Thumb picking to simulate a standup bass?

[CrawlingEye]

No, no... Bruce I didn't mean to confuse you with saying that you wouldn't use the palm/mute thing with the styrofoam things... but that you just wouldn't use the palm part of it... That's what I've heard atleast.

So the styrofoam would press against the strings only choking them a little. And your thumb would do the rest... just to clarify things.

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

Well I wasn't confused before... but now I am!

 

[Brad Johnson]

Styrofoam is probably too hard, it may even squeak.

Since I play with a light touch, getting the same volume while doing any kind of right hand muting isn't a problem. The real benefit to palm muting over placing something under the strings is speed. I can change from muted to not muted almost instantaneously with my hands. I can also do a variety of muting effects with my hands so versatility is a factor, too.

 

[Brooks]

I installed an Elias Martinez mute on my Rick Turner Electroline fretless. This little gizmo has a lever that allows you to engage three levels of muting with your pinky, while you play. With piezo and the mute on, I get pretty close to a EUB sound, plus I can play fingerstyle, which is much faster/easier than with thumb/palm muting. I'll post a link if anyone is interested in this.

 

[Bruce Lindfield]

Actually - playing faster/easier is to me not an advantage in this. A large part of the double bass sound is due to the actual difficulty of moving the bulkier strings and if you are playing an impossibly fast run, then this isn't going to add to the double bass "vibe".

I like thumb plucking/palm muting precisely because it makes me think more about the production and placement of the notes and discourages me from playing more notes than a double bass player could.

As Brad says, I would always rather have the control in my hands as much as possible and not have to rely on a prosthetic device I also think this encourages you to experiment with slight variations and sound-shaping with your fingers/thumb. So you can try this at different positions and varying it quickly - so you can actually change the muting "mid-note", for example.