Bass pick different than guitar pick?

[HG1180]

I don’t use picks much, but for bass I prefer a larger rounded triangular shape that is thick and has tapered edges so they slide off the string smoothly. I make my own from bone/tusk and buffalo horn, which I sometimes dye with the juice of berries and vegetables from my garden. Here are some of both the large and traditional size picks I’ve made recently.
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These look wonderful! I would happily pay for a few of those! Nice job man!

 

[Lagado]

I've always used the larger picks for the grip, same shape as these:

But 1.2mm, or less.

 

[HolmeBass]

In my experience it seems more like people find a pick thickness that suites them and they use those picks on both guitar and bass. And I am seeing a lot of that in this thread.

I personally like a thicker pick so I can tell exactly where the point of it is and control the exact moment of plucking better. But that’s just me and I am not great with a pick.

 

[RoketRdr]

I played guitar for years and have recently picked up bass. My preconception was that bass picks need to be stiff, so I bought a bunch, and I struggled. Turns out I can play better using the thinner guitar picks I have always used for guitar. It sounds fine too.

YMMV of course.

Same here. I played guitar for over 30 years before picking up the bass and I quickly realized that I needed to use thinner picks and not the tree trunks that were suggested. In a video I watched by Adam "Nolly" Getgood he talks about how the thinner picks he uses gives a natural compression to his tone and he plays "through" the strings instead of plucking them.

 

[mikewalker]

I remember the felt picks, and then I also remember people talking about the felt bass picks turning to dust by the end of the gig.

I use the same pick for guitar and bass. I think it is all marketing. I have used the yellow and green tortex to great effect. Does anyone else like the way the tortex picks feel when they are new and kind of “dusty” feeling?...

Yep, the felt picks would start to separate after about half a dozen songs. I burned through a small bag of them the one week my fingertips were recovering from blisters. As for 'real' picks, the last couple decades been using Tortex Orange for everything (bass, guitar, mandocello, whatever), and do like their rough texture when new...

 

[Dana R Gregory]

My bass was strung with chromes and I used a Dunlop .073 gold nylon pick. It worked just fine for me.

 

[Element Zero]

No such thing as a “bass pick”. I dig Dunlop Tortex .60 but everyone’s different. However, don’t pay attention to anyone that says you have to use a certain thickness.

 

[BurtMacklinFBI]

I’ve used 3mm Dunlop Big Stubbies for years and still love the hell out of them:

 

[BenTheBassGuy]

I don't use picks much but, when I do, I use whatever I can borrow from the guitarist.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

Whatevers laying around.....
But if I had my druthers...... Green or blue Tortex.

 

[Helix]

bass picks... guitar picks... god what's up with these troll topics lately?

Honestly, since I never used a pick, I'm finding the thread pretty interesting

 

[Weberman]

I actually use thinner picks on bass. I generally use Ultex JazzIII picks on guitar, and standard 0.7 - 1mm picks on bass, depending on the tone I'm going for. The Jazz pick on a bass just does not feel, or sound right, at all.

 

[Jefenator]

I once splurged on a "mandolin pick" for my mandolin and didn't much care for it. And it cost $7 for just the one and - big surprise - I can't even find it now. (I guess I had that coming...)
A few weeks ago I auditioned a bunch of different picks with my acoustic guitar. The difference in playability and sound was quite dramatic. Too thin, too thick and too smooth were all issues for me. I wound up settling on the good old standard Fender Heavy as my go to for guitar and mandolin. (Medium plays easier but has a sonic penalty.)
For bass I had been favoring the larger rounded triangle form (Clayton .80 or Martin H). The larger size seemed to make sense for my ham-fisted technique on an instrument with thick strings and high action.
As I get more comfortable with the regular shape picks on the more dainty axes, I may just consolidate and use just the standard Fender Heavy for everything. The onstage experience will be the final determiner - alas that means I may have to wait a while.

 

[LostJohnny]

I’ve used 3mm Dunlop Big Stubbies for years and still love the hell out of them:
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Seconded. It's not just the thickness, it's also that they have a certain glassy smoothness to them and they're very long-lasting. (I think the ones I have are Lexan, although they also make them in nylon, which does not sound appealing to me.)

I also sometimes use the Dunlop Ultex Sharp in 1.14mm - despite being a lot thinner it's still extremely stiff - but for bass I prefer the Big Stubby.

 

[BurtMacklinFBI]

Seconded. It's not just the thickness, it's also that they have a certain glassy smoothness to them and they're very long-lasting. (I think the ones I have are Lexan, although they also make them in nylon, which does not sound appealing to me.)

I also sometimes use the Dunlop Ultex Sharp in 1.14mm - despite being a lot thinner it's still extremely stiff - but for bass I prefer the Big Stubby.

Yeah, I don't like the nylon ones either. Not for me. One of the things I like about them actually is that when they wear in they get a very particular sort of velvety roughness to them though, to my ear and for my way of playing that's when they sound their best. The slight roughness grabs the roundwound strings just a little more and adds just a tiny touch of raspiness to the sound.

 

[dkelley]

Most "bass" picks I see advertises are like 2mm (for you USA residents, that's like 1.3x the green tortex guitar pickup).

I can't stand such heavy picks on any instrument... but certainly a "light" guitar pickup is absolutely useless on a bass.

So heavier than on guitar? only if you use light guitar pickups.

With the old plastic fender pickups, they didn't bend much unless you got thinner ones, but when tortex pickups came out and nearly every guitarist I met used roughly .88 or a little less mm tortex, I personally found that my favorite green tortext has enough strength combined with great feel and just enough give to work with bass on those rare times I needed it in the studio.

 

[SunByrne]

Play whatever you like.

When I first started playing with a pick, I bought a Dunlop Medium/Heavy variety pack and played everything in it until I figured out which one I liked best.

Settled on 1.14 mm Gators.

 

[Dan Pomykalski]

I used to use medium picks with bass because I liked the tone better than heavy picks. Then I got a bass with raised pole pieces which broke the tips off too frequently so I made the switch to heavy.

 

[The Ryantist]

Best $20 I ever spent was to buy a whole bunch of different picks - different materials, sizes, thicknesses. The variety available is amazing. I tried out all of them, kept the few that I liked, and gave away the rest. There were some that sounded great but didn't have enough grip to hold onto if my hands got sweaty. One I remember was silicone rubber that sounded almost like fingers. My favorite from that experiment was Dunlop Gator Grip 1.14 mm.

Then my wife also got me for Christmas a couple of jazz-shaped picks cut from quarters (the coins), and I like those a lot too. They aren't as bright sounding as I would have expected.

 

[JKos]

I use good ol' Fender Medium picks on both guitar and bass. Seems to work great for me on bass. I've gone through a bunch of picks and always end up back on Fender Mediums.

- John