Fingerstyle Bass Players - How Would You Play This?

Malice

This is just something I've been thinking about for a while. Essentially when I'm playing fast metal bass lines once the song goes above a certain speed or if there's a lot of palm-muting involved I use a pick to do something similar to what I would do if I was playing the song on the guitar. I'm using one of the riffs from the song Pisschrist by Fear Factory as an example. See the image below and the attached zip file for the riff itself if you're not familiar with the song.


I suppose my question is whether there's a way to duplicate that kind of palm-muted "chuggy" play when using fingers on particularly fast songs like the attached? I've tried using the index, middle and ring fingers to maintain speed but I find that the notes tend to blend together but that could just be down to my ears expecting the notes to sound more percussive.

Rigsby

I am probably not going to be of much help to you, as I normally would not play that type of music. I had a listen to the song on You Tube. Anyway FWIW, here is my 2 cents.

It is a very fast riff, but doable with two fingers IMO. I think two fingers would give more of that "chuggy" sound. The speed can be built up gradually.

If you want the palm muting sound without actually using the palm, you could experiment with putting some foam under the bridge. Google "foam muting for bass" for more on this. Using the pick for speed combined with the foam for the palm muted tone, might give you the sound you are looking for.

Sorry I cant be of more help.

slavetothegrind

jebus, good excercise for the fingers there, just tried it myself.

Would take a bit of practice to get thet speed but nice excercise in the way you incorporate the three fingers gallop.

i think i would be playing that with a plec too

victor wooten uses a hairband on the strings for damping, very different style i know but maybe worth a try.

i think fingerstyle gives a totally different feel here, not as precise as i think you would like, a bit more swing to it which in fairness is not in keeping with the track.

i do ramble on ..........:(

Malice

Rigsby wrote:

It is a very fast riff, but doable with two fingers IMO. I think two fingers would give more of that "chuggy" sound. The speed can be built up gradually.

I'm not too sure about using just two fingers. Admittedly I haven't spent too long trying to play it that way but I have found that either I grip more of the string with my fingertips to ensure that each note gets sounded and thereby lose speed or I grip less of the string, gain speed but the notes all blend together .

Rigsby wrote:

experiment with putting some foam under the bridge

That looks quite interesting actually .

slavetothegrind wrote:

Would take a bit of practice to get thet speed

Yeah, I found when I was learning the guitar parts that I could blast out the riffs individually at the same speed but sustaining that pace throughout the whole song was quite tough. I used always look forward to the slight rest that you get for the quiet part at 2:05 .

slavetothegrind wrote:

i think fingerstyle gives a totally different feel here, not as precise as i think you would like, a bit more swing to it which in fairness is not in keeping with the track.

That's true. I've more or less stuck to the general guide of fast-paced metal = pick and slower stuff regardless of genre = fingers. I've seen Fear Factory play this live and the two previous bass players have both used a pick.

Here's the whole song if anyone's interested. I probably should have linked this in the first post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bm_VB2niqM

Celly Smunt

start off learning muse songs,you'll be flying in a week.

Malice

pmcmahon wrote: »

start off learning muse songs,you'll be flying in a week.

How so? I don't particularly like Muse and that as far as I know they don't have riffs approaching that Fear Factory song in speed. More specifically, the speed isn't really the problem as such, it's the speed when using the fingerstyle bass technique.

Dord

I think it could be played with fingers. I'd probably use 2 or 3 fingers...

It possibly wouldn't hurt to use some muting also. Usually I do right hand muting with my baby finger laying across the string. Left hand (fretting hand for me) muting is quite a useful technique also.

Parsley

i'd probably use a pick for it... not a big deal.

if you want to learn to play it fingerstyle, try it slow to a metronome and build it up till yer at full speed.

i don't really hear a chuggy palm muted sound, to get the tone i heard i'd just play really hard with the fingers geezer butler/cliff burton style, with a low action and have them strings clanking.

wouldnt the steve harris style work ? basically the fretting hand frets and defrets as a damper kinda like hammering on , but you are playing the note and releasing as you play it

so the note you are playing is damped / controlled by fret finger pressure ?

Bill_Le_Viking

If I had to fingerstyle this I'd use my ring finger or little finger, and apply pressure near the bottom of the string at the bridge for ample muting which will reduce the blending of notes , and with a raised wrist and lots of attack use two fingers.

reniwren

3 finger or single finger style would be easiest with the muting fine by the left hand, it's actually not very hard when you normally use those techniques