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Fingers vs pick?

What yall do

  • Fingers

    Votes: 249 78.1%

  • Pick

    Votes: 67 21.0%

  • Slapin

    Votes: 3 0.9%
  • Total voters
    319
#47
Since I played guitar(with a pick) for a long time before picking up bass, I was sure pick would be my preference. I was wrong. The wider string spacing meant it didn't translate at all for me. I used just my index finger for a about a month, then went to 2 fingers which took about a week to be second nature. I still suck all these years later, but 2 fingers is the obvious and natural choice for me.
 
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#49
I’m much better playing finger-style than with a pick (slap as well, that’s what led me towards the instrument). I can chug downstrokes with a pick all night, but if the song employs Prog rock style playing, it feels like never heard of something called a Bass Guitar.
I started playing when I was 11, and I blame my habit of constantly losing picks to my favored technique.
 
#50
FatStringer52 said:
Both. The more tools you have in your toolbox the more adaptable you will be as a player!!! You use the technique that the song calls for . . .

Do you slap?

Do you pop?

Do you use three-finger picking?

Do you use four-finger picking?

Do you use your thumb?

Do you palm mute?

. . . and on and on and on . . .

They are all simply techniques that you use to acheive very specific sounds.

Why limit yourself . . .
Click to expand...
This. I use both and more...
 
#51
Depends on the song. Some songs need a pick, some fingers. Having switched to using thumbpicks few years back, I have found that sometimes different parts of the song need a pick and other parts need fingers and that can be done by keeping a tumbpick on all the time. I don't slap at all, ever and am 1000% OK with that.
 
#52
I've always felt that when it comes to playing the bass, the magic is in the right hand (or, for you southpaws, the plucking hand). I have absolutely no problem with picks, and I think they sound amazing on many songs, but I also think that a pick almost by definition limits the things you can do with your plucking hand...
 
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#56
A hard nylon pick with Rotosound 66s on a Telecaster Bass through 100-Watt Marshall stacks is the Ron Wood sound on Truth and Beck Ola. Flats on a split-coil P Bass is pure Motown through an Ampeg B-15.
 
#57
About 85% of the time, I play with fingers. That gives me more control over the tone and is simply more expressive.

IF I use a pick, I also use either V-Picks (which I've been using for over 10 years), Gravity Picks (another acrylic pick) or Ti, which are made of titanium. The important thing about all these picks is that they don't flex like normal plastic picks do.
 
#58
I find playing with a pick helps with consistency and a sense of deliberate playing which are things with which I need help. It's more difficult in some ways, but I think the end results are worth it.
 
#60
Two of my favorite bands in the jam band scene, the Grateful Dead and Max Creek, have bassists who use picks: Phil Lesh and John Rider. The tribute bands I've seen for each have bassists who play fingerstyle. Pick and fingerstyle do sound and groove differently, but personal preference in my view is more important. Whichever way the bassist feels more comfortable and sounds their best, well that's the way to go.

I play with my fingers. Six string Gu*tar, too.
 

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