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Struggling with considering moving back to a pick
- Thread starter Ryno1330
- Start date
Dude... Carol Kay disbanded the pick police years ago when we all realized it was a chick with a pick that was recording the bass lines on almost everything we listened to. This is your life and your bass playing all of us strangers are talking about. Play it the way you hear it.
play with a pick, play with your fingers, play with sticks taped to your fingers, play with banjo picks, play it with a vibrator, hit it with your beer bottle, hit it with your purse, scream at it, see what it sounds like in a vat of milk, just make some noise
JeezyMcNuggles
Inactive
- Feb 23, 2018
- 14,723
- 20,970
- Disclosures
- I suck, but nobody really notices
I play clearer and more consistent with a pick. But, I get "that sound" really any sound I could ever want or need with my fingers. I don't always use a pic. But, when I do, it needed it.
A lot of folks have been focusing on tone differences between fingers and pick, but the main reason I personally like playing with a pick isn't so much about tone as it is about the physical up-and-down motion. I generally try to play downstrokes on downbeats and upstrokes on upbeats, a la Carol Kaye, and sometimes this motion seems to help me feel the groove in a way that I don't get playing with fingers. There are some songs that I (almost) always play with a pick because they (almost) always feel better that way -- e.g., Grateful Dead and Beatles -- but mostly it's a matter of how I'm feeling it at that particular moment, and I choose to play with or without a pick on a whim.
Lol - I'm usually a low drama guy. I guess I've been a bit frustrated lately with the time I've put in and maybe should've checked the "traditional bass with fingers" at the door ego myself a while back and now I'm kicking myself for it. I just wondered if others had ever gone through a similar progression.
i play with my fingers and i'm clumsy with a pick, but i wouldn't care if it was the other way around, but it's not...so there's that.
lighten up....just wait until you're struggling to play anything --- it won't matter! 
seriously: good luck resolving your angst re: pick playing!
I use fred kelly slick picks for thumb picking on acoustic. I find them more articulate. I've never used them on bass. When I use a pick on bass I go for nylon jazz 3s, or Ultex 1.14s with heavy strings.
Roger Glover used a pick almost all the time. You're in great company.
Use whatever technique gives you the sound you want.
I favour fingers, but I use a pick when that's what suits best. I started with a pick because I had been playing electric guitar for years, with a pick, before I touched a bass. Then I trained myself to use fingers because I preferred that sound, generally. Now I am probably more 'agile' fingerstyle, but I still practice a bit with a pick just to keep it in shape.
You don't *need* to use a pick, but it's nice to have the option, no? Don't give up, practice
I play with my fingers when I drop my picks, and that's quite often 
Usually the fast songs get the pick treatment, until my hand cramps (thumb tendon)
I've been using these, softer attack, but just enough, they only last about a dozen hrs of playing,
I like them better than the plastic picks
Usually the fast songs get the pick treatment, until my hand cramps (thumb tendon)
I've been using these, softer attack, but just enough, they only last about a dozen hrs of playing,
I like them better than the plastic picks
I've been playing with just my fingers since 1982, and my hands are completely stupid when I hold a pick. I wish I had practiced it along the way. If you can do both with at least passable technique, do it. Your tone is your tone, if you stick with it, it'll grow on you, and you'll learn how to get different tones when you take some of the pressure off yourself.
You have to keep in mind that the people on here who shame others for what they do or don't do are people who if you met IRL, you would never take their advice. I played exclusively with a pick for 30 years, decided one day that I was going to learn to play with my fingers and I spent the better part of a year doing it. I can now do either equally as well and go through streaks where I play more one way or the other.
I play in a tribute band where the original bass player played only with a pick, but I play about half the stuff with my fingers because I think it sounds better. Moral, do whatever makes you happy.
I play in a tribute band where the original bass player played only with a pick, but I play about half the stuff with my fingers because I think it sounds better. Moral, do whatever makes you happy.
I don't struggle with anything of the sort. If I think the music benefits from a pick, I use it. If not, fingers. In my current band I never use a pick just because fingers sound better to me with them. But there's no question I could make using a pick work if it came down to me being a better player with a pick. Which I am...but luckily I can hang with my fingers for the most part
You're going after a tone. Just use a pick bro, personally. I'm a fan of extra heavy picks, but I've heard somewhere on TB that medium picks do something to the tone that heavys don't.. buy a bunch of different ones and see lol
Played my first 5-6 years exclusively finger style. After I started playing with a pick, I rarely play fingerstyle now, because a pick gets me the sound in my head. When I want a more “upright” tone, I play fingerstyle around the 15th fret. If it gets your sound where you want it to be, it’s worth fumbling around with a pick for a few weeks. I would definitely recommend trying a few different picks, because some feel/sound way better than others, imo!
You don't have to conform to anything. Play with a pick and be proud. If anyone gives you any grief, just send them links to some Bobby Vega videos.
