Played guitar 8+ years before diving into bass full on. Practiced the hell out of pick on guitar. Zero interest in playing pick on the bass. Kills the fundamental with overtones, for one.
For music that needs heavy wattage and volume to sound like anything, and not much touch, playing pick obviously doesn't do much harm. But it's a rare few bassists that can seriously groove with a pick in their hand. McCartney, Sting, Geddy Lee -- they're singers, which is a weirdly nearly impossible job playing fingerstyle. (Tho Jaco makes it look Invalid Link Removed, of course.)
Mixed emotions on Entwistle, Chris Squire. Bill Wyman was just sort of lucky to be there.
Seems to be a British thing, playing with a pick. Jack Bruce and John Wetton both play fingerstyle and sing and kick it.
Anthony Jackson might be known for playing pick and phaser "For the Love of Money", but he rules barehanded.
Joe Osborn and Carol Kaye seem to be the ideal template for playing pick on electric. They're great studio players who had great producers. Sometimes they also had doubles on upright. And that whole style of production is gone, gone, gone. (Or maybe not in Nashville.)
Chuck Rainey has talked about how he plays with his fingernails to get his tone. But he knows how to play and can do what the hell he wants.
Depends on the demands of the music, but it comes down to dynamics and tone and control. And a pick just makes all of those harder.
AFAIK nobody but Steve Swallow actually plays serious creative music on electric bass using a pick. And Carlos Benavent.
Banging out 8th note roots with a pick on a sweet P-bass with 1000 watts of juice behind you doesn't make you a musician -- it makes you a construction worker. At best.
But whatever works.
