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Pick or No pick "that is the question"
- Thread starter pLewis
- Start date
Although I generally don't feel that guitar picks are well suited to the sheer girth of bass strings, there are certain applications I'll use a pick for. I don't particularly care for the attack or definition of fingerstrokes when playing with a heavily overdriven or distorted tone, for example. However, I occasionally find that muting a played note with the pick is more difficult-- the right-handed palm muting six-string guitarists tend to employ does not completely mute the vibration of the string unless I use more pressure from my palm than is comfortable for me, or "choke up" with my picking hand toward the neck, which doesn't sound as good to me, so I usually end up muting a given palm-muted note with both hands instead of relying on just my right. As tempo increases, I actually find the pick limiting in terms of note definition from the bass strings when playing syncopated figures. I prefer to use my fingers exclusively for ring-middle-index "gallops", and for quadruplets I'll add (and lead with) my pinky.
I noted in another thread over a year ago, that when I started to learn bass at a more advanced age, that I almost quit because arthritis in the first joint of my right index finger would get swollen and painful. I thought that all bassists used their fingers. A little digging showed that a number of my favorite bassists used a pick (Paul McCartney, Carole Kaye). I discovered that I could play with a pick if I used my thumb, index and middle fingers. Muting has been an issue, and I still struggle with it. I tried many different picks to get a sound that I thought a bass should sound like. I finally just settled on using a heavy plastic pick and some EQ. If I need a ‘softer’ feel, I use my thumb, but nothing more than eighth notes.
In the end, it’s all bass.
In the end, it’s all bass.
I need to try some of those felt or rubber picks. I like a lot of picked basslines on records, but every time I tried to use one it sounds way too clacky.
Also, although I am sure it’s been said before, a big disadvantage of picks is that they are much easier to lose than your fingers.
Pick material, shape, and thickness make a huge difference. I typically find I use much thicker picks on bass than guitar. Just as too heavy a pick on guitar looses zing, too light of a pick on bass brings out this whispy I associate with all that I hate about bass in modelers/headphones. I have tweeters turned off on my Hartke HD112 cabs so I don't really hear it there, but I sure do in the phones. I have to use a 1.0mm on bass. On guitar that's starting to lose brightness.
Definitely don't try a random/favorite guitar pick and decide it's not for you.
Definitely don't try a random/favorite guitar pick and decide it's not for you.
When I was younger, I was very much a "picks are for the nose" kinda guy. I certainly appreciated what certain pick players did, but not for what I did. Fast forward a buncha years, I do both, actually enjoy playing w/ a pick in the right musical sitch. A stint in a Cure tribute band got me working on the pick, I now actually enjoy pick playing on the songs I use it for (I'm in covers/tribute bands, so some nights it's all pick, sometimes switching back and forth).
And as it's been said, why not learn both? Glad I FINALLY did!
MJ
And as it's been said, why not learn both? Glad I FINALLY did!
MJ
I started out with fingers. Then I got to playing some songs with 16th or even a few 32nd note runs. My bass was poorly set up and I started using a pick, and I "lost" finger plucking. Years later, I picked up my bass again and re-learned to use my fingers, even those 16th note runs. The 32nd notes I just use hammer ons.
There are purists for the finger plucking, rockers that only use picks. With a proper setup, you can pluck the strings lightly with your fingers and still get a sharp attack and also play those fast runs. I suppose I fall into the purist camp, but however anyone wishes to pluck the strings, it doesn't bother me in the slightest. Play how you want to play, however is most comfortable to you. I won't go back to a pick because I don't want to lose my fingers again and I'm working to learn slap. I feel a pick would take away from this.
There are purists for the finger plucking, rockers that only use picks. With a proper setup, you can pluck the strings lightly with your fingers and still get a sharp attack and also play those fast runs. I suppose I fall into the purist camp, but however anyone wishes to pluck the strings, it doesn't bother me in the slightest. Play how you want to play, however is most comfortable to you. I won't go back to a pick because I don't want to lose my fingers again and I'm working to learn slap. I feel a pick would take away from this.
Pics are for bass players who couldn't cut it as a guitar player, but they still use a pic because they think people will think they're cool because they're really a guitar player.
Mastering both gives way more options.
Great guitarists do both… so why is it a taboo topic for us? Makes zero sense. Recursive bickering over something that objectively sounds different. There is lots of evidence for this.
A pick undoubtedly makes somethings better, different, and facilitates singing and brighter tone in a very different way than fingers.
Great guitarists do both… so why is it a taboo topic for us? Makes zero sense. Recursive bickering over something that objectively sounds different. There is lots of evidence for this.
A pick undoubtedly makes somethings better, different, and facilitates singing and brighter tone in a very different way than fingers.
Keep telling yourself that bub. Picks are for anyone that wants to use them. A ton of bass players, famous and amateur, use picks, not “pics”. You use what tools are needed for the song IMO. If everyone thought that way, we wouldn’t have such excellent bassists like Duff McKagan, Dave Ellefson, John Entwistle, and John Paul Jones just to name a few. Your theory=FAIL……..SMH
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i focus mostly on fingerstyle, am better, more expressive and can even get a pretty snappy attack, even like my finger versions of some original-used-pick covers but
i like practicing the pick on those also, and some of them really sound best that way, especially when the song uses a lot of dyads/double-stops/power-chords
pick great when adopting regular-guitar material ( ie take lead part on Kashmir on a 5 string, cause its dadag tune)
I largely ignored picks for my first half year of learning, then it took me a lot of picks to find what i liked:
BUMBLEBEE!!! (ThumbPick, HercuHeavy was ok also)
bonus: effectively also practicing Thumbstyle for another tone, just take it off and go
i like practicing the pick on those also, and some of them really sound best that way, especially when the song uses a lot of dyads/double-stops/power-chords
pick great when adopting regular-guitar material ( ie take lead part on Kashmir on a 5 string, cause its dadag tune)
I largely ignored picks for my first half year of learning, then it took me a lot of picks to find what i liked:
BUMBLEBEE!!! (ThumbPick, HercuHeavy was ok also)
bonus: effectively also practicing Thumbstyle for another tone, just take it off and go
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Man , I just recently decided to work on pick technique after decades of avoiding it.
I think it’s a must , some things demand a pick.
Example :
Read : Bobby Vega: "I wasn’t that consistent with my fingers, so I got dexterity and stamina from the pick"
Watch:
I've always been kind of weirded out by electric bass players who are firmly in one camp or the other. Why would you not want to learn how to use a pick or fingers? Both offer fun ways to explore the instrument.
