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Basses that sound great/better played with a pick.

#21
I'm a short scale player, primarily.

A Musicmaster/My Modded Bronco with some short scale rounds sound great with a pick!


On the other side, my new favorite set up is my short scale Jazz, strung with some La'Bella short scale flats, that i use only fingers with. Jazz + Flats... where have you been all my life?!?!
 
#24
Well, I have a Fender US Deluxe J (older model), it does sound too trebly and thin with a pick. Otherwise I have a Gibson RD Artist (which can sound very trebly) that sounds well when played with a pick. A bass player in a band i used to play guitar in used a Hofner Beatle Bass and a Rickenbacker 4001 with a pick (all played through an SVT), that sounded nice too.
 
#29
Rick for sure. I've played my '73 Jazz with a pick and finger style with good results, as well as my '76 Fender P-Bass. Thunderbird not so much IMHO. My Alembics I've played both ways and it works. I've also played my Lakland 4-94 with a pick, and it sounded good to my ears. My Pedulla MVP - finger style. Same goes for the Parker Fly. Not sure about the Sadowsky (never tried it). My Peaveys sound good with a pick, as do my Musicmans (both pre and post Ernie Ball era). I have a Guild B-301 that sounds better with fingers, but that's just me. And my Martin BC-15E, Ovation CC-074 and Godin A4 all sound good to me with a pick - they're AEs, after all.

Alan
 
#31
To me, passive instruments win with the pick tone. A nice chunky p bass played with a plectrum is fantastic to my ears. My Spector Euro 4 played wth a pick is manageable, but it doesn't have the same quality. I also love using a plectrum on my Carvin B5 in Passive mode, gets a nice aggressive jazz bass sort of tone, but switch back to active and it begins to sound a bit sterile to me. On the contrary my ZON Sonus sounds nice with a plectrum or fingers either way. Somehow it seems to have a nice balance of that warm woody character that a plectrum accentuates, to me anyway.
 
#36
My first bass, a P bass, sounded really nice with a pick. I used a pick and a SansAmp to imitate the Rickenbacker tone. My Fender Jazz bass has impressive tone with a pick. Playing fingerstyle, it is incredibly bassy, and playing with a pick makes it louder and adds a little treble. I also like the sound of a Rickenbacker with a pick.
 
#37
Those with a more agressive voice. This could be fender P with dimarzio model P pup replacement and pole peices raised a little for more crunch. Same for fender J with dimarzio J pups. For that extra add they give. Or most any modern active bass.

Basses with crunchy rather then smooth voiced pups. And body woods conducive to articulate heavy dark tone but also with plenty of top end grind available to. But not harsh treble. Growly voice is also an add.

These can sound fine with fingerstyle to. But they beg for that extra which pick use gives. Imo.

I was gonna say, "Most any bass sounds better with a pick". Lol. But then decided to try and decide which ones do it best to me. Lol.
 

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