Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

[ugly_bassplayer]

i don’t know if i should feel superior or inadequate.

those transparent things have little indents
for your thumb. very helpful.

Both



You picks, me flats or dead rounds......pandemic existential decisions.

At least I put some tracks down these past few days.

 

[steubig]

me flats or dead rounds......

answer

both

 

[JES]

Picks: I’m mainly a finger player but I love love love the tone of a picked distorted bass—probably goes back to Chris Squire and my teen years.

I was a blues then yellow Tortex guy for years. I would absolutely destroy the yellow ones, though.

When I started needing the gloves, I tried various thumb picks and cut the thumb off a glove to accommodate — also tried hockey tape inside the thumb pick with a full glove.

My favourite has a hinge but it’s a little harder than I’d like. I found a lighter one but I can’t seem to get it loose enough to be comfortable on my thumb. I tried glueing up a hinged one with a Tortex but the glue didn’t hold.

I eventually want to integrate a thumb pick with the touchstyle playing. But the tension is super low, so I may be better off using my hand (which hurts and wears out the glove but it my current method).

I bought some graphite picks awhile back. Never works for me..I should pass them on since they’ll last forever.

 

[lordradish]

I really feel like the odd man out here with all this pick love. Just never something I've gotten into, even though a lot of my favorite rock players are pickers. Y'all have this down to a science.

Avoiding fatherhood, on the other hand # is something I've mastered. I'd rather have my basses.

 

[Spectrum]

I like playing with a pick. I'm not particularly good at it, but I enjoy it. Especially when rocking out on my Rickenbacker. Just something about the design of Rickenbackers that they seem to lend themselves to pick playing. But mainly I'm a fingers player, played fingers only for many years.

 

[lordradish]

I like playing with a pick. I'm not particularly good at it, but I enjoy it. Especially when rocking out on my Rickenbacker. Just something about the design of Rickenbackers that they seem to lend themselves to pick playing. But mainly I'm a fingers player, played fingers only for many years.

I think with me, since I've always been more of a modern tone guy that, picks just sound too damn trebly, and I have zero interest in putting flats on, as they wouldn't really mesh with anything I currently do.

Fun fact - when you pull out the volume knob on the Wal, it gives a tonal boost at a higher freq(can't remember what) that is supposed to give you a pick like sound, and it does, to an extent, but that don't get me jazzed up, either.

 

[Spectrum]

I think with me, since I've always been more of a modern tone guy that, picks just sound too damn trebly, and I have zero interest in putting flats on, as they wouldn't really mesh with anything I currently do.

Fun fact - when you pull out the volume knob on the Wal, it gives a tonal boost at a higher freq(can't remember what) that is supposed to give you a pick like sound, and it does, to an extent, but that don't get me jazzed up, either.

Well, I don't do flats. Nothing against them, just not my thing. Maybe someday.

As for treble, I get tons of treble and clank with my fingers, even more than a pick often, just because of the way I dig in and use a bit of fingernail. With fingers I can get extra fret buzz if I want. It's weird; I know a pick should give me a harder attack, but it's about the same. It's a different kind of attack than fingers though.

And for some lines with steady 8th notes a pick can give a more consistent tone than alternating fingers, or at least it feels like it does to me. Maybe because no matter how much I practice at it I'm never 100% happy with my finger technique. Maybe it's only me who notices, who knows.

When it comes to music and how you connect to your instrument it's just all so personal.

 

[theunknowndude]

I’m a finger player but still fable in guitar... love those purple stubby picks... only time I’d ever pull out a pick is for my friend or misery or tool songs... the attack / pattern just doesn’t work as well with fingers (and it just seems more natural to use a pick for weird string skipping stuff)

 

[Spectrum]

Wow, just discovered this. How have I never heard of this woman, she's been making electronic music since the 50s and still at it. This is amazing stuff from about 2005 I think.

 

[steubig]

fun fact: for my first 15 years of playing, i *hated* pick playing (even though one of my gods, berry oakley, played with a pick!).

then i started using it because it’s another tone color and attack sound. still not that good with it.

use ‘em with flats/rounds, fretted/fretless, 12s.

just another tool.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

I play pick cuz the guitar player in my dual rig band forced me. He's a complete douche.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Well, I don't do flats. Nothing against them, just not my thing. Maybe someday.

As for treble, I get tons of treble and clank with my fingers, even more than a pick often, just because of the way I dig in and use a bit of fingernail. With fingers I can get extra fret buzz if I want. It's weird; I know a pick should give me a harder attack, but it's about the same. It's a different kind of attack than fingers though.

And for some lines with steady 8th notes a pick can give a more consistent tone than alternating fingers, or at least it feels like it does to me. Maybe because no matter how much I practice at it I'm never 100% happy with my finger technique. Maybe it's only me who notices, who knows.

When it comes to music and how you connect to your instrument it's just all so personal.

I use only one finger on the right hand for chugging steady 8th notes. Same finger, same tone on each attack.
Just like a pick using only downstrokes.

My 2 cents.

 

[lordradish]

I use only one finger on the right hand for chugging steady 8th notes. Same finger, same tone on each attack.
Just like a pick using only downstrokes.

My 2 cents.

I use two to do that, but if I'm being honest, it's probably been at least 10 years since I've played a bassline like that.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

I use two to do that, but if I'm being honest, it's probably been at least 10 years since I've played a bassline like that.

Even walking bass I tend to do that. Comes from playing lots of upright bass probably...?
Unless it gets to 350 bpm, by then I usually quit the jam session or play half notes till the sax player turns purple and then looks at me and the drummer in a panic cuz hes completly lost in the changes.

But I haven’t played any of those in over 10 years....I dont miss a second of those.

 

[steubig]

*really* even 8th notes: harder than they seem. i actually practice them. (weird, i know)

walking bass: for certain feels, i use my middle finger for the 4trs and my index for inflections.

really fast tempos never do much for me.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

really fast tempos never do much for me.

Even 8ths are always a challenge.
Fast tempos never did much of anything except train wreck jam sessions.

 

[JES]

Interesting. I’ve been an index-for-8ths guy but I am intrigued by the middle finger plus index for accents.

 

[Spectrum]

*really* even 8th notes: harder than they seem. i actually practice them. (weird, i know)

It's not weird to me. I think playing simple, steady, and clean is something "fancy" players can take for granted and it's easy to get sloppy on, like any fundamental that gets neglected.

 

[monsterthompson]

I tried the Alex Webster technique of using three fingers for 16th note patterns. I never got proficient at it but it was a good learning experience, helping train independence and focusing on the "1" independent of where the index finger landed.
1234
IMRI
MRIM
RIMR

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

Interesting. I’ve been an index-for-8ths guy but I am intrigued by the middle finger plus index for accents.

Used a Bob Mintzer sax etude book for 16th note accents about 20 years ago.
I forget which one it was.