Double Bass Pizz Technique

[Cosmos]

Hey -- Does anyone have some advice as to how to create a really nice, loud pizz? I'm doing the Rabbath Ode d'Espagne and I'm having trouble getting a consistently loud pizz-ing sound.

 

[Illfavor]

Keep your left hand firm on the Fboard. Use more of the meat of your finger when plucking and experiment a lot. Pizzing isn't as easy as some make it seem, and to get a really good sound you must practice and experiment on YOUR bass.

 

[ganga]

Can I get an audio example of this?

 

[Eli_Upright12]

Rufus Reid taught it at a master class like this: you let your arm weight be rested into the string by means of you finger, so the side/pad of you finger pretty much from your nail to the first knuckle is in contact with the string weighing down into it. The string depresses downwards but not really side to side yet. You then let your elbow drop bring the weight from downwards, to left to right (that is from the g string side to the e string side.) This will create a pluck, its not like a violin pluck where you pull the string up, you use your finger to pull the string with arm weight.

That's the best I can explain it

 

[Illfavor]

It also depends on what kind of pizz you want. I don't know that piece, but a jazz pizz and a classical pizz is completely different.

 

[juuzek]

I think that tune is inspired by a guitar piece, and Rabbath plays it with a fast, 'strumming' pizz, right?
I sometimes 'strum' with the right fingertips and nails, closer to my left hand for speed and crispness. Almost like the way Stanley Clarke pounds out School Days [which he does on electric].
PS I think there is a youtube vid of someone performing this tune...

 

[professorslinky]

I feel to make a loud pizz one must pluck the string hard enough so that it slaps against the fingerboard. This creates a rounded yet very articulate sound.

Also, if that is not enough just yell, "BOOM!!" simultaneously with your pizz.

 

[David Potts]

Classical Guitarists use the terms "apoyando" and "tinando" for two sorts of pizzicato. One hooks under the string slightly and lifts away from the Fingerboard as it moves sideways ("free" pizz) and the other is "struck" by the ends of the fingers pulling down off the string onto the fingerboard. Did Rabbath have these sounds in mind for Ode d'Espagne? The strumming can be done with the thumb higher up near the left hand? - I've seen this done effectively once.

One is like our orchestral pizz and and the other is like our jazz pizz. Trouble is I can't remember which word means which!!

A suggestion - ask Patrick Neher what Rabbath had in mind
(see Ask a Pro/Talkbass Forums)