pick or no pick?

[jrug]

I'd play my bass with a bagel if it helped get a good song out.

[jello]

Originally Posted by Mud Flaps

No pick. It's a bass, not a guitar.

And of course no real bassist would ever even concieve of beating on their strings with a drumstick, would they?

[6-3-2]

Wait a sec, didn't les claypool do that? If he did man I just totally ruined the joke.

[Mud Flaps]

I just thought of a few analogies for playing bass with a pick:

1) Entering an Olympic swimming event with a motorboat....and losing.

2) Entering a NASCAR race with a chauffeur....and losing.

3) Peeing on an old lady....and losing.


Now I'm just having fun.

[Shaz]

Play it with ur tongue.
Like hendrix and his teeth, but bass style.

[Whafrodamus]

Originally Posted by Mud Flaps

I just thought of a few analogies for playing bass with a pick:

1) Entering an Olympic swimming event with a motorboat....and losing.

2) Entering a NASCAR race with a chauffeur....and losing.

3) Peeing on an old lady....and losing.


Now I'm just having fun.

Gah, stop bashing picks. I hate using them and very very rarely do, but they do offer a different playing experience. And as I said before, you can slap, tap, and do a bunch of other things with picks. Maybe you're bashing picks because you don't know how to use one . I do enjoy fingerstyle better, but hey.. Yeah.

[mikarre]

It depends on what I am playing. Usually, I like the tone of fingers for jazz and more mellow rock, but I play a lot of metal. For metal, I prefer a pick. I use kind of a strange technique I guess, where I alter my grips depending on what I am playing. If I am playing a really heavy part I choke up and use a very aggressive stroke, hitting the strings with both pick and part of my thumb and finger. Sometimes I use more of the pick for a little more of a cleaner sound, and sometimes I pinch it for a poppy kind of sound. Just like with a guitar, I believe you certainly can get different effects with a pick, if you use it creatively. I really don't see why I would NOT use a pick, if it is giving me the sound and feel that I want, just because some bassists seem to be against it.

For many years I would never even consider using a pick for jazz or light rock, though I know there are good jazz players who do use picks. I am now looking for ways to better use the pick so maybe I can expand a little and use it with lighter music. Right now I associate picking with heavy sounding music. Maybe I can change that if I work at it.

I guess I really don't understand why some bassists are so against picking. If you are using a pick to avoid learning to use fingers, I agree that is bad, but if it's the best tool for the job it seems silly not to use one because of peer pressure.

[Adam Barkley]

Originally Posted by Mud Flaps

I just thought of a few analogies for playing bass with a pick:

1) Entering an Olympic swimming event with a motorboat....and losing.

2) Entering a NASCAR race with a chauffeur....and losing.

3) Peeing on an old lady....and losing.


Now I'm just having fun.

Wow, are you reading how stupid your comments are sounding?

It is a different sound that is available to you without having to touch an control or alter your eq, whats is bad with that?

Conversely, many of the better guitarists I personally know, along with those I have seen live, can play fingerstyle. At both Metallica concerts that I have attended, James Hetfield has dropped his pick and played fingerstyle until he had a chance to grab a new one. Most of the blues guitarists I know do not use picks. Mark Knopler never used a pick, does that make him a bad guitarist? Or what about classical guitarists?

Open your mind, and try new things, but don't bash the plectrum just because you don't like it.

P.S. To the poster who said he would be disappointed to see a bassist use a pick at a concert; I would enjoy seeing a concert where the bassist was talented enough to switch techniques to get a certain sound or application.

[Bad Brains]

with all this contraversy....about different styles and technique.....should make us all realize how much cooler bass is then guitar

[BucketButt]

I played guitar for a few decades before moving to bass a few months ago, so I started playing bass with a pick. Now I prefer to use my fingers for most songs, but still use a pick when it's called for. I actually find fingers more comfortable than pick now, and it gives me the fatter, mellower sound I want on most of the songs i play. I can get close to that same sound with a pick if i palm-mute, but it's more effort for me. Unmuted and playing all-out, a pick gives me a crisper tone that cuts through the mix, but it also adds a treble-y twang -- that's fine when that's the desired sound, but I'm old-school and most of the music I play is Top 40 Era stuff.

My advice: learn to play both ways and treat each style as a different tool to be used as appropriate.

[jello]

Originally Posted by 6-3-2

Wait a sec, didn't les claypool do that? If he did man I just totally ruined the joke.

Consider the sarcastic joke dead.

Yes, Claypool did it as did Tony Levin. So if (at least) two greats can create interesting music playing with a bloody stick I don't think anyone has any room to give anybody flack about using a pick.

[vene-nemesis]

Flea uses both styles and no ones says that he's lame, I think that there are different usages for every tech, I am not an expirienced bassist but I mostly play fingerstyle, thumbstlyle slap, and sometimes I use a pick for some fast songs like rancid's maxwell murder specialy the solo, that solo cant be played with fingers at that speed.

[HeavyDuty]

Not Basses - off to Technique. It'll probably get closed over there, since they have a quota - no more that 534,865 pick vs. fingers threads per month.

Bye-bye!

[Redhotbassist]

I use fingers all the time. cos it feels more comfortable, and its just better.. and u cant drop ur fingers can u??

Picks are for guitarists

[xcental34x]

Originally Posted by 6-3-2

Wait a sec, didn't les claypool do that? If he did man I just totally ruined the joke.

Actually yeah, he does on Whamola, his homemade, washtub bass.

~Patrick

[Oreomeister365]

picks ain't that bad. I usually used my fingers, but on songs by bands such as Tool and Rancid, the individuallity you get from each note sounds great. It's kinda hard to learn to use a pick if you've never even tried one out before. I kinda locked up my hands so I could only use a pick, and now that I use a pick, I can acheive a greater playing speed with more ease, but it's a little harder to get around, since you can't "feel" everything, which is a significant trade off.

[Pacman]

We've done this conversation a thousand different ways. I, for one, am not going to watch this thread become number 1001. Try the search function.