Unusual techniques

[trb6]

mmmm........interesting......

[ryla]

victor wooten suggest using a hair-tie(the small circular material covered elastic bands) as a fast position - adjustable capo with groovy semi-muting effect perfect for two hand tapping, just slide the hair-tie up or down to suit your modulation.(i can see Brendon already rifling through his wifes dressing table - or maybe judging by hs avatar and pedilection for metal he might just need to reach up behind his head to try this method.

[Cory]

I have used the hairtie for a while but I place it right up the head end of my fretboard. I find it stops alot of the resonating between strings while slapping quite heavily (particularly if your're a bit sloppy )

[BrendonM]

i can see Brendon already rifling through his wifes dressing table

lol... that is truly an unusual technique, although Victor is not a usual kinda guy. Fortunately my 5 year old daughter has so many hair ties that I seem to always have one on me, I actually just found one in my laptop bag. I would never have thought of applying it to my bass.
I was just discussing the Kubicki Factor bass with someone yesterday and the fact that it has a built in capo as opposed to a detuner.

[Cory]

The ex-factor bass is a great concept. But it would be a bit disconcerting playing to a crowd who have a confused look on their faces because they are trying to figure out what the heck is on the end of your bass.

[beagle]

Wow... very unusual. Goes to show that probibly everything has been tried at some stage. I wonder how popular it was?

[Harry Champion]

Even so, why would he need to tune up

hmm... to expound this strange and probibly pointless point .... lets assume you're playing some hot death defying tapping licks high up the neck and wanted to have a low F ringing away underneath... how would you do it without retuning? oh... and lets' pretend you're using a 4 string!

I think if it's this hard to come up with a hypothetical scenario for where you could use a capo... then that kinda answers the question of it's overall usefullness!

The bassist from Kasabian used a capo at BDO for jumping between open notes and notes higher up the neck.

I suppose if you were feeling cheeky you could use a capo to emulate Victor Wooten's tenor bass Stick it on 5th fret and Bob's your nana.

[Dan]

Or you could get a 6-string

Oh and welcome Harry

[beagle]

[quote="Harry Champion]The bassist from Kasabian used a capo at BDO for jumping between open notes and notes higher up the neck. [/quote]
Welcome Harry
That's cool to hear of an actual example. I guess he was jumping between the alternate notes really fast. I agree with Dan and would look to a 5/6 string first. I'm sure I could work a way of playing anything at speed if it practiced enough. Using a Capo seems like cheating to me. A bit like hitting the key change button on an electric piano.

[john]

flicking two main plucking fingers backward and hitting strings similtaneously with my finger nails and smashing into fret board.. gives a real punchy hard tone to it...


yeah i like to use that technique. good to accent the odd cord.
this one is not so odd,but i like to put my little finger at the base of the bridge
of the string im playing. like palm muting on a guitar. but if you dont use a pick...totally kills the sustain

[Pstewart]

Go the pinches! Check out Steve Bailey for that funny business, he looks a bit silly but quoting someone who's name i've forgotten "He Could find a harmonic in a ham sandwich"

A technique my bass teacher uses for slap is like a rake over the 3 bottom strings by popping each on in series quickly. Like put the indew middle and ring fingers under one each and pull downwards. Not Overly useful but if you can use it, with chords or with mutes it'd be pretty cool. Also Double thumping with slap? Anyone got any views concerning that? More Alain Caron style then Victor Wooten.

[angrymaori]

If you wind your volume/gain up, you can play sections of a song with just your fretting hand, while you enjoy a drink with your other hand. Yes, it is showing off, but.. that's entertainment!

yes but as a healthy alternative, hold your beer in your left hand and play anything by mettalicra with your plucking hand. No, its not that exciting, but it makes a point about newstead...

[john]

mettalicra



thats so funny. hope you dont mind if i call them that from now on. and yeah newsted. ..guess you can do what you want when your not in the mix

[bassnut14]

BTW - if you use those strings which are sheathed in nylon, do NOT use metal picks. I do know.

thanks for telling me that as I got some short scale roto tapewounds for the squier bronco I defreted of the net for about 25 bucks US each and 100 in postage and packaging.

[beagle]

Nice too see old posts still being useful huh.