Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
One of the reasons why bass players don't like picks is they use the wrong pick and they hold it wrong.
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Fingers or plectrum?
- Thread starter Raman
- Start date
Fingers only for me unless someone else requests that I play a song with a pick. I just like the sound better and have never rally heard a picked tone I like.
Here's the odd thing though...I started off on guitar so using a pick is no big deal. I'll probably always be able to play with a pick as well as I do with my fingers or better because of the amount of time I spent on guitar.
Here's the odd thing though...I started off on guitar so using a pick is no big deal. I'll probably always be able to play with a pick as well as I do with my fingers or better because of the amount of time I spent on guitar.
So what is the right pick and the right way to hold it. I kinda just don't like the sound.
Here's a good pick tone that I can't personally emulate... with a pick. I've been playing Scarborough Fair for a week, but finger-style. I get a better tone that way. But the way she picks and mute is something else.
Check out the video from the start too.
Check out the video from the start too.
I like a lot of bass with a pick songs. Personally I find the pick kinda limiting and unnecessary when I can play much better without.
I’m primarily a pick player, because I feel finger tone can’t really capture the aggressiveness I’m looking for. However, I find some songs to sound substantially better with finger picking; and often much more comfortable to play.
Also, I find it egregious to play The Trooper with a pick. It just doesn’t sound right without the finger clank.
Also, I find it egregious to play The Trooper with a pick. It just doesn’t sound right without the finger clank.
Same here. I use my picking hand like an animal uses its claws to scratch itself. No finesse whatsoever. Using a pick on the bass makes me sound like a frustrated guitarist trying to keep up. I play bass faster and more accurately with my fingers than with a pick. I haven't tried bowing the piano yet.
Yes, I’ve been told it’s a swear word in Quebec, but I’m not French Canadian. It’s a nickname that came from my father and grandfather. My apologies if I’m offending anyone. It’s not my intention.I never properly developed thumb-picking myself...
Off topic, what's the story behind your name: Ostie ?
Did you know it's a common swear word in Quebec French?
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
I was waiting to see if someone would ask that.
I hold the pick between the pad of the thumb and the index finger. This allows me to pick from flat angle (zero degrees). This with palm muting you can get a thuddy flat wound string sound even with rounds. If you hold the pick like a guitar player then the pick rolls slightly to the side of the index finger and the angle increases and you get more treble bite out of the pick.
here's me playing back by the bridge ... picking and palm muting
I never liked tear drop picks ... they are fine on guitars but for a bass I like the triangle picks. Hard plastic picks wear out too fast and sound too harsh. I was using these for a while
but then I found these picks ... they last forever and are not harsh sounding and they have 3 picking edges
Ric5
Inactive
- Jan 29, 2008
- 29,772
- 30,452
- Disclosures
- I like 5, 8, 10, and 12 string basses
That's cool. Glad it works for you. I guess at this point I just like what I like. I think play at the bridge is the more natural position with a pick but I don't really like the sound it produces with either technique. I would say we are probably on opposite ends of the tonal preference spectrum, which is ok though.
Probably a lot of truth to this as I started on a pick and transferred to fingers after seeing a guy a lot better than me. Took a couple of years to fully transition but I found that the fingers can travel over the strings faster (I do a lot of octave drops and runs) and for my style of playing that makes a big difference.
Interestingly enough, I picked up a plectrum a couple of days ago and cannot hold it, maneuver with it and cannot play even beginner level with it. It just doesn't work for me and the other incentive was that I never like the treble tone of a pick on the strings. I even tried felt picks back in the early 70's to get away from that.
The other thing that has changed in bass playing is the players themselves. There is a wide gap between John Entwistle playing with a pick and listening to bass players who strum (Thrash) root notes on a bass. That is fingernails of a blackboard to me.
Back when I played with a pick, those were the kinds of picks I used. My problem was that the pick would slowly rotate in my fingers so that the flat side was closest to the strings, then I'd have to adjust it. Rinse & repeat.
I would have been interested in a pick with six or seven points, like the Star of David or a California Highway Patrol badge, assuming the contour of the points looked liked the corners of the triangular picks you posted. That way, if the pick rotates in my fingers, it would just rotate to another point. And if I ever started playing with a pick again, I'd be interested again in such a pick.
Check out postings by @gebass6 in the Accessories forum. He reviews lots of picks from direct experience.
Thick Inflexible Picks.That's the way.
You might like Gypsy Jazz picks(Also called Manouche picks)
They give a dark,round tone.And slip off the string easily.
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No.But Tony Levin and Tony Franklin did on fretless.Jaco didn’t use a pick!
So.......
