Here's the survey..and feel free to make a comment if you have a good comment in your head!

AS LONG AS IT'S NICE!!

Used to find finger picking bass to be hard. Now I'd rather not use the pick (except in some cases).

I never have good comments in my head only useless ones, but I started off playing with my fingers because I didn't like how a pick felt while holding it. Now I use both for tonal reasons. I prefer fingers but I will use both when needed.

I voted for the "My right hand is supposed to do something?!!?!" since I play left handed.

I play both, and I like it that way.

*sets up flame retardant suit sales booth*

I'M PART OF THE MAJORITY WOOOO

I learned guitar first, then we couldn't find a bass player so I switched ( that was a long time ago, and I'm glad I made the switch ). So when I moved over to bass, the pick came with me because that's what i was used to. After not getting the tone I was after, I abandoned the pick. Now, unless I'm playing a cover that requires a pick to get a certain tone I'm a straight finger player.

Always fingers for me. When I started I was enthralled by slap, which you can't do with a pick so it was an easy choice. A pick always seems like a limitation to me, I guess unless you want that sharp speed metal sound, which I don't.

always fingers, I've tried pick...but I can get the pick sound from altering my finger technique...which isn't too often.

I use fingers almost exclusively, but I do occasionally like to use a pick so I can palm-mute as well.

I'm a converted geetard, so when I switched to bass (:hyper:) I at first tried using this big, thick, felt "bass pick". I think they were designed just for geetards switching to bass. Never could get accustomed to them though.:rollno: Fingers just always felt much more natural.

I started fingers and still use 99% fingers / thumb / whatever on my right hand. I've picked up (no pun intended) pick use since then for a couple of techniques soundwise I couldn't otherwise get with my fingers. Why not?

I use both. Depends on which one works better for the song. I started with a pick but pretty quickly learned to use my fingers. I'm also a guitarist and I like to hybrid-pick(I use a pick for the wound strings and my fingers for the plain strings), especially when I'm playing country-ish stuff on my Tele.

99% fingers, 1% pick.

The bass guitar was intended to be played with the fingers! I have never seen a double bass played wth a pick. I am very much for limited government when it comes to our personal lives, but I feel so strongly about this that I think Congress should pass a law the the bass guitar can only be played with the fingers. The funk is in the fingers; picks are for guitars.
Grace and Peace
Maurice (notice the player at left using fingers):bassist:

I have nothing against pick players and some of them are quite good. I also think some pick players have great tone. For me, though, I greatly prefer the sound and feel I get finger picking. I think it enables me to play with greater dynamics than a pick would. I would play with a pick if the song required it, but if I have my choice I will always play fingerstyle.

Started both, now still play both, but very little with a pick. Usually for a pick sound, I just use my fingernails.

I've never felt the need to use a pick to get a sound I couldn't get with my fingers. None of the music I played required it, so my loss I guess. It's just one more technique that I don't have :/ I love the sound of basses being rocked out on pics though.

90% finger, 10% pick, mainly for palm muting lines or when I'm playing tic tac bass. Its good to be able to do both. Once in a blue moon, someone just wants that picked P bass sound and nothing else will do.

Voted "Always played fingers" and "Started Pick - Now straight fingers", because I started with both and gradually left the pick aside as my plucking speed and endurance improved. I prefer the fingered sound in most (99,9%?) cases.

Tried to get into pick often but much prefer finger sound. I would like to have a good pick technique but I get too frustrated with it to persevere!

The bass guitar was intended to be played with the fingers! I have never seen a double bass played wth a pick. I am very much for limited government when it comes to our personal lives, but I feel so strongly about this that I think Congress should pass a law the the bass guitar can only be played with the fingers. The funk is in the fingers; picks are for guitars.
Grace and Peace
Maurice (notice the player at left using fingers):bassist:

Actually Leo intended it originally to be played with the thumb or pick. And it IS a bass GUITAR after all . . .

I use pick. fingers, and thumb in equal degrees depending on what the music calls for. If the producer says for example, "give me that classic p-bass with flatwounds and a pick sound from the 60's", you're just not gonna get it with fingers. (Plus, you're probably not gonna get called back again . . .) By the same token, if it's reggae and dub you're laying down, you can roll off the highs 'til the cows come home and it still won't sound right with a pick. And so on . . . . .

The bass guitar was intended to be played with the fingers! I have never seen a double bass played wth a pick. I am very much for limited government when it comes to our personal lives, but I feel so strongly about this that I think Congress should pass a law the the bass guitar can only be played with the fingers. The funk is in the fingers; picks are for guitars.
Grace and Peace
Maurice (notice the player at left using fingers):bassist:

Ummmmm.... ever heard of Bobby Vega? Anthony Jackson? Just curious. Both use picks, both are funky as an old pair of unwashed sweatsocks.

I use fingers 85% of the time, slap-style 14%, and pick 1%. I'm just not super comfortable with the pick and never bothered practicing with it enough to get comfortable with it. I do use it for some stuff though. I used to be fingers only snob until I saw Bobby Vega and Anthony Jackson using picks.

I started playing with a pick.

Usually I play with a pick but sometimes I play with my fingers. I'm a faster player with a pick and there are only a couple of songs that I play that I can not play cleanly with my fingers but I can fake it good enough that you probably won't notice.

I learned to play with my fingers, though got into playing with a pick cause I was, and still am, really into SOAD and Motorhead. I normally play with my fingers for the sheer convince of never having to hold onto, or loosing, anything and the tone I receive from my fingers.

i'm a huge funk/disco fan (besides jazz and electro), so playing with fingers was the only way for me to play the bass.

until i discovered i love rock.
punch, sound, attitude...

i now play both, depending on the song mood

seems like it's another personal preference....... geddy lee plays with his fingers and simulates a pick with his index..... Chris Squire played with a pick.... Stanley clarke use his 2 fingers.....wooten uses his 2 fingers,,,,claypool who knows??? if you have the sound u want and like who cares!!!

just play!

The bass guitar was intended to be played with the fingers! I have never seen a double bass played wth a pick. I am very much for limited government when it comes to our personal lives, but I feel so strongly about this that I think Congress should pass a law the the bass guitar can only be played with the fingers. The funk is in the fingers; picks are for guitars.
Grace and Peace
Maurice (notice the player at left using fingers):bassist:

Sorry, wrong again, but thanks for playing.

I started out using my fingers. As time went on, one day at practice a guitar player in my band at the time picked up my bass and took his pick to it. It was like being punched in the face, or even worse - it was as if he walked up to my girlfriend and made her finish just by touching her shoulder with his index finger. He made my bass sound like I never could - it was clean, even at higher speeds, and it had a whole new dimension of sound (punchiness, overtones) I would never be able to get with my fingers.

That said, I never found it easy to move from fingers to pick, so I do practice both occasionally. I ended up growing out my fingernails on my index and middle fingers - which I have found to be an extremely valid third option: You get the round extreme bottom end qualities of your fingers topped with the clean attack of a pick. It doesn't sound exactly like either your fingers or a pick - it's in own thing, and beyond useful if you're a fingerstyle player in a rock/metal band, or you are asked to provide a pick sound.

When I started playing (over 16 years ago), I played with a pick just because of the music I was into at the time. I started taking lessons and pretty much stopped playing with a pick for most of the those 16 years, again, mostly because of the music I was into.

Just recently, I've rediscovered the pick. I finally got an American P-bass and I picked up an EHX English Muff'N. I've been listening to a lot of rock and Brit-pop lately and really wanted to get a good rock tone. I'm in love with the P + Muff'N + pick. It's unbelievable.

So after years of playing Warwicks, Zons, funk, hip-hop, fusion, etc, I've come full-circle and I've been playing my Precision slung low with a pick the most lately and I'm loving it. :)

Edit: I've been singing a lot more lately and I notice it's easier for me to sing and play with a pick. Could be just mental or the rhythms I play when I use a pick. Whatever it is, it's easier.

I once tried picks, becuse someone told me it would be faster. As a thrash metal musician this was appealing to me, but then I saw Alex Webster. I DONT NEED NO PICK.

I started with fingers, and am probably a finger player at heart..but I have started to use a pick more since i got my sansamp cuz i've found the overdrives sound better when i use a pick. at the moment in my band its probably about 20%pick 80% fingers...still not totally settled on what i want to do ....its nice to have both options tho :)

I've always been a touch guy, There have been some jobs I've done in the past where people had to wear gloves, and I just couldn't stand to do it. I also can't stand hand lotion or anything like that, so I guess my hands are sensitive and don't like feeling taken away from them. Which is why I don't like picks.

Plenty of bass players I like do use them though. I've just always been a fingers guy.

The bass guitar was intended to be played with the fingers! I have never seen a double bass played wth a pick.

Maybe, but Steve Swallow is a double bassist who plays BG with a pick.

Picks aren't for me, but if the player is doing his job-groove, melodic memorable bass lines, driving a song-more power to them.

Maybe, but Steve Swallow is a double bassist who plays BG with a pick.

+1 to Steve Swallow, listening to that guy is like a masterclass in Zen bass playing.

I started playing fingerstyle only and that's all I did until earlier this year when I finally decided to give a pick a serious try. I'm getting more comfortable with it and when playing covers it's nice to be able to pay with a pick when the bass player used one on the original. I've also found that a few of our originals sound better when I use a pick too.

I've also discovered the same with fretless, too, though I'm still working on the adjustment. I just got my first fretless this past Christmas and I've found it made a big difference on one of our originals and it's also an interesting twist on some covers. I'm not great at it, but it's a lot of fun working on it.

It's all about having available tools in your toolbox - pick, fingerstyle, fretless, slap/pop, tap, whatever. Being able to use a wider variety of tools makes you more versatile. Why limit yourself to one style.

would like to play finger style exclusively but being left handed and playing right handed sometimes i just can't get the speed i would like so use a pick

I have five plectrum on my right hand... why use them to hold one?

Started playing bass (never played guitar), so I used my fingers. I used to be really stuck up about it...then I grew up and realized that the pick has a very important role to play in bass playing! I use one for about 1 in every 5 or 6 songs my band plays (indie-pop). To learn how to use a pick, I just played the Ramones over and over again! Now I can play straight down-stroke 1/8th notes just about as fast as I could ever need to!

I've always played both, but truthfully I rarely use my fingers anymore. I probably use a pick 90% of the time. I prefer the consistency of attack.

Fingers primarily, but pick now as well.

If you're doing covers, I think it's best to do what the original bassist did. But now, even on my own stuff, there's times when using a pick fits the song better.

People will spend all kind of money on effects pedals, etc. Here's a different color that you can get out of your bass for 35 cents...

js

I have five plectrum on my right hand... why use them to hold one?

That sounds like a riddle. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say the answer would be that your fingers don't sound like picks.

Started with fingers, and still use both fingers and pick in professional situations, but the sound I love is pick with fretless. Hate the mwah, and the pick takes care of that. For years I tried to use my fingernails, but mine are soft, rip easily (I have a good diet, it's just genetics), and I found it impossible to keep a consistent sound with the. Also tried gluing on bits of ping-pong balls (a legitimate trick; didn't work for me), the Alaska Pik (fingerpicks), and silk wraps. In the end, a Dunlop tortex triangle seems best for me, plus with no nails, I can get the finger sound that is so useful in many playing situations.

Always play with fingers, hate the sound of a pick but that's just me. I'm sure if the style of music I was playing was to require a pick sound it would be so.

I just find using fingers better to get instant ability to change tone more.

Even faster than changing pups.

Started with a pick, but now play both. But I'm still like 90% pick 10% fingers.

I switched from guitar, so I started with a pick. But I soon found out that when you drop your pick 10 seconds into the song, it's helpful to be able to use fingers!
When I used to do more recording, I found that a pick was sometimes requested.
So it's best for me to have both available. These days I typically play all fingers, and use a pick only when I tune. Once in a while my right index finger will be sore from playing a lot, and I'll roll off the highs and pick it. It's nice to have the variety.

That sounds like a riddle. If I were to venture a guess, I'd say the answer would be that your fingers don't sound like picks.

They don't and they shouldn't (God forbid)... although I do have a trick to get that sound without the use of a rather inefficient pick.

They don't and they shouldn't (God forbid)... although I do have a trick to get that sound without the use of a rather inefficient pick.

And I'm sure you've found the philosopher's stone of bass to make fingers sound like pick and it sounds perfectly accurate and no one has ever thought of it before.

(inefficient?)

Fingers of death for me!!! :bassist:

I picked the bass back up a few months ago after a long lay off and I decided to relearn with fingers as I used to exclusively use a pick and I read here that with fingers you can 'feel your instrument' and that resonated a little.

It's really hard, the right hand keeps tightening up... coordination... and I can still breeze through exercises with a pick that present real problems pizzicato.

last night, having had a bit of a frustrating practice, I switched off for a bit and it seemed to come together, there was a period when it just seemed to roll along, which never really happened so intensely when playing with a pick. it was great :bassist:

I started with -- and still find it easier to use -- my fingers. I also play some g*****r, so the problem I have with using a pick on the bass is the spacing between the strings. I just can't play as fast with a pick as I can with my two fingers.

When I started, as well, I had this instruction book (and a CD) from a jazz player who said that you want to produce a "smooth, round" tone -- which of course, is most easily accomplished by means of your fingers.

Howsomever -- I love the sound of a picked bass, especially when the strings are attacked right down by the bridge. It is one I've tried to emulate through all kinds of artificial means, i.e., EQ adjustments and speaker cabinet choice. It's not quite the same, however.

We all know it depends on what the style of song we are playing requires!!! Doesn't it?

I propose that we just have the TB forum automatically start a new poll thread with this title once a month, just to make sure we don't miss any ;)

It depends on the song, whatever is comfortable, blah blah blah, you guys go ahead and argue... if you need me, I'll be gigging :D