Pick style - Modern, Vintage or neither?

manchild · #1 09-23-2009, 05:00 AM

Just out of interest, what would you say about the above statment?

Is using a pick a more 'modern' style of playing, compared to fingers?

Or is it neither here nor there?

Cheers

Cuphandle · #2 09-23-2009, 05:07 AM

It depends on what your aiming for... i personally dislike picks but i do use them sometimes for the particular sound they make... you do see alot more people playing basses with picks.. but its ultimately up to you... I wouldn't say modern as of such.. if ya know what i mean...

~Cuphandle

hasbeen · #3 09-23-2009, 05:10 AM

From the beginning, people have been using picks on the BG. Carol Kaye, Steve Swallow....through the sixties- Roger Glover, Chris Squire....on and on. BTW, check out Bobby Vega sometime.

kapatid101 · #4 09-23-2009, 05:11 AM

Cuphandle is correct..It really depends on what type of sound you were aiming for..If you wanted that good solid sound go for the fingers, But if you like something like a crispy sound..Go with the pick..

PJSShearer · #5 09-23-2009, 06:00 AM

I was once asked to get that "modern sound".

Can you be more specific?, I asked.

"Like Bert Kaempfert's Bass player gets" came the reply.

To all under the age of ...... The "modern sound" in question (a dull "thud") can be achieved by taking a Jazz Bass with flatwounds, putting a foam rubber mute against the strings so as to get virtually no "ring" at all, turning up the treble and using a pick.

Bert Kaempfert was a German Bandleader who's biggest hit in the UK was called "A Swingin' Safari". It was released in 1962!!. He also wrote the song "Strangers in the Night".

manchild · #6 09-23-2009, 06:18 AM

Cool nice one guys - yeah i know what you mean, im a ex 'guitard' (lol) and find using a pick a lot easier, as you can imagine. Im not so hot on fingers but can get by if the notes arnt too fast, but obviously can play faster and more difficult stuff using a pick.

As this is the case and im not starting from scratch, should i just do this in your oppinion? Or should I make a point of training and practicing using fingers?

I have tro say i do like the 'sound' and dynamics that using fingers gives, but it would mean re-training to an extent.

Would it be worth it - or does pick sound have its place?

Cheers

PJSShearer · #7 09-23-2009, 06:26 AM

Fingers, Picks, Thumbs, slap and pull, - all options to be added to your "Tonal Pallette". Don't limit yourself to one style only, I certainly don't.

ForestThump · #8 09-23-2009, 06:35 AM

I don't think that a "modern" sound comes from any one aspect of what the player is using. People can play with picks and have a very traditional sound and with their fingers and have a very contemporary.
Most of it comes with the approach the player takes to the instrument as well as the context in which this is happening.

PJSShearer · #9 09-23-2009, 08:15 AM

I would like to hear a definition as to what people would describe as a modern/contemporary sound and what they'd define as a vintage/traditional sound.

I ask this is because, personally, I've not heard a "new" sound - one that I'd not heard something similar before - since around 1980.

HaVIC5 · #10 09-23-2009, 08:59 AM

Personally, I think of pickstyle as a rather dated sound as it applies to jazz, R&B and funk. I love it, don't get me wrong, and I really would love nothing better than to spend a week or two in the shed getting me up to speed with some pickstyle nuance, but I wouldn't call it modern.

StyleOverShow · #11 09-23-2009, 09:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PJSShearer

Fingers, Picks, Thumbs, slap and pull, - all options to be added to your "Tonal Pallette". Don't limit yourself to one style only, I certainly don't.

I would add in the basics of tonal pallete moving the right hand towards: the bridge and; the neck.

Most players come up in a style, and its usually regional. Some players go beyond and learn to play covers from other genres. Even fewer players come around to playing different instruments, like fretless or DB. The more diverse experience you have, the more ridiculous the 'pick' or 'modern' question becomes.

-richard

DeluxeRed · #12 09-23-2009, 09:14 AM

Picks go back to the beginning of bass due to the migration of guitar players (like CK) and due to the muddiness of early bass equipment. You couldn't tell CK's work was with a pick. You couldn't tell Mel Schacher used a pick, either. I think that was part of the nature of P-bass/flats/15" speakers at the time.

As the fidelity of bass equipment evolved, picking became more noticable. And then you add round-wound strings, and you do start to get a new sound. Which led to Punk, where the higher BPMs required more definition. (Or was it more definition allowed higher BPMs?)

I think of the "modern" sound as single-coil, round-wound, picked, scooped, fairly clean (ss?), and reverbed. Something like the bass line in FOB's Dance Dance. That, or mud. A lot of more "modern" ("post-modern"?) songs like to chop-off the higher freqs (probably mixing for subwoofer crossovers), and they sound like crap, either in the mix, or isolated. (Think Incubus' Are You In?).

Greyvagabond · #13 09-23-2009, 09:17 AM

Agreed; playing with a pick rarely gets you a "modern" tone. To be fair, I think of a modern tone as full-range, with plenty of treble, scooped mids, clean bottom end. Anything slappy, funky, or solo. Pick-style comes in two flavors for me; retro-vintage Beatles (woofy hofner through some weird old tube amp; a bit of bite on the top), Or in-your-face, mid-heavy, slightly-gritty punk (think Adam Clayton).

PJSShearer · #14 09-23-2009, 10:01 AM

.. full-range, with plenty of treble, scooped mids, clean bottom end - sounds like what I was using in 1978 - when I started slapping :-).

The point I'm trying to make is that there's nothing new under the sun - remember Fender sold their Basses with Flats and the foam mute glued to the ashtray until 1977 at least!!. Roundwound strings arrived in the early '70s and gave us a whole bunch of new sounds - think John Entwhistle, Chris Squire et. al. - so when I first heard the Bass Solo in "My Generation" or that Rickenbacker grind on "Yours is no Disgrace" they were Jaw-dropping moments and I went out and bought a set of Rotosounds!!. Larry Graham and his slapping had a huge effect on me - I worked at a nightclub in 1981 and the Bass Players in the visiting acts used to ask me to teach them how to do it. I bought my first fretless in 1974 BTW. Since then, nothing really different has come along tone-wise. (excluding effects course).

So whichever sound you are hearing on the latest record, I submit that it's been done before!!.