Bass player slapping the pickup

Roger Crawford · From: Griffin, GA USA

I sat in with a band last night, and I kept hearing a bumping noise when we were playing. I finally noticed that the bass player would pick a note on 1 & 3 and slap just over his pickup on 2 & 4. It was really annoying, and I wondered why no one in the band had ever questioned him about it. I mentioned it to him, and he said it helped him keep time. He seemed a little upset with me when I asked if he had ever tried patting his foot. Is that a common practice, or have I just not worked with a bassist that does that?

Rick Barnhart · From: Arizona, USA

Only if he can play like Victor Wooten. Otherwise, not so much.
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Richard Sinkler · From: aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana

The next sound he will hear is my bar hitting his pickup. 😤
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Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

It means the guy does not play on a professional level and never will. In my experience the best thing to do is give up all hope. Put up with it or move on.
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Tom Campbell · From: Houston, Texas, USA

It's a style of bass playing used in modern rock, blues, etc. It takes practice to develop the technique. If one has played county most of your music "career" you may not have come across that style of bass playing. The style is known as "slap-bass" for an electric bass, and the notes your hearing are "pop" notes using the thumb to strike the pickup.

Roger Crawford · From: Griffin, GA USA

This was a country gig, and it wasn’t the thumb tapping. It was a full fledged, full hand slap. It didn’t fit the musical style at all. I believe it was more of a “look at me” deal (combined with throwing his back) rather than keeping time.

Richard Lotspeich · From: North Georgia

Its a habit for some of them,,and a bad one if you ask me.Been doing shows with a bassist that's been playing 40 years,,,and does "the peck" I call it, 50% of the night. Annoying to say the least.
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Rick Campbell · From: Sneedville, TN, USA

Yes, I've experienced that and it is annoying. Similar to a bass player that wants to start walking and turning every song into a 4/4 shuffle midway through the song. Songs like: "She Thinks I Still Care". I love a shuffle, but not misused. My other peave is bass players that want to end every song with a 4 chord before the 1. It often causes the song to last several bars longer, and the singer gets stuck in the middle of all this.

I think it takes a very disciplined musician to be a good bass player. It's so easy to get bored, and that often results in over playing.

Get yourself up here and play I'll Sign The Papers, and I promise we won't let anybody slap the bass. You play that better than anybody I've ever heard.

RC

Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

You should never notice a good bass player. I play bass occasionally and figure I've done a good job if no-one passes comment but they ask me do it again.
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Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

You need to punt with a guy like that.. That is NOT a good bass player.. A good bass player or drummer has the internal clock that all good musicians have, and will not need to whack the strings as a mechanism to find ONE.. If any musician has trouble finding ONE, he/she needs to get back to the shed until they know where it is,ALL the time... bob
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Roger Crawford · From: Griffin, GA USA

Rick, I hadn’t thought about it until you mentioned turning songs into a shuffle, but we did Rocky Top and he played a walking pattern through the whole thing. Talk about overplaying! I’d love getting together again, it’s been too long.

Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

Is this an upright bass or solid-body electric bass? Slapping the doghouse is a well-accepted technique in many styles of music, including some more up-tempo country and rockabilly.

I've never heard anybody tap a pickup on an electric bass. Is this sort of what you're talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbx4xu1gb1Q

IMO, slapping shouldn't be a crutch for a player to internally keep time. But, let's say, in the absence of a drummer, slapping is often used to keep time in the band.

On the question of when and when not to 4/4 shuffle a song, I'm gonna push back a bit. Which do you prefer on There Stands the Glass:

More ballad-y:
Webb Pierce: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzEPhkPOXuc
Conway Twitty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIbSuQch_j4

or Shuffle it up:
Jake Hooker: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNFqfZt9fYM
George Strait: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdS4oB-KE00

I contend this is a matter of personal taste, and I personally like it as a shuffle. Hey, even on She Thinks I Still Care:

George Jones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UquXUYfHYok
Vince Gill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ-96wd6vK0

Rick Campbell · From: Sneedville, TN, USA

Dave Mudgett,

I agree with you, it's a matter of preference, but it's the singer's call and not the bass player's. What I'm talking about is where you start singing a song and it's a ballad with straight time, then when it comes time for the break the bass player goes into high gear walking shuffle mode. By the time everybody takes a part of the break, when it gets back to the singer the whole feel of the song has changed. There's a place for it I suppose and pro bands work it out.

RC

Jack Stanton · From: Somewhere in the swamps of Jersey

Bob Hoffner,
I rarely disagree with you, but in this case I must ask...what was the scenario ? Back in the 70s, I worked for several years in a trio, my first professional steel guitar gig, and I was green as they come. Very well established local lead singer played rhythm on the amplified acoustic guitar, ( De Armond pick up ), The bass player play root-five on one and three, and slaped the pick up on two and four. That was our snare drum. I played every intro, fill,turn around and solo. Sometimes the best thing I played was by not playing. I learned a incredible amount about being professional musician . We worked 5-6 nights a week and it was the foundation of my musical career. Even though I was just a sideman I learned everything about engaging a crowd, pacing a set, and being a professional musician.

Bob Hoffnar · From: Austin, Tx

Jack,
My impression of what the bass player we are talking about was doing has zero musical intention. He was not slapping the pickup to create a sound that he wanted to hear. He was only tapping the pickup in order to help him keep time. It is a pure physical habit Rather than make the effort to learn how to tap his foot to keep time he makes a noise with his pickup. Sorta like counting out loud through a mic.

I have no problem with musical choices players make. Slap bass or that clacking sound rockabilly string bass players are into. Bass players can shuffle or walk or two beat or whatever they want.

I'll bet you anything that the bass player in your trio was doing the right thing for the gig and also fully able to not tap his pickup if there was a drummer. My issue is when players hands and habits control the sound they make instead of their ears ,brains and heart.

BTW: That sounds like you had the perfect first pro gig !
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Roger Crawford · From: Griffin, GA USA

Dave, it is a solid body electric, and the drummer was proficient enough to not need help on his snare part. The demo in the Youtube video would be acceptable, but not the full hand slap just for the noise and attention. Like you, I prefer the shuffle on There Stands The Glass, but if the singer presented Conway’s version, that’s how it should be done. I’ve learned a lesson about accepting future offers with this band.

Bob Carlucci · From: Candor, New York, USA

That would drive me bonkers, and if I were in a band with a bass player that was a constant "tapper" either he would be gone or I would be, take your pick..

Please direct me to any recording where the bass is tapping on something in an audible manner to "keep time", and I'll apologize for being narrow minded..
We are NOT discussing the common thumb slapping and popping techniques that many bassists use. THAT is annoying in its own right and was badly overused for several years. Rarely hear it any more, thank You Lord.

That would be like an electric guitarist tapping the pickup with his pick to "keep time", or deadening his strings with the left hand and strumming across the strings in time between chords and fills.. Maddening.. I'll say it again- A musician that needs a "coping mechanism" to find One and Three or Two and Four, is in the wrong business.. Hell, does the guy have feet?.. geez, tap one or both of them, and NOT the damn pickup. Mad

bob
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Dave Mudgett · From: Central Pennsylvania and Gallatin, Tennessee

In a lot of rockabilly, slapping the bass is so prevalent as to be dominant, with or without drums. But there are a lot of classic country songs without a drummer where other instruments audibly keep time. I'm pretty sure there's no drummer on one of the most classic country songs ever recorded, with Jack Shook and/or Lightnin' Chance (sounds like both) audibly keeping time on guitar and upright bass, respectively: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFig_IzQ31Q

Like everything else in music, the context is critical. I work with people that play without drummers sometimes and other instruments often tap/slap/whatever to give an audible timekeeping click. But in other situations, that would be incredibly annoying and interfering with the drummer unless it's totally arranged to fit with the drum beat.

Right now, I'm playing with a classic-country/proto-rockabilly band. We've had an upright bass player whose slap bass is an integral part of the rhythmic pulse, with the drummer. You can get an idea what I'm talking about here - https://kristijeanmusic.com/music - this was recorded before we started playing gigs. The steel is a long-scale Stringmaster except Your Cheatin' Heart and I'll Love You a Thousand Ways, which are pedal steel. Unfortunately, the bass player got so busy with his day job he has had to bail out. We have a good electric bass player now. The overall effect is different - it sounds, for lack of a better word, more modern. It will be great if he can find a tasteful way to get that same type of percussive effect with the electric. And no, I'm not talking about modern pop/slap bass either.

Ian Rae · From: Redditch, England

Frankly, I have never understood foot-tapping. If you have the rhythm in your head, play in time with that. I don't know how doing two things is easier than just playing the instrument.
If you don't have the rhythm in your head you're not going to retrieve it from a limb - you're in the wrong line of work.
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Georg Sørtun · From: Mandal, Agder, Norway

David Mitchell · From: Tyler, Texas

Maybe he use to be a double bass player in a Bluegrass band. They don't allow drums so the bass man does the drumming. They have a nice whack to the strings between every note. Someone mentioned their irritation of the bass player breaking into a 4/4 somewhere in the song.
I began life on the road and in the studio at 18 years old as a steel and bass player according to who I was working for. About 17 years ago after the 9/11 attacks, I'm 65 now I produced an album for a man I was leasing the building my studio was in. On this song below in the link he the singer requested I break into a a 4/4 on the chorus. I told him that would sound crazy. I played every instrument on the record but after a 15 minute polite argument I gave in and did it because after all it was his record and his money not mine. I played my old Kay upright bass on the whole album but this song wore me out. I never played a 4/4 that fast on any bass and certainly not an upright with small steel pipes for strings.
To my amazement it was a regional hit here in East Texas with no promotion just Tom playing it on a 75,000 watt station. I think it was more the words than anything else but sometimes the singer request some crazy things from the musicians. Don't argue, just do it. The DJ speaking is WSM DJ Tom Perryman. Sure do miss Tom. He knew everybody.

https://youtu.be/bCZRP7hXpyM

Rich Upright · From: Florida, USA

Rick; You just described 90% of the bass players here in Tampa bay...annoys the hell outta me when they feel like they gotta walk half the song...i tell 'em that in Western Swing or country, it is permissable to walk HALF the break & 1-5 the other half; doesn't matter which, but do they listen?
\And yea; everyone here goes back to the 4 before ending the song on the 1, but that doesn't sound too bad.
What I can't stand is bass players that can't play the intro to "Margaritaville" correctly...they all play the 1 chord & the 5 chord, but leave out the 4.
Makes me wonder how these bass players get work at all.

I do have a bass player I use once in a while; plays an upright with a second pickup under the neck just to get the sound of the slap...man I LOVE that! The most important ingredient in rockabilly!
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Lee Baucum · From: McAllen, Texas (Extreme South) The Final Frontier

I like this alternative to slapping the bass.

That steel player ain't too sloppy.

Click Here
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