Good day Lowenders.
Having gone through many slap/pluck videos like most of us I havent yet come across one that actually explains the physical act of how to pluck with finger 4 & 5 for a controlled technique, or even why slapping the A or D string never produces the same volume as the E string and how to deal with it. Secondly how to set a DI preamp, or if certain type/make of string is better for this, or even which bass guitars are best for percusive play. During worship it would be nice to slip in a few of those subtle pops etc that you hear the pros do without waking everyone up with an uncontrolled squork on the G string.
Thanks for reading & feedback!
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Hail @Dave67 -
That’s a lot of questions!
I’m going to respond with some questions of my own:
Can you explain what you mean by this?
The plucking/popping fingers are generally 1 & 2, your index and middle.
If you get your control and accuracy down (by just playing and practicing a ton, recording yourself, going for clean and tight, not heavy and loud) this should balance out. The open E will still be the king, but the other strings will start to catch up.
Set it flat, have the volume and tone knobs of the bass all the way up.
If you have a bass with two pickups, use a balance of both of them equally. That’s a good starting point.
Any roundwound string is good. Flatwounds are not as good for slap/pop
Just about any electric will be good. 2-pickup basses have a generally more modern and punchy sound.
1 pickup basses in the Pbass family have a more old-school 60s funk sound, 1 pickup basses in the Stingray family sound absolutely legendary.
Indeed!
Aim for control and control and control.
It’s hard to slap and pop without playing super hard and making everything jump out with a squork, as you so nicely described.
Josh’s videos on slap technique are the best I’ve come across.
It’s about technique and practice, not about gear (mostly) in my experience.
Slap:
Pop:
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I’m just a newbie who might not know what he’s talking about but (I read) using a compression pedal can help balance things out when you are playing different styles next to each other.
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Sorry that should read `Stuff about percusive PLAYING that we are never told.
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