found that when playing the B string and then dropping my hand down to play notes on the 'lower' strings, my thumb can get caught underneath the B. This can interfere with playing the next note on a lower string. Any sort of thumb rest, finger ramp, or thumb thingie eliminates this problem (for me). Which is why I've added such to two of my basses. For some folks using the floating thumb does not eliminate the need for a rest or ramp. IME. YMMV.
M. M.
I've found that when playing the B string and then dropping my hand down to play notes on the 'lower' strings, my thumb can get caught underneath the B. This can interfere with playing the next note on a lower string. Any sort of thumb rest, finger ramp, or thumb thingie eliminates this problem (for me). Which is why I've added such to two of my basses. For some folks using the floating thumb does not eliminate the need for a rest or ramp. IME. YMMV.
M. M.
My thumb is kinda fat and I have low action, so the B string works great for me.
And I’m too set in my ways (lazy) to work on doing it another way.
And I’m too set in my ways (lazy) to work on doing it another way.
Two totally different solutions to the same problem (my problem). Interestingly, both of these basses have one pickup in the Musicman position. My other basses have either two pickups or a P pickup in the P position which for some odd reason don't interfere with floating thumb. And both of these 'things' are held on with the tape in my previous post above.
M. M.
M. M.
My 2 cents for anyone considering floating: I was a heavy thumbed anchor guy but 5 string muting sucked. I tried floating a few minutes a few times over the years.... worse. Then I made a real attempt and in no less than 2 months it was second nature good. Lighten touch and turn up and no longer reliant on anchor plus i can now be dynamically more expressive, and hammers/pulloffs are now way more volume balanced with my plucking. Had my first lesson in 20 years yesterday and teacher wants me to learn movable anchor with a very light thumb. I'm gonna do it. It won't be that hard. When playing the E over no pickup, i would switch to floating; we didn't address what to do if no pickup is there for you as we both have pickups where we pluck.
I was just trying to say that if someone has trepidations about putting tape or screws for a thumbrest on their bass, it's possible to play without a thumb rest. I don't tell folks that their technique is wrong or my way is better. Hey, in my thumb rest days, I screwed...SCREWED...down a thumbrest on an Alembic Series One bass I played back in the 80s! How smart was that??Well, at the time, I relied heavily on a thumb rest and it served me well. But when I resumed my playing career, I immediately began suffering wrist and hand cramps (I was 55 at the time, age is definitely a factor here). Upon researching the problem, I found that a possible cause was bending my wrist too far over. Once I learned to hold my arm out and straighten my wrist out, the pain and cramps went away. Also, I didn't need a thumb rest anymore.
And when I offer a suggestion in a thread such as this, I try to be very careful and state explicitly that my idea is only a suggestion to consider, as hopefully shown in this sentence: "And in the end, if you find you still need a thumb rest, well, at least you gave it a shot and now you know.". There's entirely too much "My way is the only way and you are an idiot if you don't do it my way"-type postings on TB (as in the recent "you're an idiot if you play a Precision" and "you're an idiot if you don't play a Precision" postings lately) and I work hard to avoid any appearance of such an attitude in al of my posts, even in the Live Audio section, where I'm a 20-year pro audio veteran and cringe at some things I read there. (Okay, I may not have done such a good job of that in the "Bassists seem to always crank both pickups". Well, I'm not perfect...)
It's a very big world out there and I believe in the "the results are more important than the means" mantra, unless it's illegal or immoral...
I just offered another idea. Simple as that. It's there to take or leave. Nothing more, nothing less.
Respectfully...
Sorry you had to spell it all out again. I'LL assume the best and suggest that aggressivepassive must have been joking with "wait, what were you saying" because even a most cynical person would see that you were perfectly clear, offering help and not suggesting that someone else's way was wrong.
FWIW, my instructor is teaching me the floating thumb. It doesn't seem all that difficult although my thumb will still stray sometimes. But my instructor hasn't even mentioned any alternatives so I didn't know there were any.
Hey Guys, I always regret calling someone out on the Internet. I know I should walk away but...
Geri O's later posts made his intentions a lot clearer. His first post by itself came across to me in summary as "I can't believe no one said this yet but you guys should really hit the shed so you don't need thumb rests anymore. I did. You should at least try to too".
No one in the thread was asking for help with technique or advice on practice habits.
If he had lead with his regrets on drilling holes in his alembic and mentioned he needed to get away from thumb rests later in life due to injury I would have not seen him as being condescending.
Maybe I'm wrong but when a guy goes off topic in a thread and tells guys to practice more instead of doing what's being discussed in the thread, that person comes off as kind of a [fill in the blank]. Another example of this is the guy that tells everyone in a thread about compression that if they had better dynamics they wouldn't need compression.
If Geri O says he was trying to be helpful and not trying to poop on our happy thread about installing non permanent thumb rests. All I can do is take his word for it.
For possibly taking Geri O's first post the wrong way and for my rant... I am sorry.
Geri O's later posts made his intentions a lot clearer. His first post by itself came across to me in summary as "I can't believe no one said this yet but you guys should really hit the shed so you don't need thumb rests anymore. I did. You should at least try to too".
No one in the thread was asking for help with technique or advice on practice habits.
If he had lead with his regrets on drilling holes in his alembic and mentioned he needed to get away from thumb rests later in life due to injury I would have not seen him as being condescending.
Maybe I'm wrong but when a guy goes off topic in a thread and tells guys to practice more instead of doing what's being discussed in the thread, that person comes off as kind of a [fill in the blank]. Another example of this is the guy that tells everyone in a thread about compression that if they had better dynamics they wouldn't need compression.
If Geri O says he was trying to be helpful and not trying to poop on our happy thread about installing non permanent thumb rests. All I can do is take his word for it.
For possibly taking Geri O's first post the wrong way and for my rant... I am sorry.
I agree, lighter Is better. And especially with floating thumb technique, it really helps the muting.
Lots of great ideas here. I have been think about putting a thumb rest on my p bass as I like to rest my thumb on the top of the rear pup on my jazz bass. Was thinking about carving a piece of alder and trying to match the burst color and using a clear Command Strip underneath. The Command Strip’s seem to leave no residue. Hope you find what works for you!
If you want a thumb rest but want to avoid holes in the bass get one that's flat in the back (not hollow like the plastic ones) and some 3M or Gorilla strong two sided tape. I used this on my Mustang to put a thumb rest on the pick guard and it held securely. When I removed the thumb rest it did leave some black rubbery smears on the pickguard at first, but these were fairly easy to remove with soap and water and a fingernail, with no remaining marks left on the guard.
I removed the thumb rest to get more freedom moving my thumb and hand (especially for muting) but I might try putting another one back on but using a much smaller size...
I removed the thumb rest to get more freedom moving my thumb and hand (especially for muting) but I might try putting another one back on but using a much smaller size...
