Which fingering is the correct one for this bass line?

Theory
1

Hi,

i have added two TABS for this bass line, which one would choosen by a “professional” bass player? The first one has open strings which i find hard to mute and the 2nd one uses less open strings but uses the thicker strings…I`m really unsure what to pick…

Any “rules of thumb” or other advice to pick the “common” fingering for such bass lines?

bass
bass522×691 52.3 KB

Thanks, Dennis

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There’s no “correct” (aside from what an original artist might play in their performance) there’s only what you prefer. I like open strings, upright players will often gravitate towards using more open strings. Yes, they definitely require more effort for muting.

You’re going to find professionals that do either and both. Some things like walking basslines work very nicely in the first 5 frets, other things like metal work well higher up for the darker timbre.

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Thanks for your reply. Are there other “sight readers” in the forum? Which one would you pick? What would @JoshFossgreen suggest?

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If you have a hard time muting the open strings, just use the variant without open strings. Unless you like the sound of the open strings more, then it might be worth it to try and get the open strings to work.

On this line, muting should work out with finger picking and rest strokes (on bar 15, get your left hand ready to mute the open notes on the D string, though). If you play it with a pick, muting will become more of a challenge, in which case the variant with fretted notes will probably be the easier one

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There’s no “correct” out of context, but I would generally play the thicker strings / higher frets version. The thinner strings don’t give as much oomph when you need a big solid root note. Depends on the bass too though!

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That’s why you put a set of labella Jamerson flats on there… there are no “thinner” strings :joy:

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Personally I would choose to use the bottom fingering for the first 3 lines, and the open strings for the last line. There is a ton of string crossing on the last line but it’s staying in a more comfortable shape with open strings which would be easier at faster tempos
Edit: sorry for the necro post :frowning:

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