Picks: yes or no poll

[HolmeBass]

Something inside also keeps thinking - put flats on your Fenders and play them with a pick.

Keep rounds on the active basses for finger style and slap.

 

[Lugan]

Something inside also keeps thinking - put flats on your Fenders and play them with a pick.

I play EB Cobalt flats on all 3 of my basses and 100% with a pick. It's excellent for me. YMMV of course.

 

[ThinCrappyTone2]

This is a research inquiry for an upcoming video on my YouTube channel.....
I'd like feedback on pick useage on bass. The reasoning is that pick useage was a very accepted practice for decades, especially in the 80s and 90s, but they seem to have become a bit of an albatross over the past decade and Im trying to find out why. There's a "real bassists don't use picks" philosophy thats appeared in the past decade and there's even memes out about it

Personally, I have zero issue with picks, plus I love the tone

comments arent necessary - just a poll vote is appreciated

I always felt like this was a false dichotomy. Picked bass can sound fantastic, and there are countless recorded examples of this. To me the biggest negative is that this ancient meme of "you're not legit if you use a pick" makes some players feel they "have to" play with fingers, even if pick is the right choice for the music, or for them personally.

 

[darwin-bass]

I think some who oppose picks do so because they cannot play with a pick.

I use one about 20% or less of the time so my vote is Yes.

 

[MultiScaleMale]

I really don't get why anyone is anti-pick. It's just a different sound. Fits some songs great.

 

[groovaholic]

It's a technique - and often the best technique to achieve a specific sound.
The only reason I don't use picks more often is because they make my right hand cramp up!

I've gone to large #346 style heavy picks with 3/8" holes drilled in the middle to make them easier to hold onto.
Easier...but my hand still cramps up.

A few months ago, I filled in for a The Cure tribute band.
While many of the bass parts were fine with either pick of fingers, there are other songs ("Fascination Street" for example) where the pick attack and rasp are essential to the sound.

So I dealt with the hand cramp and played those pick-essential songs with a pick.

 

[funkinbottom]

https://www.talkbass.com/search/38579961/?q=pick&t=post&o=date&c[title_only]=1&c[node]=21

 

[JimmyM]

Last band I was in, I never used a pick, but that’s an outlier.

 

[JimmyM]

It's a technique - and often the best technique to achieve a specific sound.
The only reason I don't use picks more often is because they make my right hand cramp up!

I've gone to large #346 style heavy picks with 3/8" holes drilled in the middle to make them easier to hold onto.
Easier...but my hand still cramps up.

A few months ago, I filled in for a The Cure tribute band.
While many of the bass parts were fine with either pick of fingers, there are other songs ("Fascination Street" for example) where the pick attack and rasp are essential to the sound.

So I dealt with the hand cramp and played those pick-essential songs with a pick.

Carol Kaye’s pick technique will prevent your hand from cramping up.

 

[RGerhart]

This is a research inquiry for an upcoming video on my YouTube channel.....
I'd like feedback on pick useage on bass. The reasoning is that pick useage was a very accepted practice for decades, especially in the 80s and 90s, but they seem to have become a bit of an albatross over the past decade and Im trying to find out why. There's a "real bassists don't use picks" philosophy thats appeared in the past decade and there's even memes out about it

Personally, I have zero issue with picks, plus I love the tone

comments arent necessary - just a poll vote is appreciated

I'm not sure on the data about pick usage being a "bit of an albatross" recently, because every bass player I've met around the Oregon/Washington area could care less either way.

 

[Pimpernel Smith]

I use these wonderful sounding picks.

 

[groovaholic]

Carol Kaye’s pick technique will prevent your hand from cramping up.

I’ve watched her videos.
Her technique helped, but didn’t completely remove the cramping.

 

[Artman]

Poll needs a "sometimes" option, or "when the song calls for the sound of a pick".

 

[grocker]

Sometimes use, is my vote, should have 3rd category.

 

[Kael]

As long as you are not using a pick on an upright I honestly don't care.

 

[SAlcott]

Use whatever you need to use to make the sound you need/want. Nothing else matters.

 

[JRA]

comments arent necessary - just a poll vote is appreciated

Touchy subject. People use to rage quit over this.

Personally, I have zero issue with picks, plus I love the tone

 

[perfektspace6]

IDK. I pick with my fingers.

 

[Koshchei]

This is a research inquiry for an upcoming video on my YouTube channel.....
I'd like feedback on pick useage on bass. The reasoning is that pick useage was a very accepted practice for decades, especially in the 80s and 90s, but they seem to have become a bit of an albatross over the past decade and Im trying to find out why. There's a "real bassists don't use picks" philosophy thats appeared in the past decade and there's even memes out about it

Personally, I have zero issue with picks, plus I love the tone

comments arent necessary - just a poll vote is appreciated

In that context? I use them sometimes.

 

[dustinymichaels]

And Tony Levin invented funk fingers. I'm in the camp of it doesn't matter, but I wish that I was capable in most approaches. If I acquired some funk fingers somehow I would mess with it. If I thought I had some potential with that technique I'd continue exploring. This thread reminds me that my pick game is lacking. I will probably always defer to fingers in my own playing.