I saw an interview with Chuck Raney, one of the most talented bass players to ever touch the instrument. He told the story of not being able to play a certain part of a song they were working on in the studio on time. Tommy Tedesco leaned over the partition and told him “when we get to that part just skip it. They’ll never know because there are 100 other musicians in here playing at the same time and they’ll never know.”
Chuck said he skipped that part and the producer never knee it. So…if the pros have issues with certain things then I don’t feel so bad when I can’t nail something down.
My favorite Rainey story is recording on the Aja album with Steely Dan. Going into the session Donald Fagen laid down the law - no slapping. He felt it was overused and wanted none on his new album.
Donald is notorious for being picky and meticulous in the studio. If one musician can’t do what he wants he’ll just get another.
Anyway, there were parts where Chuck felt the need to slap, and if you listen to the album there are some notable slap lines, so Chuck got around the prohibition by turning his back to the recording booth when he felt the need to slap.