But slapping over the end of the neck/fingerboard is a useable tone, you(I) don't want that to be the ONLY slap tone available. Like I said before, you (I) might want to slap THRU the string until you hit bottom and even upstroke with the thumb, but at any rate you want SOME room to be able to do that with COMFORT.For me, I slap anywhere from the edge of the fingerboard to no more than a half-inch (if that) away from the edge. So for me all is needed is a ramp that wide near the neck and it should be able to adjust from as high as the neck pickup (extreme) or as low as the pickguard or body (normal). Sometimes many players I know slap over the neck pickup but not as a thump but like a strum ALMOST like a pick and the gospel players I know call this "Greasin'". So it is possible to find new tones with a ramp underneath or even over the pickup itself and the ramp and/or pickup does make it very consistent and not so tiresome if you had to do this for an entire 7-minute tune. I never said a ramp is NEEDED, but very useable to achieve a more comfortable position when using ALL plucking hand styles whether it be fingerstyle, slap and especially pick because I am very agile with different types of picks and the ramp can be your friend (sometimes), but when I just want to grind out and get abusive, the less I have in my way, the better. A guy like me plays very many styles of music in many different bands so everything we talk about on talkbass is always subjective.
