• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Pick vs Fingers Question

#21
darren1970 said:
Personally I think it depends on what your playing.

I love fingerstyle and I love playing with a pick. Two different methods - two different sound that suit different pieces of music.

Don't limit your arsenal - use both.
Click to expand...

Indeed.
It's kinda like 'clean vs. overdriven tone' or 'dry vs. effect laden tone' or 'unmuted vs. muted' - best not to restrict yourself to just one for everything - you might get better results with some combination of several approaches, depending on the application.

IMO fingerstyle is better for warmer sounding, less forward lines - and picks have a punchier sound with a far more forward sound possible - sounding kinda like using fingernails in fingerstyle. All good. Check out this obscure bassist for a reference on how to do it:
(pick)

You can get a wide variety of tones out of either. :bassist:
 
#23
Pick a song or two that are easy with a pick, and just use a pick for those at gigs.
As a pick player I was self-conscious the other way when I started to branch into fingerstyle.
It just takes some getting used to.

p.s. Roger Glover is #1 on my list :)
 
#27
Ric5 said:
Yes the basses from the 50s thru the 70s were designed to be played with a pick ... that is why they have pick guards!!!
Click to expand...

JimmyM said:
Electric bass was invented for THUMB picking. How many of us still do that besides Sting?
Click to expand...

Maybe since upright bass had lots of finger players, and pedal and 'regular' electric guitar players used a mix of fingers and picks (AFAIK) they probably anticipated a few different things.

The 'tugbar' or thumbstyle rests is an early feature on P basses, as is the pickguard (possibly on the very first drawings).
 
#29
Ric5 said:
Yes the basses from the 50s thru the 70s were designed to be played with a pick ... that is why they have pick guards!!!
Click to expand...

Actually I think the Fender bass was designed with a pickguard as an easy way to access the electronics. Many early basses were designed with a thumb rest, which you wouldn't need if you were picking. Nowadays many of us use the top of the neck or the pickup as a thumb rest. Also I think in the early days it was more common for a stand up bassist to switch over to bass guitar than it was for a guitar player to switch over to bass. Maybe that's why your standard bass has 4 strings?
 
#31
I play only fingerstyle. For me, if you only do one thing that's it.

But there are times, with a band, when I wish I could slap or use a pick or tap.

The more versatile you are, the better-the more valuable you become.

Pro players have to be versatile to get more work, including playing upright, and teaching various styles.

This is music-don't judge anything.
 
#32
Also, if I see a bassist play an entire night with a pick I tend to think he's a guitar player who's been relegated to playing bass or who's taking over on bass. When I first changed over to bass from guitar many years ago it was out of neccessity, as in we needed a bass player in our HS band but then I found I enjoyed it more than the guitar, I quickly dropped the pick, I wanted to establish myself as a bass player and not a guitar player who was playing bass, so 30 years later I still play guitar but I love playing the bass. I will openly admit and agree there are a lot of great bass players who sometimes play with a pick. Paul, John E., Chris Squire to name but a few. Off the subject, calling McCartney a bass player is kind of like calling Stevie Wonder a pianist, I've never seen McCartney pick up any instrument he didn't seem an expert on. In other words, he plays everything, maybe equally well.
 
#33
lmfreeman9 said:
I play only fingerstyle. For me, if you only do one thing that's it.

But there are times, with a band, when I wish I could slap or use a pick or tap.

The more versatile you are, the better-the more valuable you become.

Pro players have to be versatile to get more work, including playing upright, and teaching various styles.

This is music-don't judge anything.
Click to expand...

Getting good at one technique and learning to play with others well is a much higher priority than achieving mastery of all techniques. I can play fingerstyle fairly well now - starting to practice pick technique - in the manner of carol kaye. It's hard at first but I think I'm getting to grips with it.

It'll never replace fingerstyle for me. But there's something marvelous about a pick, flats and a mute. Or just muting and a pick generally. Variety rocks!
 
#35
tonylevinkix said:
Also, if I see a bassist play an entire night with a pick I tend to think he's a guitar player who's been relegated to playing bass or who's taking over on bass.
Click to expand...
Good thing nobody asked you ;)

Seriously, what is up with all this pick prejudice with bass players? Maybe they did play guitar and switched over to bass. Maybe they didn't. What difference does it make?
 
#36
JimmyM said:
Good thing nobody asked you ;)

Seriously, what is up with all this pick prejudice with bass players?
Click to expand...

It truly boggles the mind that this continues to this day. I've been playing bass for over 30 years, and when I first started playing in bands, with a pick, I'd get guitarists poo-poo-ing it. Of course, that was in HIGH SCHOOL....
 
#40
Wow! This is a great thread! Doing both would be real cool, sharp attack vs warm sound. Anyone try to do both, ie. plectrum between thumb and index, last three fingers for finger picking?

- Jimmy Rage

Yes, I have. I have kind of mastered the art of playing with my fingernails to get the pick sound. It may not be the ideal pick sound, but it's fooled a few of my bass playing friends. I love playing fingerstyle, I love being good at it, I love doing really fast runs and lighting my strings ablaze, but I also like the sharpness and attack of a pick.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back