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I've been seeing more and more pick players

#41
As with all things music, the only thing that matters is the resulting sound that comes out at the other end. If a pick gets that for you, you are still a bassist! I actually really like the way a pick sounds, but I hate the way it feels to play with one. Something about using my fingers just feels so natural and right. It's like I have a more organic connection between me and the music. It's all personal preference of course.

Oh and for the OP, I have noticed many more pick playing bassists out there these days than finger players. I think it's the genres of music though.
 
#43
JimmyM said:
use what you want and don't worry about idiots who don't like it. the last thing you should ever concern yourself with is the opinion of other bassists. i've come to discover that many bassists are just douchebags who think everyone should do as they do and can't stand it if you don't. meanwhile, i'm sure paul mccartney stays awake at nights worried about some jerkoff on talkbass thinking playing with a pick is bad.

some folks need to get over themselves.
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+1 on that. i play with my fingers. i tried a pick but it just not for me. i just like the sound fingers give off then a pick.
 
#47
I am a firm believer that if you can grove with it, use it; all that matters is laying down the groove. I love the sound of a pick however I personally feel disconnected from the instrument when I use one and I find harder to fill the pocket but that's my own hangup. I think that knocking pickstyle is a silly thing but sadly most younger players I know simply use a pick out of laziness and simply never attempt to learn fingerstyle and end up using technique in inappropriate scenarios.

I recall a Red Hot Chili Peppers cover band I saw a while back where the bassist insisted on using a pick; that was a rough set to listen to.
 
#48
As a 'handicapped' bassist, I've always played with a pick, but with slower songs I'll switch to finger style.

My pick hand....
000_00391.jpg
 
#50
JimmyM said:
will has the craziest pick technique i've ever seen. he sticks his two fingers out like fingerstyle and puts the pick behind them, and picks only upstrokes! i asked him about it once and he says, "i don't recommend it but it works for me." fair enough.
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Hey that's how I play 95% of the time

As others have said, play what suits the music you are doing. There are some amazing bassists out there who use one technique exclusively. There are crappy bassists out there who dabble in every technique. Just because you play only fingerstlye or only with a pick doesn't mean you are any less of a bassist than someone who plays both ways or who also slaps. Personally, I play with a pick most of the time, but that's just because of the types of music I've been usually playing. I would play more fingerstlye if the music called for it. I don't slap though, I just really dislike that style in most contexts.
 
#51
JimmyM said:
use what you want and don't worry about idiots who don't like it. the last thing you should ever concern yourself with is the opinion of other bassists. i've come to discover that many bassists are just douchebags who think everyone should do as they do and can't stand it if you don't. meanwhile, i'm sure paul mccartney stays awake at nights worried about some jerkoff on talkbass thinking playing with a pick is bad.

some folks need to get over themselves.
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+100,000,00 Statement of the year.

My feelings exactly, and sometimes this forum really confirms it.
 
#53
When I used to play bluegrass guitar, I noticed that wrist motion was more conducive to singing - and I always admired players who used a pick + their other fingers. Wooten even says he uses his thumb like a guitar pick, so I sort of see that thumb technique as an extension of the guitarist's pick+fingers technique that also uses the wrist. I also remember reading in Nature that fingers-tongue-mouth are all connected in the brain and sometimes can't be neurologically separated so there seems to be a reason that it's easier to use a pick and sing (at least for some). (I can roll my tongue, can you?)

PS: I also seem to remember something called a "bass pick" (from the 70's) that was really just very stiff felt. Sounded almost exactly like fingers, maybe softer, even. Nobody mentioned that one... Also something called a "Mined Pick" - which was alabaster (I think) polished very smooth and a few mm thick - yet another sound!

not_jason said:
I played exclusively fingerstyle for the first several years I played bass. I did that up until I switched to bass in the band that I sing in. I found that playing with my fingers while singing gave me rhythm issues. Having played guitar with a pick for several years also, I never noticed any issues with rhythm. Solution: started playing bass with a pick. The motion of my wrist does a good job keeping me on beat while leaving other parts of my brain free to worry about singing.

And after I made that switch in one band, I started hearing the limitations of finger-style playing in the other bands in which I played bass. A few such problems: Inconsistent attack, less definition, rhythm problems*. So I pretty much switched to a pick for 95% of my playing, and feel like I'm a better bassist than I've ever been before. The me of the past would have been shocked and offended to know that I'd eventually go to the dark side, but whatever. I've got recordings to prove that I'm far better now than I was back then.

*Since switching to a pick, I've noticed that a lot of guys who play with their fingers aren't as rhythmically tight as their pick playing counterparts. Of course there are a great many exceptions in either camp, but I do believe that it is much easier to master rhythm with a pick. The up and down motion of a wrist while picking works very well to keep somebody with the beat. There isn't an equivalent device with fingers that I've noticed.
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#54
I've played for over 30 years and would not use a pick!!! Lost a well paying high profile gig over it, because.... "I am an artist!"... I wish I had that gig today!

This year I've begun to use one and love the muted pick sound, especially on flat wound strings...

I finger, slap, tap and now pick...

More style, more gigs....
 
#56
sombody said you need to know all of it,,watching saved SRV vids on utoob,,the bassman utilised a pick on one song the next he fingered it,that's good enough for me but to extrapolate=bluesey,honkey tonkey i like to make love to the strings but`new' rock since it's so fast=pick,,and if you work with your hands in a bondoshop/have a split cuticle or two=then that's the only feasible way for me to get in some licks that night :D

and my P the action is so low down the board it's clanky when i finger her(but she pickplays AWESOME),,,

this is sort of like flyfishing=those that`swing' versus`nymph'(bobber),,it gets polarized when (to me) if you're enjoying yourself and making it happen what dif does it make?,,dif jonres seem to require dif techniques,(like dif sections of a river;work each one with what covers the water best),,or open a can of worms and have at it:D:hiding:
 
#57
I pick on alot of songs. I play alot of metal songs that just use that tone. On songs like "burn in hell" (the dimmu borgir cover) or anything by korn, i typically use heavy fingerpicking to get that fieldy sound. I slap on simpler songs because I can't do it fast enough. My opinion is that a good player can do it all.
 
#58
groooooove said:
i dont "bash" pick playing neccesarily.. but i have seen VERY few players using a pick that i thought were great musicians... really, chris squire is the only one i can think of.
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Was told Paul McCartney (is/was he "great?") - bettern' me... he was in the "pre-active-pups" days and was told the pick was necessary to get the needed tone... Glad to hear so many pickers, tho - it really gives a cool, snarly, nasty tone:smug:

...I also noticed nobody mentioned the type of pick - and I mentioned three (felt, stone, and plastic). The felt was really "thumpy" sort of like fingers, the plastic is "snappy" and can be quite nasty sounding, and the stone pick was a little like "click-thump", but I never took the time to master that (I figured it was a stupid gimmic).
 

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