Slapping Technique

[Bob_Ross]

My first suggestion is to make sure you're getting the physical action correct before worrying about how your tone controls or amp are set. Practice unplugged to make sure the sound approximates what you're striving for before even turning on your amp. If all you hear when you do that is a lot of clicking & clacking with no semblance of a round phat note (albeit a very quiet round phat note), you're doing something wrong that no amount of volume or equalization can fix.

 

[Mr Goodnight]

One trick that you can apply to slap as well as fingerstyle, but can especially make a difference in developing your thumb technique:

Turn your bass/amp up louder than you would normally play. If you attack the string too hard it will be way too loud. So experiment with pressure to find the absolute minimum amount of effort required to produce a note. Rather than bashing your thumb onto the string, let the amp do the work and use your thumb just enough to make a note, but not any harder.

The same goes for plucking (or popping) the strings with your right hand. You don't have to yank the string halfway off the fretboard and let it snap back down. Even a very slight hook and release will give a nice crisp sound. You also don't need to use your entire finger, hooking the string with just the bare minimum of contact to produce a note will make it easier to play and probably save you some hand pain down the road.

If you watch Victor play, he's very efficient, using minimal motion which allows him to play faster and cleaner. You can always "turn up" your right hand and attack a little harder for a different sound, but if you get into the habit of always hitting the strings as hard as you can then you have nowhere to go dynamically.

Excellent feedback. Thank you. Makes sense for what I'm going through as well.

 

[Mr Goodnight]

It's most probably a technique thing. First thing with slapping, just like with finger picking, is coordination between two hands.
Second thing is to get right (slap) hand just right, and usualy it's too heavy. You are not realy slapping, more like precussing on a tiny drum just over the last fret (or after one). Hit needs to be precise and quick. Try drumming with your thumb on a table surface and getting clear defined percussive sound.

Good advice. Thanks