Is the picking style for the uneducated b-players?

[GreyBeard]

The 1st electric bass was designed for guitar players to easily convert to bass. This was due to the low supply of bass players and the size of their instrument and also the problem with getting an upright loud enough to compete with an electric guitar. Most all electric basses in the early days were played with a pick because they were played by guitar players. As more and more upright players switched over to electric the finger style technique became more and more popular. I think that using a pick might be looked on as a guitar player thing and therefore be frowned uppon by some bass players. I personally see nothing wrong with it if you like the sound. I don't like that particular sound on all types of music. A couple of months ago I was watching the Arts channel and there was a trio of 2 accu guitars and 1 accustic electric bass. The bass was being played with a pick and the tone was just to forward and punchy for my taste. jmho

[DBasica]

Don't laugh about the playing with gloves thing. There is a guy featured in this month's Bass Player magazine that plays with silk gloves on both hands due to a sweating problem.

I'm all for whatever works for the song. I use fingers, thumb, slap/pop, pick.

Graham Maby on Joe Jackson's Look Sharp sounds great with a pick. So does McCartney...Mike Dirnt...Chris Squire...the list goes on and on.


It's like arguing over lines on a fretless, thumbrests, number of strings, etc. Whatever works for you and your style of playing.

Dan

[chris griffiths]

really whats his name? I bet he plays for the zawinul syndicate just like the guy I mentioned in my post

[DBasica]

Sorry, I don't recall his name and don't have the mag here at work.

Dan

[Chad Michael]

Every Friday and Saturday night, I play 45 songs:

-- 40 with fingers
-- 3 primarily slap / pop
-- 2 with a pick

That makes me 4.444444% uneducated.

Or something

[DBasica]

Originally posted by chris griffiths
really whats his name? I bet he plays for the zawinul syndicate just like the guy I mentioned in my post

Yep, you're correct Chris. His name is Etienne Mbappe, and he is with Zawinul.

Dan