Here is one of the currently best bass players in the world doing just that 
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Playing in that position is fine, but if you prefer to play standing up, have you tried putting your whole left hand in front of the bass when you play high up? I mean, instead of having your thumb on the back or on the bottom, just curl it up with your hand. I found that made it, not super comfortable, but much more possible to play up there. It feels “illegal” but it’s fine.
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That’s the position all classical guitar players use.
Also, if you live above the 15th fret routinely, you have the wrong instrument. Fender has a habit of creating a huge obstruction, called a body, at the back of the neck in that area, and pretty soon after, the instrument runs out of fretboard. Even my €20 Cort gives me a lot more room to work with…
If you take a look at Josh’s Peavey Cirrus, you’ll see how it should be done.
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Agreed.
It’s so much easier on my 24 fret ESP than on my Ibanez Gio.
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Spacing is no issue on my Yamaha TRBX 304, the cutout is pretty good.
As @tamaraster said, having the thumb below the neck feels a bit illegal but it works a bit better. same with trying not to use the pinky at all.
I can deal with it I think and if not, so what, I mostly play the bass to enjoy those deep rumbly notes anyways 
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I thought so too until Josh suggested it. I don’t think he would if it’s cutting corners or will become a hindrance to your technique.
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He paid for those frets and he will use them, darn it! 
I don’t think that there is anything illegal to put the bass in this position while standing up. You can make this change for the songs that need those frets and then go back to horizantal position…
Just be careful not to hit the drums or the drummer!
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Play with thumb lower, or in front like suggested and USE your pinky.
With time your pinky will get much stronger, and you will not have to go all the way out in front of the bass.
You will find the right thumb position after your pinky is working better, and in time it will become more natural for you to go to that position when playing that high on the neck.
It is the better option then excluding your pinky because you will have a harder time training your pinky for one, and it takes longer to build the strength in it as well, and it will slow down the strength building in your whole hand if you opt not to use the pinky when you can / should
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Other than just more consistent practice using the index and middle fingers to pick with is there a best way to ensure consistency between the two fingers. Seems like I pull a little harder with the middle, I figure if I can hear the difference, so can everyone else.
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I guess that is why “the right hand technique” is so important. Correct plucking makes the most difference in the tone it seems.
I have been noticing that when I am just starting to learn a song in a lesson I pluck with much less confidence being focused more on fretting the right notes so they sometimes sound so dull and even muted at times… It even makes me doubt my setup of pickup height (I go check every time and it sounds OK by itself)
After a hard night’s work when I start going over the fast work out (generally!) I feel more confident and the tone changes so much.
In one of the lesson comments Josh said that the plucking fingers will ALWAYS sound slightly different and no need to worry about that.
Think about chugging the root note through a song, comparing using only index finger and alternating index-middle. I guess alternating adds extra to the tone even if the pitch is the same…
I am super new to all of this so sorry if it is mostly noob bs ;D
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not at all…thank you, granted I’ve only been at this a few months but I’m looking at the mantle of perma-noob as my right hand keeps wanting play like a guitar pluck with the thumb and pull with the index…I learned to pick a guitar this way when I was a teenager its called piedmont picking. So picking with the index and middle finger is foreign but trying to get a reasonably even pull from each is a separate beast all together. Thank you for the advice!! I’ll keep chugging along with it.
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Well I have seen your question to Josh under the Single Pluck disco octaves lesson last night. Where he said it is OK! I have tried it and it was impossible for me to pluck with my thumb (my bass is my very first instrument in life)
When I see peope do that in you tube I admire it a ton because it looks chill as fuck!
This guy is a Turkish youtuber and happens to be using 5 string version of my bass.
So one man’s trash is other’s treasure 
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wow…here I thought it was something I was doing wrong. It won’t stop me from trying to learn the gallop technique but I’m not going to worry so much when I fall back to piedmont picking on occasion…thanks again
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You can do exercises for right hand plucking. Some is simple, like chuggung for endurance.
Others get more complex, and involve walking up and down the strings in various patterns.
You can really make your own.
Try alternate plucking, index middle on open E
Then index - middle on open A, then Index - Middle on open D, then index - middle on open G, and walk back down.
Then try Index - middle - index on open E to Middle - index - middle on A, to Index - middle - index on D and Middle - Index - Middle on G and back down.
When you start making shifts on alternating fingers, it will feel very very strange, don’t get discouraged, just start slow and work your way up.
There are others, hard to explain w/o video, but I can try later, I have to go get my daughter now.
Try adding these a couple min a day to your practice, it will help immensely.
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Thank You!
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@JoshFossgreen I’m struggling getting my head around #7 lesson 3.
It goes half, half, whole, 2, 3, 4. Surely that’s five beat’s to the bar?
What am I missing?
Jamie
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Hi Jamie, I think he says “whole (note)” on the 1, and that leaves 2-3-4 to complete that bar 
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Joerg thanks for that, but @JoshFossgreen says, “half half whole two three four” I’ve listened to it many many times. I even went back to module one and have done the full course again, and I’m stuck here again. Last time I skipped it and went onto the next module. Bad mistake that’s missing to much
Jamie
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Yeah, so what he means is “1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3-4” and you pluck on every “1” 
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Now that makes sense, thanks joerg.
Jamie
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