right hand fingering technique

[NAF1138]

Ok, I had my first bass lesson a couple of days ago, and the first thing that my teacher and I worked on was my fingering technique with my right hand. He showed me rest strokes, and we worked on hand positioning so I could get the best tone out of my bass. My problem, is that I play guitar also and therefore like to keep some length on my fingernails, which makes it difficult to get that great bassy tone. I found, while practicing, that with my middle finger this is not so much of a problem as it is with my index finger. So I was fooling around today working on getting that tone, and I found that with my ring finger I got better tone than with either my middle or index. So my question is, is there any disadvantage to playing with my middle and ring finger as opposed to my first and middle. Will practicing this way develop a bad habit that I am going to have to unlearn on my next lesson, or is this an ok way to play? Thanks for the help.

[cephas45]

there may be a problem with it once you get to a point where you are playing more complex figures musically which would demand a little more out of your right hand. your middle and index fingers are probably much more balanced strength wise than your middle and ring finger would be, and this may become apparent in the sound you get when playing 8th or 16th notes while alternating strokes. if you're really going for the bass seriously then you may want to consider getting rid of the fingernails - unless you like hearing the clicky noise in your sound.