I've noticed recently that I have a different technique when playing with a pick between guitar and bass, when it's guitar I hold it between my thumb and index finger with a mostly open hand but when I play bass with a pick I tend to hold the pick with my thumb, index and middle finger and have a mostly closed hand.
I have no idea why I do it, it's not something I've consciously decided to do, it's just something I end up doing.
So I'm wondering if anyone has any idea why I might do that and if anyone else has different pick techniques between guitar and bass.
I have played guitar for about 30 years (on-and-off, but still) and bass for 2 years. I have mostly tried to avoid using the pick on the bass, because I want to get good with the right hand fingers, but occasionally I still try the pick out. Yesterday night I played Parallel Universe by Red Hot Chili Peppers which is a bit too fast for my fingers, so I played it straight away with the pick, and as I was doing so I just had the same thought as you! My way of using the pick is definitely not the same between the two instruments.
With the guitar my favourite pick is the Dunlop Jazz III, which is small and hard. I have a
light grip on the pick with thumb and index, and I also generally have a relaxed and "soft" way of picking primarily based on
wrist movement. The reality is a combination of fingers, wrist and elbow movement, but elbow kicks in only on some of the fastest shredding parts, while the vast majority of time the wrist is enough to control the picking without much effort. I never really pick hard on the strings, and hit them only with the "tip" of the pick, almost sliding over the string without "pushing" them sideways much before relasing the note.
Don't play enough guitar to know much about it. But I know those fat bass strings can twist a pick around in your fingers till you're trying to get a sharp attack with the side of it. Maybe the different grip is a subconscious solution.
This.
With the bass the strings are so big that my relaxed guitar picking technique doesn't work, and usually results in non-precise rhythm. To get good timing consistency and solid groove (for instance on swing rhythms), I find that I have to use my elbow more, and hit the strings with a much wider movement of the pick. I have to use a larger and softer pick for this purpose, and this means I have to grip it harder or I might lose it. Yesterday while playing Parallel Universe, I consciously had to switch to gripping it with 3 fingers, as I felt that it was still slipping away.
