Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Where do you pluck?
- Thread starter misterCRUSH
- Start date
- Apr 22, 2016
- 780
- 1,221
- 49
- Disclosures
- Breaking even is the new making money.
There is a case to be made IMHO for finger picking near whichever pickup is on - or between if both. (But I'll also go all the way up onto the fretboard to approximate the upright for walking jazz.)
With the pick, I am pretty hooked on muting near the bridge with my palm. Things get way too floppy for me up near the neck. YMMV.
With the pick, I am pretty hooked on muting near the bridge with my palm. Things get way too floppy for me up near the neck. YMMV.
I was going to vote it depends but 95% of the time I pluck over the bridge pickup or behind the P pickup if using a P-bass. For rounder tone and slower passages - I mostly thumb now and I think that is because I play mostly the hybrid bass + guitar
But I just cannot resist because of how you phrased the question:
But I just cannot resist because of how you phrased the question:
Ive recently discovered how you can change the timbre even darker by plucking over the fretboard, even above the 12th fret!
I find this a bit tricky on my J with rounds, and easy on my flats Ibanez Sr 5, though I find that weird cause the Sr takes slightly lower action (and both are set what I would call medium action cause I sometimes try to pick hard, and like to dig in often).
Wherever I start plucking, also became aware that for some tight passages, as I move down to lower strings, I should drift bridgeward for consistent timbre and string tension. So if I drop down to E or B string, I may end up at the bridge, but at G I seldom like being below bridge pickup.
Floating thumb...
I find this a bit tricky on my J with rounds, and easy on my flats Ibanez Sr 5, though I find that weird cause the Sr takes slightly lower action (and both are set what I would call medium action cause I sometimes try to pick hard, and like to dig in often).
Wherever I start plucking, also became aware that for some tight passages, as I move down to lower strings, I should drift bridgeward for consistent timbre and string tension. So if I drop down to E or B string, I may end up at the bridge, but at G I seldom like being below bridge pickup.
Floating thumb...
Last edited:
