Fingers vs Pick

[Engle]

I used to play both, but at one point many years ago decided to just play fingerstyle - and that forced me to improve my finger technique. Now I’m circling back and working on my picking.
Maybe in another 10 years I’ll start slapping!

 

[Tommyc]

The sound of a pick is great but double stops or playing a quick note on the e string followed by notes on a string 2 or 3 away is more easily facilitated with the thumb on the lower and the fingers on the higher strings. The fingers with thumb is just more versatile than the pick only approach, differences in tone notwithstanding.

 

[SactoBass]

I play both......pick style and finger style......depending on the song.

 

[InhumanResource]

I play with my fingers exclusively, but every time I want Bobby Vega I make a mental note to start practicing with a pick too. He makes it sound so good!

 

[crossthestyx]

Have you tried a thumb pick? That way you can do both without having to palm a regular pick. Just a thought.

 

[gregmon79]

This is not a "which is best" thread, just couldn't find a better name for it. I use both, and have some observations, and just wanted to check if others agree with this.

When playing with a pick, I find it more easy to play tight rhythmically, but it's easier for me to play a mistake. Especially when skipping a string, I occasionally miss (though I'm usually quick enough to still hit it with an opposite stroke when it happens).

With my fingers, it's more direct so I don't miss as easily, but it's harder for me to keep it tight, and it's also harder to keep the volume even. I wouldn't call it sloppy playing, but it's leaning more towards sloppy than when I use a pick.

I started out with just my fingers, but soundwise, for most of my songs, a pick is a better fit, so I've been using that more the last year or two, which could explain why my fingerplaying isn't as tight... But maybe it's something other bass players experience too?

Just curious about this

It's ALL about practice and how much you do or don't do with either/both. There’s things I can do faster and more efficiently with my fingers because I’ve played longer with my fingers. I’ve only started using a pick the last couple years. But now I can play things with a pick more efficiently than with my fingers in some cases. It’s all about practice and muscle memory. No secret here, it’s pretty simple.

 

[BurnOut]

I mostly use a pick because I do a lot of the singing, just makes it easier for me I feel. I have been practicing finger style mostly here lately, after a snide remark at a battle of the bands. Been slowly adding it in to rehearsal. Been learning harder/metal stuff on fingers. I'm hoping to fire up a second band playing the harder material, as soon as 1 of 10 guitarist finally find time in their busy schedules for it and actually show up.

 

[MCS4]

I've developed my picking and plucking techniques so they sound reasonably similar to each other with the gear I use for most applications. Part of this comes from using one of the two rounder corners of a medium pick (typically 1mm Tortex), and part comes from the technique of where and how I strike the string with the pick. I also use plucking techniques to get more attack or "palm mute" tones with needed, including some similar to techniques Bryan Beller uses and does a good job of explaining in his interviews and vids. This started because I used to find that my tone with a pick seemed to have too much attack and not enough fullness when using my typical gear and settings based around fingerstyle.

As a result, I feel that I can make either style work well tonally in most situations. I therefore typically tend to choose which style to use more based upon which one makes a particular song easier and more natural to play. I also find that playing pickstyle tends to make my band sound slightly tighter overall in parts where I and the two guitarists are playing similar parts, where fingerstyle makes us sound a bit "bigger" or more full and helps more traditional parts stand out from what the guitarists are doing.

[Edit: In case it is not obvious, this is in the context of rock/metal. In other situations I tend much more heavily toward fingerstyle.]

 

[morgansterne]

I thought these approaches couldn't really crossover until I saw a guy playing YYZ flawlessly, with a pick. This was a bit of an eye opener for me -- I always thought "picks for this style, fingers for that style." there's great players who can pretty much play anything, either way.

 

[smtp4me]

Fingers only for me. If I'm covering a song and the original artist used a pick, I will first try to solo the bridge pickup and play back there (think Jaco). If I still can't get the sharp attack, then I will use a pick.

 

[Frenchy-Lefty]

Good timing for this thread, I was just thinking about how useful it is to be able to use both techniques after a playing country/rock gig two days ago.

I played with my PBass with flats. Some of the tunes like Merle Haggard d stuff just required a big old school finger tone, other country/rock tunes were perfect with 8th played with a pick (played a few Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seeger..) and then I played all the Johnny Cash tunes muting with a pick and emulating to perfection the typical Johnny Cash beat (I was particularly proud of the way I made it sound so authentic)
All this to say, at the end of the gig I remember thinking "I'd be really missing something if I did not use those different techniques". To be a well rounded and versatile bass player, it is important to be open minded and learn all the different techniques possible. It is foolish restrict yourself to one type of sound.

 

[JW56789]

Bob Taylor talks about 'bone tone' when it really comes to splitting hairs about tone; essentially, he observes that anatomy differs in terms of some of us have harder, bonier fingers and some of us have more flesh around the fingertips, and everything in between.

I've seen this. Had a friend who was a total Rush freak, had a 4003, the whole deal, and when he played with his fingers, his tone was very Ged-like. Handed me the Ric to try, and I did NOT have his tone, and I was pretty fluent at the time and could play several Rush tunes with my eyes closed, but I just did not get that sound with my fingers. Whipped out a pick, BANG, I was there.

I'll go either way depending on what I'm after. I'd love to be a potent slap guy, but it just completely eludes me. Yo don't see pick playing as often these days, but I prefer it when I need a harder sound.

 

[Tommygun_ted]

It's all about tone and feel for me. If I want the attack and growl I use a pick, if I want it to purr I use my fingers. I also find I can play more sloppy in a good way with a pick. If that makes sense. That being said the band I'm in now plays folk and Americana originals so I play with my fingers 99% of the time

 

[Sixgunn]

It's just like anything else related to playing. Practice makes perfect. If you feel weaker at one particular style than another, and feel the need to improve, put some time into it and into experimenting with techniques.

Personally, I hate playing with a pick. I just don't like the feel of playing that way. I'm much more articulate with my fingers. However, I do understand that certain things sound better (or so they tell me) with a pick, so I reluctantly use one (and practice to be able to do it well for) when the need arises.

I've been playing fingers only for like 30 years and one can develop techniques that simulate the sound of pick playing almost perfectly (Entwistle's percussive techniques, for one).

 

[sotua]

This is not a "which is best" thread, just couldn't find a better name for it. I use both, and have some observations, and just wanted to check if others agree with this.

When playing with a pick, I find it more easy to play tight rhythmically, but it's easier for me to play a mistake. Especially when skipping a string, I occasionally miss (though I'm usually quick enough to still hit it with an opposite stroke when it happens).

With my fingers, it's more direct so I don't miss as easily, but it's harder for me to keep it tight, and it's also harder to keep the volume even. I wouldn't call it sloppy playing, but it's leaning more towards sloppy than when I use a pick.

I started out with just my fingers, but soundwise, for most of my songs, a pick is a better fit, so I've been using that more the last year or two, which could explain why my fingerplaying isn't as tight... But maybe it's something other bass players experience too?

Just curious about this

It sounds to me like you need to practice more, until you don't miss skipping strings with a pick, and your fingerstyle sounds tight and even.

 

[basscapes]

I started playing finger-style. As soon as I heard Geddy Lee, I assumed (as a beginner) that he used a pick in order to get that grinding, forward tone (insert audio example of bass/drum breakdown in the song "Freewill").

Well, I practiced with both (still do). There are times I've not needed or wanted to use a pick, but HAD to. Other times, finger-style had to be dropped, due to speed or tightness (I'm tight with finger-style, but have never been fast).

These days, I'm beginning to feel that I've gotten a good "voice" using a pick; then again, I don't sit back with my playing either!

 

[Fat Freddy]

I can pick my nose with my finger but it's hard to pick my nose with a pick.....

 

[MDBass]

This is not a "which is best" thread, just couldn't find a better name for it. I use both, and have some observations, and just wanted to check if others agree with this.

When playing with a pick, I find it more easy to play tight rhythmically, but it's easier for me to play a mistake. Especially when skipping a string, I occasionally miss (though I'm usually quick enough to still hit it with an opposite stroke when it happens).

With my fingers, it's more direct so I don't miss as easily, but it's harder for me to keep it tight, and it's also harder to keep the volume even. I wouldn't call it sloppy playing, but it's leaning more towards sloppy than when I use a pick.

I started out with just my fingers, but soundwise, for most of my songs, a pick is a better fit, so I've been using that more the last year or two, which could explain why my fingerplaying isn't as tight... But maybe it's something other bass players experience too?

Just curious about this

Just sounds like you just a bit more practice with both

Ideally you'd only change playing techniques because you want a different timbre out of the instrument, not because you play "better" with one or the other.

There isn't anything I can play with a pick that I can't play with fingers or vice versa; changing the instrument or technique will influence what I want to play, but not what I can play.

Or Lubianiker is a great example of this; most of the guys I've seen with fingerstyle and slap chops on his level look and sound like a total beginner when using a pick, but he just uploaded a recent studio clip of him absolutely shredding with one

 

[Cardinal Fang]

Until about two years ago I was almost exclusively a pick player since I picked up a bass at 17 years old. I stuck with the pick in spite of decades of non-bass players saying "bass players aren't supposed to use picks" (how many others here have been the recipient of this unsolicited opinion?). I tried finger-style off and on over the years and always found it was easier for me to play clean and fast across four or five strings, muting with both hands, if I used a pick.

Until I tried to play reggae music.

For two weeks I just could not get the rhythm, I just couldn't, and I can't express to you how frustrated I was. Granted I had only ever played rock and roll (which, in my opinion, is very different from reggae from a bass player's perspective) but I felt like I should have been able to get close, you follow? Then, for some reason, I put the pick down and it clicked almost immediately. I'm no great reggae bassist by any stretch of the imagination but for some reason putting down the pick was the key. To this day I do not know why, I don't know if it's a left-brain/right-brain thing, some kind of 'communing with the bass gods though both hands' thing, an anchoring thing, or what. All I know is that, for me, the two are extremely different.

After a lot of practice I now use whichever method feels better rhythmically and sounds better tonally for the music. Sometimes I use both in the same song.

 

[AlexBassMP]

The main reason because I use a pick :

I play in a hard rock/metal band. When I joined I was very out of shape ( I took a musical break from 2006 to 2010). They sent me a a couple of songs to learn for the audition and I wasn't able to play it with my fingers... First of all because my right hand got tired very fast. The fast tempo of the songs doesn't help too. I decided play the with a pick and I nailed it. The pick allows me to play even, fast and tight. The sound of the pick combined with the overdrive coming from my Sansamp fits perfectly in the band. I play all the set with a 0.88 tortex pick except one ballad.

But...

Before my 2006/2010 break I played with fingers most of the time. At home I play with fingers almost all the time, unless I practice the band's set.
I play in a Helloween tribute band too. Some of the older songs are too fast and I use the pick on them..but the mid tempos and the slow ones I playèm fingerstyle because it's natural to me.
And just for the record : I've never played a pick i na jam session...