How many use a pick?

[okcrum]

Fingers, pick, thumb. Hybrid picking is something I want to work on this year.

 

[kjp360]

Toughest part using fingers is when I need to go beyond the E and A strings, and keeping other strings from ringing out.

FWIW I have found that I have slowly been able to adapt to muting with my fretting hand fingers. When playing guitar I use a combination of that and pick hand muting (heavy on pick hand). Due to hand placement when playing bass fingerstyle I simply had to adapt to get the sound right.

 

[13bass]

FWIW I have found that I have slowly been able to adapt to muting with my fretting hand fingers. When playing guitar I use a combination of that and pick hand muting (heavy on pick hand). Due to hand placement when playing bass fingerstyle I simply had to adapt to get the sound right.

Dead on. I agree. Palm muting which I use all the time on guitar is natural for me, using my fretting hand, sometimes, but that seems easier on guitar as I already have fingers on most strings I'm playing from a chord shape (I play rhythm 99% of the time) and can just flatten them to mute. All part of the journey I suppose, correct fretting technique as well as finger plucking technique on bass, as it's different from guitar, are what I need to work on most.

 

[hieronymous]

I use whatever I feel like - it might be what the song calls for if I'm playing with other people, or it might be what I feel like when I pick up a particular bass. This is one of my favorite personal performances of mine, because it's on someone else's album - we briefly played in a band together in the '80s and he contacted me out of the blue to play on a track - it's pick on a Rickenbacker 4001, one of my all-time favorite combinations! - I love how he processed the bass after the fact, especially the first break!

 

[buldog5151bass]

???

RRHOF Teddy played with Yes. A tune to supposedly need a Ric and a pick to play.

 

[GKon]

I use 2, sometimes 3 fingers at times, and a pick (not a thumb pic) other times. It depends on the song. Also, I've developed some issues with the tendons in my hand that sometimes pop up when I play with my fingers, so I use the pick to bypass the pain.

 

[bassicmike]

RRHOF Teddy played with Yes. A tune to supposedly need a Ric and a pick to play.

Thx

 

[Yellow Bang66]

So how many use a pick? Or even a thumb pick like Jack Blades?!?! Or just fingers? Or a combination?

I started out playing with a pick, because I was a guitarist. moved to fingers when I moved to bass. I always preferred the tone of fingerstyle, now I switch if the song calls for it. I can do both very well, but prefer finger style. i tend to shy from pick playing because I think there's a stigma of pick playing is for electric guitar. it might be incorrect but that was the mindset when i started out. and I work a lot on my right hand technique, so It's become a very versatile style for me. plus I never think uh oh, he plays with his fingers unless his technique is sloppy. same with pick players.but I haven't seen a picker, that made me want to switch back. Just a product of my generation.

 

[BurtMacklinFBI]

Almost exclusively a pick. One of the upsides of not being anything like a professional bassist is that I can stick to what I like and what I think I make sound good rather than having to learn a bunch of styles to suit a gig. I can play with my fingers and I do it once in a while, but IMO I sound a lot better using a pick. It's just what my hands are best oriented towards.

 

[nixdad]

All Beatles at this point - 99% with a pick.

 

[Chalky White]

100% Pick for me....

 

[And I]

i play exclusively finger style in both of my bands because the style calls for it (funk, soul, jazz). i do know how to play with a pick and if i were playing a style that called for that sound, i would use one without hesitation. there are some tunes i would love to use a felt pick on, but basically the life on a felt pick with roundwounds is about 5 minutes. i've used felt picks in the studio before to get that somewhere-in-between thing.

 

[Basshappi]

I do if that is the sound I want.

 

[grimjim]

Depends on the song. Mostly fingers though, well, three fingers and a thumb.

 

[Dabndug]

Right now a hand injury prevents me from playing fingerstyle or holding a pick, so thumbpick to the rescue. Contrary to expectations, I've been able to conjure up a useable tone for jazz and swing with a bit of EQ adustment. I still need to improve my technique - upstrokes can be problematic.

 

[mark roberts]

Dunlop Primetone 96 and A-laska finger picks on ring finger and little finger most of the time. Sometimes play no-picks two-finger style.

 

[Tony In Philly]

All of the above including the occasional thumbpick.

 

[Seashore]

Always a flatpick for me for band stuff. Sometimes finger-picking at home, maybe a bit of tapping for fun.

 

[twinjet]

Occasionally, I pick. Mostly fingers for me.

 

[mapleglo]

Like a lot of people here, I use what ever the song calls for. In my last band, we played country, so I used my fingers for most songs. For the rock band I played in previous to that, about half the songs I used a pick, the rest I used fingers.