Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I am about to begin playing bass after many years of drums and guitar. What I want to know is if a Ric 4003 bass would work well for thumb slapping and finger popping.

I noticed the bassist of Rush uses a very narrow profile of 2 fingers between the bridge and the covered pickup on the Ric bass. Wouldn't a player be required to remove the pickup guard in order to have the room to fit the palm over all the strings for thumb slapping and finger popping?

I think this style would be great to work on after learnig how to play bass. Also I think the Ric bass is what I want to play it on. I would like to hear from some of the bass players, if you have an opinion.

To see an example go to 2:20 in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SVd9dM5 ... re=related

Thank you,
Craig

There are some folks here who have shown videos of them slapping just fine on their Ricks, even with the bridge pickup cover in place, a la Marcus Miller and his Jazz Bass.

You can slap on any bass be it a Ric, P, Höfner - whatever. It's about the feel and technique, not the instrument.

Just search youtube for "Rickenbacker slap" and you should see quite a bit there.

For example...

s4001 wrote:You can slap on any bass be it a Ric, P, Höfner - whatever. It's about the feel and technique, not the instrument.

+1!
Glad there's a Rick in the vid that Scott T posted! Proves the point.
But my own humble opinion about thumb/slaps style playing, is it's over used by some guys. I like it used in places of certain songs as an accent, not play like that the whole song. The way some guy go at it, it seems more like an athletic accomplishment than musical one. I get to the bass guitar section of a music store and someone is playing like that, it sounds like someone that's wearing a lot of jewelry is falling down a flight of stairs.

Not to venture too off topic, but as much as popping and slapping is another technique us bass players should have in our arsenal, I agree with Joey, it is way overused. I could remember going into Guitar Center one day and they had a video of a couple of bass players popping and slapping on identical 7 string basses. While I was impressed with the speed and techinque of the players, it ceased sounding like a bass guitar to me...it sounded more like a couple of piccalos being played. But yes, you can pop and slap on a Rick, and it sounds pretty good too!

For me, the ultimate in bad taste regarding slapping a bass was a clinic I went to with Neil Zaza, Bobby Rock and Bill Dickens; going by his "playing" Dickens seems to not know how to really play bass, only beat it to death.

Yes, I had a preminition that the topic of "over-use" of thumb slapping would come up. I couldn't agree more. This technique adds some variety, but again I would agree that too much of it might get the listeners to dislike it.

I saw a local band that had a magnificent Fender Jazz bass player who dominated the bands' sound with a heavy funk flavor, almost a "lead bass" type of arrangemet. It was quite a hit unitl about the 10th, or 11th, or 12th song of the same thing.

Thanks again for your input,
Craig

I saw Marcus Miller with SMV at the first show of their first tour. He seems to be a pretty good Slappist®.

Of all the popular slap tones I have the easiest time emulating Marcus Miller with my stock 4003, usually with both pickups on, maybe favoring the bridge pickup slightly. It's one of the first things I liked about that bass, even though I rarely slap. Miller is not just a great bassist but a great musician and composer.

I think, from my POV, that a lot of bass players are up for "holding down the bottom" and because slapping doesn't do much of that we bassists who inherently do that kind of shy away from it.

It has its place and I don't think it will ever go away but when you think of a typical bass player, you think of someone who holds the bottom down and amplifies the rest of the band.

You just don't typically get this with a slap style. It's counter-intuitive of what defines most bass players' style.

I admire the skill it takes to do this but no more than I admire a solid bass line holding the bottom down and completing the sound of the band.

Tarrbot wrote:...when you think of a typical bass player, you think of someone who holds the bottom down and amplifies the rest of the band.

Bassists like Geddy Lee, Jon Camp, Chris Squire, Jaco Pastorius, and Mark Egan, for a few examples, hold down the bottom end just fine, for me.

How about Les Claypool going slap-happy?

I can't slap for my life. When ever I pop on my hofner the string comes of the bridge.

I laughed out loud at the "jewelry-wearing falling down stairs" comment,Joey! I really like a lot of different types of music,and am not by any stretch of imagination a "funk" player,but I do like to incorporate some percussive playing into songs when I can. I don't really use the classic "pop n snap" technique,more of a tapping with fore-and middle fingers, instead of thumb. As far as using ric's for that technique,I would think the 4004 would be more natural for that use. I haven't really tried with my 4000,as it has soft flat wounds on it.