OMG, He's using a PICK!!!!

[descendent22]

" @ " means "at" FYI. Sticking to the topic, I was a finger player for years and I thought that was the only way bass should be played. I completely blocked out and was in denial about people playing bass with a pick. I thought that they were wusses or were just a guitarist who couldn't use there fingers so they used a pick instead. That all changed about 4 years ago when I noticed my bigger influences like Dee Dee Ramone, Paul Simonon, Duff Mckagan and Tommy Stinson all had this tone and it came from mainly a pick. Naturally i progressed to using a pick as my curiosity got t better of me. Now i'm primarily a pick player and prefer to use a pick. I do still use my fingers but if I can use a pick instead I will.

A couple years ago I too also got into a rock n Roll cover band covering songs from the 70's, 80's & 90s era. Theres no doubt that even if I were I finger player primarily that I would need to be using a pick a lot of the time. It came to the point that the 10 songs or so out of the 35 we played that I was using my fingers on I ended up using a pick on thosenes any. Like I said I prefer to use a pick and I will say it gives a different tone that stands out and cuts through the other instruments and gave me a different kind of control and groove.

 

[GManfromOz]

Sir Paul uses a pick. Berry Oakley used a pick. Leon Wilkeson used a pick....

So I figure I'm in a good crowd.

I just saw Sir Paul in concert last week. He played exclusively with a pick and when his other guitarist was on bass he also used a pick for most of the songs.

I've always played pick. Not one person in any band I've been in has ever said a word about it.

 

[SchnaiderGT]

90/10 fingers over pick. I really like the edge you get with a pick, but feel like I'm more versatile using fingers near the bridge.

 

[Snibborwocky]

I started learning bass with a pick but about a year into it, I switch to fingers as my interest in different music genres slowly expanded. I play much better with fingers than picks these days but could probably do either at a moments notice if needed. It's a good tool to have, kind of like knowing a second language but way less difficult to memorize lol

 

[Two-Spirit]

I hate pick, its awkward on bass. I have some 1.5mm for diads. I like the finger slipping off attack.

 

[Two-Spirit]

Yeah, John Paul Jones occasionally used one to.

 

[Watchootognbout]

Using a pick gives you speed and consistency of note when alternate picking sixteenth notes.
But it IS harder to mute unused strings while not muting played strings while picking.

 

[slagheap]

he played 100% pick, fender jazz. scroll right down to the discography straight away...
Invalid Link Removed

 

[diegom]

I started finger-style, owing to my classical guitar background. After watching the Carol Kaye videos, I realized there was a whole other dimension of colors to be had by using a pick, and I did not break my index fingernail as with chucking. After seeing Bobby Vega live, I realized how much of a hack I am, and discovered even more colors!!!
Bottom-line: 50/50.
For the life of me, I cannot figure out how someone would use funkfingers... talk about being out of contact with the strings...

 

[Josh Kneisel]

I only really use a pick if I am playing in a punk band or something and even then only by necessity. I don't really enjoy using a pick to play personally.

 

[NoiseNinja]

I started out playing exclusively with pick, coming from electric guitar.

Then after an extended period of having played a lot of classical acoustic guitar, I switched to almost exclusively using my fingers, even when playing electric guitar.

Now however I am back at using mainly pick for plugging my bass.

Turns out I just like the snappy tone with emphasis on attack much more that you get from pick playing, and in the process I found out I could get rid of using my EHX Black Finger compressor that I mainly utilized exactly for the purpose of getting a more snappy tone, and instead now has it freed up for using it as a tube preamp, which it actually is really good as, by almost dialing the compressor circuit completely out of the equation.

Fingers are good for a more mellow warm tone and if you need to do a lot of complicated shifts across strings, pick is good for a snappy punchy tone with more emphasis on the attack and for single string picking speed.

 

[bylar13]

I never used my fingers to play and still don't. I realize that there are somethings that I might not be able to do and that's OK.

I was once told by a complete moron that I wasn't a "real" bass player because I didn't use my fingers to play. Considering that the same person also told me that any note played above the 12th fret on a bass was in the "gay zone" I didn't give it much thought.....

 

[Madhouse27]

I don't find myself using a pick all that much these days but I do kind of like it for ELO's "Last train to London". That's a good practice song for your pick playing.

 

[TrevorG]

Never used a pick in performance. When I started playing, pick users where guitarist trespassing into our bass world and should DIE! Over the years playing technique has gone through the roof; slapping, tapping, muting, false harmonics, four/five finger picking. All combining to help us bassists take the bug out of out a%$^ and get on with making music. If it works... it's good technique.

 

[saltydude]

I never used my fingers to play and still don't. I realize that there are somethings that I might not be able to do and that's OK.

I was once told by a complete moron that I wasn't a "real" bass player because I didn't use my fingers to play. Considering that the same person also told me that any note played above the 12th fret on a bass was in the "gay zone" I didn't give it much thought.....

Been said 1000 times. Such hogwash. I use both but I’m more proficient with my fingers. Thinking that exclusive pic only playing is easier is simply not true.

 

[Pops OB]

Never liked them and I don't use them ordinarily. Still, there are some songs that absolutely need them. And, of course, that's when I use them. The world won't end for me, should the need to use a "plectrum" arise.

 

[B-Mac]

In my 35 or so years of playing I started as a pick player and stuck to that until @ 10 years ago, when I put the picks away and forced myself to develop a finger style. I have stuck with playing almost exclusively with my fingers ever since.... until @ 3 months ago.

I haven't really played in a cover band in @10 years, but now I'm playing some songs that simply don't work as well with fingers, they need that attack and precision of a pick. So now I'm at @50/50 fingers/pick during my bands sets.

Anyone else coming to this realization?

I went to se Victor Wooten last Friday at the Keswick in Glenside, PA with Dennis Chambers and Bob Franceschini. To me, Victor Wooten is so good that he is scary. He plays all kinds of ways and the encore they did was called 'Cupid' and he played it with a pick! He even apologized ahead of time saying 'he isn't that good with a pick'. So, if VW is playing with a pick, even though it is just one song from his set list, I say yes!

 

[B-Mac]

Bobbie Vega is a great example because he plays with fingers too!

 

[NoiseNinja]

I never used my fingers to play and still don't. I realize that there are somethings that I might not be able to do and that's OK.

I was once told by a complete moron that I wasn't a "real" bass player because I didn't use my fingers to play. Considering that the same person also told me that any note played above the 12th fret on a bass was in the "gay zone" I didn't give it much thought.....

So according to your, no doubt highly knowing and enlightened, source, homosexual people mainly play the bass above the 12th fret?

Interesting piece of information, though I doubt there is any whatsoever substance to it.

Also would people mixing notes from bellow and above 12th fret, according to your source, then be considered bi-sexual bass players?

And would this phenomena have anything to do with what chemicals liberals supposedly spike the local water supply with?

 

[4SG]

I used a pick for years until I joined a country band and a pick just didn't sound right for the songs. Now I prefer fingers no matter what kind of music I play, but I still keep a pick in my pocket if the song would sound better with one.