TL;DR: Radiused ramps don't seem to "even out" finger travel compared to flat (quite the opposite); why do people say it does?
I just got my first ramp, and I'm enjoying playing with it. But I was surprised at how "uneven" it feels from string to string.
When I was reading about these, I saw lots of discussion around them being radiused to match the fretboard radius so that:
1. strings are equidistant from the ramp
2. when plucking across vs down into the strings, fingers hit at about the same point on the ramp. .
This all made sense to me until I started actually playing with the ramp. I notice that if I pluck my fingers (usually it's like 20 degrees off parallel from bass body), such that they touch the ramp at the end of the pluck, then the radius actually makes the depth that my fingers go noticeably different from string to string.
To illustrate my point, I've drawn a diagram.
1. Blue: Ray from bottom of string to centroid of the circle defining our radius. This will be equidistant to the ramp from string to string.
2. Green Vertical Finger path, since we have to pluck in one direction or another, the finger path after releasing the string will be on one side, I've put it on the bass side assuming "normal" plucking technique with pointer or middle finger.
3. Red: shallow finger path. A more likely path if we're trying to play "across the string" instead of down. I could've made it more parallel, but I think you get the point.
This isn't really to scale, so don't put too much stock into the exact distances. but, the lines of the same color are all the same length. The red lines and the green lines are all the same angles as each other.
The Vertical finger path gets progressively longer (albeit subtly so) as we move from G -> E.
The Shallow finger path also gets progressively longer G ->, but much more so.
Now, we could tweak the angles on the red or green paths a bit to follow the radius of the fingerboard more, but even so, we have to pass on one side of the string, so it never goes away. And, on the E/A string, we'll have to do angles at which I don't think the string will ring out (muted).
So, unless I'm missing something here, radiusing the fingerboard exacerbates the difference in finger travel distance from string to string. The G will significantly shorter travel than the E and A string, and none of them will really feel similar. The claim that a radiused ramp simultaneously makes the string equidistant from the ramp and makes the stroke depth the same from finger to finger seems incorrect.
If I played the E and A string the other direction, then we'd be balancing things out, but I don't that's the typical ramp use case (I know some use a thumb in a downstroke).
I assume that I'm missing something or misunderstanding some fundamental concept. Players much better than me seem to prefer radiused ramps. I want to understand why.
Would someone please help me understand?
I just got my first ramp, and I'm enjoying playing with it. But I was surprised at how "uneven" it feels from string to string.
When I was reading about these, I saw lots of discussion around them being radiused to match the fretboard radius so that:
1. strings are equidistant from the ramp
2. when plucking across vs down into the strings, fingers hit at about the same point on the ramp. .
This all made sense to me until I started actually playing with the ramp. I notice that if I pluck my fingers (usually it's like 20 degrees off parallel from bass body), such that they touch the ramp at the end of the pluck, then the radius actually makes the depth that my fingers go noticeably different from string to string.
To illustrate my point, I've drawn a diagram.
1. Blue: Ray from bottom of string to centroid of the circle defining our radius. This will be equidistant to the ramp from string to string.
2. Green Vertical Finger path, since we have to pluck in one direction or another, the finger path after releasing the string will be on one side, I've put it on the bass side assuming "normal" plucking technique with pointer or middle finger.
3. Red: shallow finger path. A more likely path if we're trying to play "across the string" instead of down. I could've made it more parallel, but I think you get the point.
This isn't really to scale, so don't put too much stock into the exact distances. but, the lines of the same color are all the same length. The red lines and the green lines are all the same angles as each other.
The Vertical finger path gets progressively longer (albeit subtly so) as we move from G -> E.
The Shallow finger path also gets progressively longer G ->, but much more so.
Now, we could tweak the angles on the red or green paths a bit to follow the radius of the fingerboard more, but even so, we have to pass on one side of the string, so it never goes away. And, on the E/A string, we'll have to do angles at which I don't think the string will ring out (muted).
So, unless I'm missing something here, radiusing the fingerboard exacerbates the difference in finger travel distance from string to string. The G will significantly shorter travel than the E and A string, and none of them will really feel similar. The claim that a radiused ramp simultaneously makes the string equidistant from the ramp and makes the stroke depth the same from finger to finger seems incorrect.
If I played the E and A string the other direction, then we'd be balancing things out, but I don't that's the typical ramp use case (I know some use a thumb in a downstroke).
I assume that I'm missing something or misunderstanding some fundamental concept. Players much better than me seem to prefer radiused ramps. I want to understand why.
Would someone please help me understand?
