Pete's Log: Fretting and Plucking
Entry #3023, (Music)(posted when I was 47 years old.)
So I no longer have the Gretsch Streamliner Jet Club Bass. I now have a Fender Player II Series Jazz Bass. It's still a rental.
In January I wrote about the Gretsch "I have no complaints with it." But that has changed. My main complaint was with rattling when I played open-string notes. I decided this was because the strings were too close to the fretboard. So for the past few weeks when we go to our lessons, my instructor and I have each picked a bass from the showroom and then halfway through the lesson we swap, so I got to try two new basses each week.
The first thing that became clear to me was that I wanted a full-scale bass. Even after just a couple months playing the short-scale Gretsch, I could tell that muscle memory was making it difficult to switch between the two. And since the majority of basses they have for sale are full-scale, I thought I better get my muscle memory attuned to that.
I also knew I didn't want active electronics in the bass and I didn't want five strings. Just nice and simple, please. So of everything I tried, The Fender Jazz was the one that felt the most comfortable. That is one thing I'll give the Gretsch, it was very comfortable, so I did not want to swap for anything less comfortable.
After bringing the Fender home today and seeing how much higher the strings are off the fretboard, I had another realization. I'd been having a hard time muting the Gretsch with my fretting hand without a lot of buzzing, so I'd been doing the majority of my muting with my plucking hand. And so I found myself wondering if maybe muting is easier when the strings aren't so close to the fretboard. And the answer is a resounding yes! This was such a pleasing feeling of things clicking into place in my brain.
The only downside of the further distance from string to fretboard is it takes more force to push down. In this regard the Gretsch did not require much strength from my fretting hand. The Fender is going to require my fingers to get stronger.
I can do it, though.
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