Basses to be played pickstyle and basses to be played fingerstyle

I have found that most basses can go either way, depending on the song and the rig.

Although some specific models don't take well to picks. My Pedulla Rapture J2 5 really only likes to be played finger. It was designed to be warm and smooth. It doesn't do bite or rattle.

 

I play everything with a pick, even when I'm trying out basses at Guitar Center, Sam Ash, etc...and there was a time I was trying out between 50 and 60 basses a year.
I've played far more basses that sounded good then sounded bad, and the bad ones had nothing to do with my playing with a pick.
Of course, I use a bass pick, not a felt pick and certainly not a guitar pick, so I don't have any idea at all what a nylon, celluloid, wood, or stone pick sounds like.

 

I really think it’s just you.

 

what is a bass pick??

 

Yamaha made some pickups in the older BBs designed for pick players as they marketed it, I had a BB1024X, that was one with those specific pickups. Do I play with a pick, no. Did the bass sound great fingerstyle...yes, growly and gnarly, if I played with a pick would it have made a difference in the tone, sure, the attack is totally different and so is the surface striking the string, plastic versus skin...I digress, whatever. I am sure there is something you can glean out of the gibberish I typed ;-)
Rock on.

 

lol, I was just asking myself that very question when I read that.

 

I just grab the bass I think best fits the gig. Then I use up to a dozen styles and positions to get the sound out of it I need for any given song. Pick, fingers, the side of my thumb, slap, tap, by the bridge, over the fretboard, etc.

I never thought of any of my basses as being pick basses or fingers basses.

 

The special elastomer material nearly eliminates pick noise, leaving you with clean warm tones.
This pick sounds like your fingers, yet plays like a pick.
Wedgie rubber picks come in 2 thicknesses and 3 levels of stiffness (Soft, Medium, Hard) so that you can find your perfect sound.

I use the hard black 5.0 picks.
They last forever and I've yet to drop one in six years!

 

(Found this online.)
Bass Picks Vs Guitar Picks
There is quite a lot of misinformation out there regarding bass picks. You see there is no such thing as a special bass guitar plectrum. Or a special guitar plectrum. But instead, there are simply plectrums. And you can choose which one you would like to use for this application. Having said that there are most certainly better-suited plectrums for the application of bass playing.
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Well, I don't know about "quite a lot of misinformation" but he's certainly entitled to his opinion.

Other than that, can you use the Wedgie with a guitar?
Sure, but I think there are better choices.
Can you use any pick with a bass?
Again, sure, but I wouldn't.

 

What if someone marketed a pick in the shape of a finger?

 

Thanks for the info. As you said in the end, there is no pick esp. for bass or guitar, but i tend to prefer thicker and harder ones for bass. Though you will find a lot of gypsy guitar style players that use picks very similar to yours.

 

You're welcome.
My brother used to use a felt pick. It was HUGE and didn't last very long.
I never knew people used them for ukuleles.

 

Never really thought of a bass as either fingers or pick
It could go either way depending on what sound/attack you are going for

I have heard a lot of people talk about basses that are for slapping and ones that are not for slapping
So I think this is a fair question

 

It’s the player not the bass

 

Mostly pickstyle precision, others - finger.

 

I’d think string spacing is the issue. Hofners have tight spacing, which may make finger style more difficult, for example.

 

It depends more on the individual bass than it does on the type of bass. All of my basses can be slapped, plucked, or picked, but each of them tends to do one of those things a little bit better than the others. In particular, I think my jazz bass does happen to sound best when played with fingers. My P bass, believe it or not, sounds great slapped, as well as with fingers. I don't play much with a pick, but I think my P sounds good that way as well. My other basses, not so much.

Check out Bobby Vega if you want to hear how great a Jazz bass played with a pick can sound.

 

I'll just say any bass with flat strings sound good with a pick, IMO. Rounds not so much for me. Better with fingers, thumbs.

 

Every bass sounds like itself, with both a pick sound and a finger sound. Some have physical characteristics that make it easier to play one way or the other, but IMO they don't lean one way or another due to the sound. Maybe there are some that do and I just don't gravitate towards those basses.