Plectrums

[dbflats]

You know what sounds really ? How the reggae guys used to double their bass lines on palm-muted guitar. Sweet I tells ya.

Meanwhile...

 

[Tedthulhu]

I don't expect a "super mellow sound". Not remotely. I play mostly speed metal (and funk and Motown, and other stuff that I like outside of metal). I am 100% fingerstyle, and I promise that my tone has never approached "super mellow" in any of the bands I've played with. Mellow or sharp tone is a matter of right hand technique, not fingers vs. plectrum. Picks sound more sharp than fingers do, obviously. But there's no reason for fingerstyle playing to sound mellow or intense. It's all technique and personal style. I've heard extremely clanky bass from picks and finger players alike. I can't imagine playing a Motown tune with a pick, the sound would be all wrong.

 

[retslock]

Hi, all.

I'm not trying to start arguments about styles or personal preferences, so let's please not go there. That said, I the a bassist who plays entirely fingerstyle, and basically has since I picked up my first bass in the early 1990's. Here's the thing - I literally cannot play worth a damn with a pick in my hand. It's just so utterly counterintuitive to me that I mangle any attempt to use a plectrum. My hands feel natural and correct. A pick in hand feels almost like putting thick gloves on my hands and attempting to play. I know there are some (though not as many as one might expect) bassists who switch freely between picks and fingerstyle, I am just not one of them. It's simply alien to the manner in which I play my basses. I have tried experimenting with a pick, but it always feels just wrong to me, personally. Has anyone else run into this mental block? It's not like it bothers me in any meaningful way; I like playing with my fingers and always have. But that's solely my personal opinion. To note, I primarily play metal and funky styles and yeah, I slap when slap technique is appropriate. But I honestly play about 90% straight fingerstyle. To my plectrum-loving fellow bassists, what made you choose to use a pick as your primary form of attacking the strings? I know that you can get "cleaner" sounding attack with a pick, but beyond that, I don't really understand the appeal. Further disclaimer - I started as a bassist, not a guitarist, so that might have a fair bit of influence on why I never bothered much with using a pick, outside of experimenting and playing around for the heck of it. I know a fair number of bassists who started as guitarists and just kept using a pick because that was what they already knew. I am not one of those. Lol. So tell me, do you use fingers, a pick, or both for your primary mode of play, or a mix of both? What would you say the upsides to playing with a pick are, compared to playing fingerstyle? I'm honestly curious. Apologies if this is a question that's been asked a million times, it's just something that's been simmering in my head for a while so I wanted to ask the community of bassists at large what their thoughts were. Maybe I'll learn something! Thanks for reading my giant block o' text.

I started decades ago as a guitar player so it was natural at the time when I switched to bass to use a plectrum. Shortly after starting, I switched to fingers. I preferred the sound and have played that way ever since. My attempts at playing with a plectrum recently have been dismal. I don't have the speed or accuracy that I can get with my fingers.

 

[pbass2]

That is absolute nonsense. The technique is called "double thumb", and it attacks both up and down with your thumb. It's pretty common, though I'd credit Victor Wooten as being the absolute master of that technique. Check out Classical Thump by Wooten and tell me again how you "cannot do this" without a pick.

Great technique and can sound super cool. That's one I need to work on more. But it does not SOUND like a pick.
As I say above, I guarantee you if you're in a session on the hotseat and the producer says "now give us a take with a pick", and you do that....you won't be getting called back. Does not sound the same, and even "close"(which it isn't) ain't gonna cut it in that scenario.

 

[Tedthulhu]

Luckily, I'm not a session musician.

 

[Deleted member 394181]

For many years i was fingers only. Never got very fast though. I was also misguided, "Real Bassists dont use a pick!" Then i had to learn Iron Maidens "The Trooper" . i can play faster with a pick. Now i use a pick most of the time. A Dunlop Delrin .46.

 

[muggsy]

I am all fingerstyle all the time. I haven’t put in the time to learn pick playing and never played guitar, so not surprisingly I suck at it. One thing I saw in a video recently that made sense to me: I’m a lefty who plays bass right handed, so my right hand holds the pick. The video (maybe Rick Beato?) said using a pick with your non-dominant hand is like trying to write with that hand.

 

[scuzzy]

I've worked a fair amount on pick style the last several years. Grown to love it. I incorporate it when necessary, but a lot of the music I'm playing live is at church, and the pick isn't always the best choice.

 

[MVE]

I too am a 99% fingerstyle player, but I enjoyed learning to use a pick and every now’n then turn on a drum track and practice it.
Plenty of my favorite bass players are pick players: Vega, Kaye, Osborn, etc.
Conversely, plenty of my favorite guitar players are fingers only: Mark Knopfler, Lindsey Buckingham, Paul Simon, etc…
I guess you can make great music either way you choose to do it.

 

[sheesh]

As an aside, I find that with fingers I play more naturally behind the beat, whereas a pick I seem to land more on top of the beat. I find trying to pull my pick back behind the beat doesn't work as well because of the hard attack, it just sounds mis-timed. I think the softer attack of fingers means I can start the note on the beat, drag my finger across the string, then release behind the beat.

Conversely, playing fingerstyle and driving the strings into the fret to get harder attack is just way less efficient than using a pick, and it never does that sound quite as well.

I think you're onto something there.


Also Cody Wright.

 

[Hot Rats]

I used my fingers for over 40 years then halfway through the lockdowns I decided to use a pick. It's been about 3 years of not very serious use but I'm not bad. I still don't have the confidence to use one live but someday.....someday it'll happen. I've been bringing a pick to gigs for the last year but always forget I have it at the gig..

 

[Element Zero]

Strictly fingers for 25 years. I started to adopt pick playing during Covid shutdown times just to experiment and learn. Spent 2022 playing almost exclusively with a pick to force myself to get comfortable with it. Now I’m nearly as proficient with a pick as I am fingers and can bust it out anytime I want.

BTW, fretless with a pick is pretty cool.

 

[erayser]

I played finger style 100% of the time... until I started playing current CCM music in churches. For a little over a decade, trends changed in contemporary church music... so it's not uncommon to see worship pedalboards to have 2 to 3 gain stages. I'll use a pick to reproduce the tone I hear in isolated bass stems in recordings.

I also didn't feel comfortable with a pick when I was learning, but when I got used to it... I'm able get dynamics I couldn't get with finger style... like palm mute picking on rounds, and get the attack I need at different gain stages... especially on those big chorus moments... with a EH bass microsynth. I think it's a good skill to learn... it's sort of like the cheapest effects you can buy to change tone. I learned by starting with a .60mm thickness... then moved to a .72mm.... then .88mm... and so on. I went thicker, but I felt I was getting the dynamics and tone I needed with a .88mm.

That said, I didn't give up on finger style. I'm a weekend warrior that get's booked to play at different churches (3 different churches this month), so I'll use whatever style based on song selection. I'll slap or play on my Moog if needed... Using a pick is just another tool/skill to use when you need a certain tone. It's not impossible to learn if you're willing to practice and give it a chance..

 

[DavidEdenAria]

That is absolute nonsense. The technique is called "double thumb", and it attacks both up and down with your thumb. It's pretty common, though I'd credit Victor Wooten as being the absolute master of that technique. Check out Classical Thump by Wooten and tell me again how you "cannot do this" without a pick.

I do the same and I started bass mostly pick but thumb both directions was next....the limp wrist thumb anchor was causing brutal pain.....so I float but mostly pick but GRAVITATE towards the sound you are after 1st and how to achieve it.

 

[DavidEdenAria]

Great technique and can sound super cool. That's one I need to work on more. But it does not SOUND like a pick.
As I say above, I guarantee you if you're in a session on the hotseat and the producer says "now give us a take with a pick", and you do that....you won't be getting called back. Does not sound the same, and even "close"(which it isn't) ain't gonna cut it in that scenario.

Unless you have a thumbnail to mimic...if the producer wants a pick it should be in your resume if you can play with a pick.

The reason I play pick and double thumb is they are different sounds.

 

[logdrum]

Not all of us are studio musicians, so if you are only good at one technique then so be it.

 

[lark_z]

Have you tried a thumb pick?

Like you need anymore "what I do" comments by page 3, but here goes anyway. I started on guitar, so the pick feels natural to me. Most any song that's fast 8th notes, I just cannot do it fingerstyle. Sadly, the arthritis in my wrist hates the pick.

 

[sethlow3]

I don't expect a "super mellow sound". Not remotely. I play mostly speed metal (and funk and Motown, and other stuff that I like outside of metal). I am 100% fingerstyle, and I promise that my tone has never approached "super mellow" in any of the bands I've played with. Mellow or sharp tone is a matter of right hand technique, not fingers vs. plectrum. Picks sound more sharp than fingers do, obviously. But there's no reason for fingerstyle playing to sound mellow or intense. It's all technique and personal style. I've heard extremely clanky bass from picks and finger players alike. I can't imagine playing a Motown tune with a pick, the sound would be all wrong.

I explained that also.
You can get closer tonally with each in the opposite direction by adjusting techniques.

You can still get a great muted Motown sound from palm muting with a pick.
Double thumping a zeppelin song can work, sure, but it’s going to be a very different sound.

The main point I was making that you contested is about economy picking.

Double thumping is not economy picking. For example, there is no root, 5th, octave pattern with one motion on adjacent strings. Basically a sweep going down and a sweep going up. That’s a completely different advantage from playing with double thumping.

If you feel so inclined, play “good times by times” by zeppelin. That main riff (with all of the root, 5th, octaves) is going to be way easier with economy picking with a pick than double thumping. It’s probably going to sound better too.

Cult of Personality would be another great example. Easiest with economy picking

 

[sleddogn]

I broke my 3 fingers on my plucking hand about 8ish years ago. Had to play with a pick for first time ever, got good at it with lots of practice. I now am able to use fingers again for most part, but do switch back a forth depending on song.

 

[Pdaddy1978]

Ive been about 50-50 from the get go.
So....