Should Bass Hang Low Or High

[D Rokk]

Mid-high. Mind you, I am geomeetrically out of perportion, i. e., my arms are too long for the rest of me. I am 5'7" tall and wear a 35" sleeve in a dress shirt. Put another way, the distance from finger tip to finger tip is supposed to equal one's height. My "wingspan is close to 6' and the bass is still more comfortable and easier to play fairly high.

lol wingspan

 

[tom once dead]

I have low, my esp is kind of low/mid because the strap is too short. My spector is low. It just feels more comfortable, espectially when headbanging.

 

[jcullen24]

I wear mah BASS like I wear mah Pants, Just under mah MAN BOOBS! I sometimes have trouble with mah strap getting caught in mah suspenders, or mah wife beater tee-shirt!

 

[BrettRiots]

As many people have said, it is all about your opinion.
I usually have mine fairly low.
just seems more comfortable to me.
But i suppose if you were slapping, that would be pretty awkward to do.

 

[Jack017]

Mid for me...

I can't remember who told me this, but they told me something along the lines of "you should ALWAYS have your instrument hung low enough to protect you from a groin shot"

 

[FrknPuertoRican]

I hang mine a little bit higher than the lowest point possible that I still feel comfortable in. This is because I feel kinda choked out of breathing space if my bass is too high, and then again it just looks cooler that way

 

[Linkert]

1/3 of the bass body under the belt Or just so it's the same when you sit or stand up.

 

[JCheung]

I never considered the level at where I wear my bass, I guess I started played at some random level and stuck with it. I'm pretty comfortable with a pretty mid height, a smidge lower so the pickup is below my waist.

 

[Filipus]

The most typical, and for most bass players the most comfortable position is to hang your bass at the same height relative to where it's at when you sit down with it. But it's really subjective and each person is going to want it differently, so try it at different heights and see what you like the best.

After trying everything i believe this is the one that works best in terms of playing/causing problems.

 

[Jason Wilson]

I used to have my bass quite low, and I wish I could have it lower. But I just cant slap, tap or get up higher on the fretboard when it's too low.
I saw Billy Sheehan say that he saw people play awesomely sitting down, then when they got on stage, they could play only half as good because all the hand positions etc have moved/changed. Which makes sense to me, so I tried it and my playing get a lot better on stage.

So for me, not up to my chin, but above my belt. But I WISH I could play it below my belt, it does look cool! If you are just chugging the low notes, hang low for the show. If you are a technical player maybe up higher would work better?
As long as you can groove & play what you want, play what feels comfortable.

 

[JamesGoodall]

I always heard "low is cool" when I played punk and hardcore stuff. Ultimately music that was mostly root, with not much technique involved. As soon as I got into a technical deathcore project, the first thing the guitarist said was "raise your bass up high. You can't play good that low, it doesn't look 'cool' it looks stupid." And I thought about it, and all the bands that were actually good had their instruments between mid and high. It's about where I keep mine now, more on the high side, about two inches lower than sitting position. The whole "cool" thing quickly died down to be replaced by a desire to play as good as I could as easy as possible.

 

[zfunkman]

The bass should hang at a hight where is comfortably playable up and down the neck.
All regions should be accessible without too much strain.
IMO

+1

 

[lokikallas]

See, if you ask me, this alone is proof of why it should be worn higher.

Anyway, I prefer mine to be high. Not so high I can't play it, but fairly high.

Funny enough, I guarantee this guy can play circles around every single person who posted in this thread, any genre and do it with his eyes closed.

 

[Tupac]

I've spent a lot of time pondering what would be best for me. It mostly has to do with what scales you play, which correlates to what genre. If you're playing mostly pentatonic, you can twiddle shred with your eyes closed and bass at your knee, because the pentatonic scale only requires a 3 finger spread. In music that requires four fret spread use and pinky action, you have to hike the bass up higher.


Plus, literally every fingerstylist I've known who wear it low only mute the lowest string with their thumb and use almost entirely left hand muting. Another thing to consider.

 

[Herrick]

Crotch Level is "mid" for me

 

[gregbackstrom]

Can you swing it to & fro?
Can you tie it in a knot?
Can you tie it in a bow?
Can you twirling o're your shoulder like a Continental Soldier?
Does your bass hang low?"

Haven't thought about that one for at least 40 years!

 

[dtripoli]

Play in the Goldilocks zone:
Not too high and not too low