pick question

I think it would take as much time to get used to using the finger picks as it would a conventional one. Using a pick is easier than you think. It just takes a little time. The toughest thing to get used to is moving from string to string. I'm not great at it, but I can get by. Why not just practice a bit?

 

It would sound different.

You would be hitting the strings in two different spots, bringing out overtones that are different from each other, unlike with a single pick hitting in the same spot.

And you would sound different than someone when they are alternate picking.
Nothing wrong with it, just letting you know.

 

You could but its going to be a bit more awkward than using a pick, I read that Robbie Merril uses that same technique to get a brighter tone. Using a pick can actually be hard, I havent played a bass with one in a while and I really sucked at it.

If you want to use fingerpicks then go for it, its just a bit weird at first because you cant feel the strings anymore.

 

Chef,

Do you play guitar with a pick at all? If the fingerpick thing works for you and gives you what you want with the feel you want- cool. IMO, I adapt the rhythm and feel of guitar strumming to picking, so it's as much of a rhythmic strumming pattern as it is a matter of plucking. I'm not talking about hitting all the strings, but using that feel in playing.

 

IME, it's all about preference.

Feel, sound, grip, comfort...

There's the celluloid picks, the hard picks, metal picks, felt picks, nylon picks... different shapes and sizes- specialty picks like the V-Pick and those stylus picks...

Over the past 20 years I've really settled on nylon picks. Prior to that I used what I got my hands on until I figured out what I liked. For many years I used the Dunlop nylon picks- .88mm and 1mm. I liked the imprinted "grip" on the picks, I liked the way they wear and the amount of give- and they don't chip. For the past 10 years or so I've come to favor the 75mm Herco picks and the 1mm Brain picks by Snarling Dog. The Hercos have great grip, unfortunately (or fortunately) there's a large amount of variance in the give- so I go through the drawer at the store and pick out the stiffer ones. I refer to the Brain picks as "cat's tongue" because the grip pattern feels like a cat's tongue.

As far as the actual technique- it depends on what you're doing. I'm a rock guy. I learned "wrong." I started out resting my pinky on the bridge, gripping the pick with my thumb, index and middle fingers and pulling up. I don't remember why. For whatever reason, playing all downstrokes is foreign to me and I have to think about it. Most of the time I'll use more of a wrist stroke.

The general rules apply- more click and attack closer to the bridge and less attack and more roundness the closer you get to the 12th fret.

Are you a rock guy? Dig McCartney? Roll through something fun and easy like "Lady Madonna" or "Silly Love Songs." There's a pretty steady rhythm and it's working 3 strings.

I have my son's upright in the basement right now- I'll be asking you for help one of these days!

 

Over the past 3 years or so I've really been playing around with different things that I never would have considered a while ago. I took a gig in a Stones band, and suddenly everything I knew about playing, filling space and tone were starting over.

So far as I've been playing with things, I've actually been preferring my old EB-0 with a neoprene foam pad under the strings and age old rounds.