From picking to plucking...

Like the 1970s Anti Smoking poster said. Best Advice Yet. Don't start.

 

Don't get me wrong, pick is great for certain tone, and some songs just sound wrong unless picked, but for ME anyway, fingerstyle is the way I am going for most of my playing. I am not going to fault someone that plays most of their stuff with a pick, do what works for you!

 

I use both fingers and picks. For me it depends on the song.

 

I use my thumb as a pick sometimes. Tough to lose that one.

 

Ballin'Bass > Man, you should listen to Steve Swallow or Anthony Jackson !

 

Yet another guy who has no trouble playing 32nd notes with his fingers...

 

Alright guys sorry for my brash statement. I was trying to be funny and it didn't come off the right way. My apologies.

 

It all just depends on the song. There are some songs where the pick just adds too much...there are some songs where the fingers just dont add enough. To say only one is right is the same as saying every song should be played on a Stingray. Theres plenty of sounds out there. Its nice to make them all!

 

I have a velcro patch sewn into the inside side of my strap, which I attached a pick-holder containing four picks to. I always put my pick back in when done. Problem solved. It's nice and discreet, can't be seen from the stage, very easy to reach, and is transferable between instruments. I have to play with a pick fairly regularly because I have extremely soft skin and my calluses crack routinely despite years of playing and careful treatment. Plus it's easier on my wrist since I play close to the neck when I pick. I find I can get plenty of tones with a pick or fingers, so it's usually irrelevant which one I use. It's slightly easier to do certain things using different techniques.

 

I agree with the OP that when you put a pick down it instantly vanishes. Then it turns up in the washing machine or at the bottom of your clothes hamper, or some drawer filled with junk. Picks can teleport anywhere. They're from another dimension.

 

I use a pick about half of the time. Different songs call for different methods. I am not ashamed of my picks at all. My basses all have pick holders. I recently got a black 2015 American Standard Precision. The first thing I did was change to TI Flats and put on a pick holder.

 

I play 70's-90's hard classic rock in my cover band. I used to only play with fingers. Now I play 75% of the songs with a pick and everyone loves it. At Church services and events, I only use fingers. There is certainly a time and place. Plus, I have come to grips with the fact that my fingers aren't as fast as Steve Harris's.

 

When I began playing, I thumbed the strings. I know how to thumb my nose, too.

 

Guitarists get the hot chicks. Guitarists play with picks. Therefore, I use a pick.

I also have magic fingers, and can slap like a pimp.

This isn't the appropriate forum to discuss my tapping skills.

 

If and when I use a pick, it's made from the finger bones of bass players who think they're too elitist to play with a pick.

 

I've been using a thumb pick lately. I leave it attached to my thumb and it makes for easy switching between fingers and pick. Seems to work pretty well. Until I'm done playing and take the pick off and set it down and it runs off and hides somewhere. That's why I scatter them all over the house and in cases and stuff.

 

I've been doing the Norwood Fischer technique of pretending to use a flat pick

 

It just gets funnier and then hilarious. The number of people painting themselves into corners...

Cross-post from another thread:

 

It's the Pick Fairies.

They steal picks to harness their mystical tone powers.

And when they're not out stealing our picks, they're on Talkbass creating forums on how real bass players don't use picks.