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Covers - Do you always play it like the original?

Misterwogan

Misterwogan

Oct 12, 2012
362
40
63
London, United Kingdom
#1
I'm thinking specifically about finger style and picking. I'm finding that with a lot of songs that were originally played with a pick on a P-Bass (Foo Fighters for example) , I simply don't like the sound of a picked P and so do it with fingers.

I also find the P-Bass uncomfortable to play with a pick.

I like playing with a pick on my Gibbon SG bass, but that doesn't deliver the right tone for many picked P-Bassed rock tracks.

So, what are your opinions?
If the song was originally played with a pick - you use the pick or you please yourself?
 
#2
I find that certain songs do need the pick to achieve not only a specific tone but more importantly a specific feel. If I can cop the feel with my fingers then I'll use my fingers. But, every once in a while I'll hit a tune where I'm like "oh yeah got to use a pick for this one." Out of a 40 song night I might use a pick maybe 2 or 3 times even though half the material may have been originally recorded with a pick.
 
#4
I used to mimic the original artists style and play it how they did, however I mainly just use plectrum now. I suppose its a comfort thing, never worried about sound, most the audience would not notice, it was all about feel.. The good thing is no more blisters...
 
#5
I try to learn it like the original because there are times when that's appropriate. But, I may not play every note verbatum other times on parts where it doesn't matter, especailly at times when there is more freedom for all of us to interpret a little. Signature parts, of course, must be played like the original, though.
 
#7
Misterwogan said:
I'm thinking specifically about finger style and picking. I'm finding that with a lot of songs that were originally played with a pick on a P-Bass (Foo Fighters for example) , I simply don't like the sound of a picked P and so do it with fingers.

I also find the P-Bass uncomfortable to play with a pick.

I like playing with a pick on my Gibbon SG bass, but that doesn't deliver the right tone for many picked P-Bassed rock tracks.

So, what are your opinions?
If the song was originally played with a pick - you use the pick or you please yourself?
Click to expand...

Fresh SS rounds picked gives you the right tone to blend with all those humbucking guitars in the wall of sound that makes up most Foo Fighters songs. I used to play some picked and some pizz but now I play them all pick style and the songs sound much closer to the records and their own live sound. One of the guitars alway has a pretty bassy tone so the slightly scooped sound of new SS rounds wraps itself nicely around the walls of guitar and feels right in the mix, instead of fighting with all those low mids and muddying things up. Clean flat EQ and new strings work best, IMO, especially if you have a good PA or a rig with some solid low end. Not digging in too much gives you the full range tone that helps a lot, too.

Their overall sound is a heavily polished and worked one, it's an interesting combination of aggression and smoothness, lots of rich textures combining and bass that is felt as much as heard. It's really exciting to emulate live, we have spent a lot of time getting the dynamics and mix right and it really pops when you do. I find picking also helps with getting the percussive drive that helps to move their songs along so nicely.

Last thing- I judge all P tones in the mix and not soloed. A P picked with the tone wide open can sound offensive alone but so freaking sweet in a rock mix.
 
#8
I play everything fingerstyle. For me it's all in the fingers and the tone controls. Playing by the bridge, at the neck, with thumb, tone open, tone halfway down, gives me all the tonal control I need.

Last rehearsal my guitarist told me I can make fingered flats sound like picked rounds. So there's your answer. (not sure if I should take offense by that comment lol!)

And I suck at pick playing :( would love to learn it though but it won't quite work with what I do. In my bedroom it's fun to play along to something with a pick but I can't seem to fit it into my band playing.
 
#11
Misterwogan said:
Learn guitar - you'll soon get the hang of it, and when you do it will become another tool for you.

Me - 35 years guitar, 4 months bass.
Click to expand...

The guitarists I know who don't play much bass always lean into it like they want to tear the strings off the bass, instead of easing up a bit and letting the bass speak. I tell them not to pick so hard and they are amazed at how much fuller and more authoritative the bass sounds, which might seem counter-intuitive to them.
 
#12
no but it is mandatory that I play note for note especially if I have the sheet music.

for the tone ... I have my own, I find it pointless to try to replicate a sound. unless, of course, that your tone is very ugly in a particular mix.
 
#13
One Drop said:
The guitarists I know who don't play much bass always lean into it like they want to tear the strings off the bass, instead of easing up a bit and letting the bass speak. I tell them not to pick so hard and they are amazed at how much fuller and more authoritative the bass sounds, which might seem counter-intuitive to them.
Click to expand...

OT, but I find the same is true on guitar. Very few guys play electric with a deft enough touch to really let the strings speak.
 
#15
smogg said:
I find that certain songs do need the pick to achieve not only a specific tone but more importantly a specific feel. If I can cop the feel with my fingers then I'll use my fingers. But, every once in a while I'll hit a tune where I'm like "oh yeah got to use a pick for this one." Out of a 40 song night I might use a pick maybe 2 or 3 times even though half the material may have been originally recorded with a pick.
Click to expand...

This.

There are some songs in our set that have a bass tone or bass line that has a certain attack that only a pick will achieve. I do however play a lot of pick lines with fingers without detriment to the song, sometimes I don't even bother with the pick and no-one notices. I'd rather play like me and sound like a band, than try and cop someone else's tone and sound like 40 different bands.
 
#17
IME- I like using a PICK for most of our rock songs (any thing that has driving eighths) ALA CULT, CURE, etc.

For anything funkier, like Funky Music, Brick House, I like my fingers and use them.

IME, A Pick sounds Perfect on P-Bass' which is what I play, but fingers sound better for most funk stuff, and I throw in some pops on some of those songs.
 
#18
My band likes me to throw in a bass solo or 2 every song, that's about all we change structurally. Sometimes we'll add more guitars, keys, harp, or have our 3 singers trade off vocal parts. If I can get a good enough sound without a pick then I won't use one, but for certain songs(mostly Alice In Chains) I will need to use a pick to get the right sound.
 

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