Josh

Your using the right amount of force for the pops but you seem to be using at least 3 fingers when you pop on the G-string but you'll develop individual finger strength soon enough, it is now just a case of putting into practice what everybody has contributed in this thread but don't feel like any of us are pressuring you, it'll take time and you'll grow to love the sound of a metronome but it will ultimtaley pay off, and as suggested previously a good idea Parker man would be to video yourself ina few months on depending on the amount of time you spend practicing.

[quote name='parker_muse' post='25068' date='Jun 29 2007, 07:16 PM']Thanks guys, your all awesome I was expecting to be flamed but your all giving constructive advice. I'll record something with pops, it will be easier for you too see where i need to work on. Thanks again, Parker[/quote] Were here to help man! Also its a smart move on asking on here for help becuase I've seen people put up videos of them playing asking for help on youtube and it usually backfires.

[quote name='lukeward2004' post='24377' date='Jun 28 2007, 12:38 PM']I have to disagree with this point - you do not need to slap hard to get a good tone. This depends on the action of your bass - I find a nice low action and slapping over the heel of the neck gives me the best tone, but some, like Larry Graham, play nearer the bridge when slapping and thus the tone is slightly different. If you have a high action then yes, you would probably need to play harder to get a good slap tone, but a nice low action means you dont need to hammer the living daylights out of your strings. And if it hurts, its not doing you any favours - you may get some sore/tender bits on the side of your thumb until the calous develops, but if you experience pain in your arm, STOP - you could be doing more harm than good. If you can, check out Ped's playing - hes a dirty slapper and he plays with a very low, slick action and doesnt hit the strings hard at all. Let the Volume do the work![/quote] Well I don't mean destroy your thumbs in the process, for instance Mark King is a hard hitter and has a very low action, I've played on Status and Jaydee basses set up to his exact spec (yes the owner is a bit of a fan) and when slapping with some extra force you get more bounce and the right feel and tone, for instance the slap groove in Hot Water as simple as it is is appraoched quite strongly to accent the bass drum beats and the snare shots as well. But as I said man were all different players and we all approach stuff technique and what not differently, and by all means you are correct if it hurts then stop and just leave it for a day, but I did say in my post that you'll get use to it which is basically my way of saying blisters and callouses will form eventually.

2 very similar posts I must say!

Right man it depends if your looking to be quite profficient at slap, by which I mean being able to use it creativley and to be a major part of your own technique, or as some favor to do and that is be able to slap well but not to over-indulge by which I mean Mark King and Flea clones or as some like to say the Bed Room Youtube Bassists and in 70% of cases the term apllies quite well. But anyways, there is no correct way to slap although the more professional way is by having your thumb more straight and not coming in at angle, think like your giving some a thumbs up, a straight arm, closed fist and your thumb being straight. But this is the way well known slap bassists like Marcus Miller and Mark King play and this way of slap is seen as the more correct way as opposed to Flea's, but some will favour that over the straight thumb approach. Here are 2 video's for examples of the straight thumb approach: (A good 80% or more of us on here have all seen this at one point) [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMzXtizKcXY"]Mark King[/url] (You'll see a difference between the two, King is rather fast and at times is does get a bit the same, but Miller is very very soulful and uses the groove to its full extent) [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWg6iB0Evj0"]Marcus Miller[/url] They're 2 different examples but show how the straight thumb approach is used, it's much more easier to play precisely and to feel the groove better this way, I know you might be thinking "Hmmm that looks odd" because I did when I first saw Mark King a few years ago but it did turn my slap playing around when I took note. But also you might have noticed something else, they have their basses quite high, and that attributes to the way they play, and from looking at your strap in your video I can guess that you have it quite low, which isn't a bad thing because when your young you prefer to have it lower because it looks the part, trust me man most if not all of us have been there and some are still there which is perfectly fine, but in this case you might have to raise the strap height just to feel comfortable with trying it this way, and also you may find it helps imrpove your technique further also, but now you may think it looks geeky but when you look all the great bass players you'll notice that most if not all have their basses above the waist. One way I see it (In My Opinion) is that when I see a someone put on their bass and it's higher up I can easily assume that they know what their doing and a good 90% of the time I right, with the guy's I've taught they've taken in this one point and it has helped them improve greatly. But back to slap, you really need to feel it, you need really whack hard with your thumb to great the best tone and when your strating it when your young it does hurt but you will get use to it. Where your slapping now is right, just on the last fret is the perfect place to get the right bounce to feel comfortable. Right man, I hope all of that was to some degree of help, all of that is how I approach slapping, someone else on here will have a totally different approach towards it and that's perfectly fine but it's really your choice at the end of the day which way you choose to slap but just try not to end up becoming a copy, take the right amount of influence and then move on and carry on developing your own voice as a bassist. Sorry if it's a tad too much man just trying to help

Current: (As of yesterday) Warwick Double $$ Corvette 4 String (Modded) Vintage V950 5 String No.1 (Kept in a hardcase in the corner!) Past: 1. Encore P-Bass 2. Stagg Warlock Copy 3. Yamaha RBX-170 4. Dean Edge 1 5. Squire P-Bass Modded 6. Vintage V940 Fl 7. Spector Pro-4 8. Dean Egde 6 String 9. Vintage V950 5 String No.2 10. Spector Euro 4 String 11. Fender USA JAzz Deluxe 4 String

I smell slap residue

Hmmm a mixture for me: Roll The Bones - Rush, quite an underrated Rush song imo. Happy? - Mudvayne, the chorus will just make me smile because of Martinies excellence everytime. The Beat Goes On - The Whispers, the bassline just makes the song. Jamiroqua i- Virtual Insanity, Return of the Space-Cowboy...I could go, just goes to show how amazing Mr. Zender is! I Wish - Stevie Wonder, A great test of endurance. Oops Up-Side Your Head - The Gap Band, so simple but lets the song breathe. If You Want Me to Stay - Sly & The Family Stone, just a great muted funk line. They're only a select few but there are far too many for too many different reasons.

I had my old 5 string set up this way and it was a welcome change and you can get nickel plated D'addario 6 string sets, so you can always have a spare B lurking around if you ever need to converse with some bowel movements. I got my D'addario's from [url="http://www.stringbusters.com"]www.stringbusters.com[/url]

I thought Divinity recorded the bass for that album? Or is she just the live bassist?

[quote name='niceguyhomer' post='21728' date='Jun 22 2007, 09:06 AM']It was indeed Ruhai - nice bloke.[/quote] Ahhh that would explain why I have it in my possession now! Great bass in every way! And ruhai is an increidbly nice guy!

And is that Prowl or Jazz on the left of 'El Prime.

By any chance Alan did you sell the Deluxe jazz to a certain glaswegian fella called Ruhai??

Mines a 4 stringer and a mildly old one (Prior to the noiseless pick-ups that is) and plays like a dream and sounds like a Jazz should do and it's able to get closer tot he Miller slap tone better than the sig series!

[quote name='jamjamjam' post='21065' date='Jun 20 2007, 10:02 PM']Yea +1 for Leach, don't know whats going to happen to Sikth now though...[/quote] They should be finding new singers but otherwise the future dosen't look to bright, but anyhoo Leach is amazingly versatile he'll probally find another band if Sikth do break up, which will suck.

[quote name='s_u_y_*' post='20903' date='Jun 20 2007, 05:32 PM']Yeah! I wish they had proper instructions on how to fit them on. It just wasn't very clear.[/quote] Well the instructions were quite accurate but they didnt say it entails almost getting a full engraving of the washer in the tips of your thumbs!

[quote name='Clive Thorne' post='20585' date='Jun 20 2007, 08:58 AM']No takers for Dunlop then? Clive[/quote] I've got some on my bass and trust me I almost destroyed my thumbs putting them on, they are the most complex strap-locks out there without a doubt, I had a set of gold Warwick strap locks on my Spector and did a good job, they were easy to screw on and off if you need to change your strap height or what not> the Dunlops have a highly annoying little washer type thing which needs to be put into a very thin groove which you can barely see and having a thick Levy's strap dosen't quite help when trying to fit a tiny piece of flimsy metal into a microscopic groove, I'm just lucky I haven't had to change my strap length since I got them get in the frigging grooves, I guess thats the only good thing about them is they won't budge

I've got the standard Levy's one you see most pro's with, but I've got a B*****D set of Dunlop strap locks on, and I'm not on about the plastic ones.

[quote name='thumbo' post='18217' date='Jun 15 2007, 12:39 PM']I'd recommend D'addario 45-100 pro-steels. They have a enough snap and thud to them without being stiff to work around quickly on the fret board IMO.[/quote] And a second from me, I use 40-95 and I've had them on for a good 2 months and they still have slap appeal and feel nice as well.

Lovely looking jazz man!! The deluxe's look so much nicer and feel and sound great, and also you could get away with it looking like a Lakland!

[quote name='EdwardHimself' post='16950' date='Jun 13 2007, 03:21 PM']Yes and a p-bass is a PRECISION bass. What's ur point? Besides Jason Newstead plays a lakland jazz copy (im surprised u didn't know that considering ur avatar...)[/quote] Pretty damn sure 'tallicas whipping boy plays Sadowsky's to this very day, he started using them around Load/Re-Load time after brief stint with Spector. To the point, if you can find yourself a USA Deluxe Jazz you'll find as opposed to most jazz basses their more comfortable, they have a smaller body, closer string spacing but not too close, the bass it self weighs less and also looks nicer, personally I lvoe the looks of jazzes but the deluxe just makes them look great. They can do just about any tone you want or need, the slap tone is closer to the real MM slap tone as opposed to the MM signatures. Going from 24 frets to 22 I did slightly worry but to be honest it dosen't make too much difference in the end, and another plus 2nd hand ones are relatively cheap and you'll always find one on Ebay.

That thumb is moisture! And that Marcus is awfully shiney 'innert

The honk and then the vocals is just hillarious!

[quote name='jammie17' post='16009' date='Jun 12 2007, 01:15 AM']Yes they do...i've noticed.....but that is half the fun...such a nasty tone...I LIKE IT!![/quote] When I had my Spector (Formerly Basszilla's then El Sugden's and now Ruhai's) it took me at least 3 weeks to realise that having everything full up can raise the dead but also destroy the amp but the Spector tone is un-deniably great but unluckily I couldn't get on with it after a while simply because I needed that jazz punch and honk! It was a damn beautiful instrument and a learning curve and my first real high end bass, though it was ginger

But they need quite a bit of taming!