Who uses the right hand thumb for plucking?

[Illini10]

Sting plucks with his thumb.

 

[sears]

With flatwounds I think it has the best tone. That doesn't mean I use it all the time.

 

[Calebmundy]

I use it pretty often. Sometimes for the different sounds I can get out of it, and sometimes for the different feel. I can't play as fast with the thumb, so it creates a certain kind of laid-back feel for some tunes.

Back when I did more theater gigs, I would use the thumb with a little palm muting to get that "broadway bounce" going and do a little upright impression.

It also helps make the Big Muff sit better in some mixes:

 

[Hamlet7768]

I do it occasionally. For example, the "Luke's Wall" part of Black Sabbath's "War Pigs" almost depends on using it, though muting is an issue.

 

[roden]

I do it sometimes at home, usually in combination with some varied degree of palm muting, and adding index/middle finger on the higher string stuff, or just use the thumb for all the notes depending on the context

 

[MartinG1957]

Yep, do it all the time - gives a nice soft, fat sound on my flatwounds on both my jazz and p - don't use it exclusively and would use fingers much more frequently than thumb but for some songs and sounds I much prefer it...and as someone else mentioned earlier, I felt validated when I saw Mr. Sting using thumb for most of the set on The Police retirement tour a couple of years back.

 

[DMoir89]

Paul Simonon has recently started playing with his thumb.

 

[MrLenny1]

Old technique for bass players. take a look at the old Fender basses.
They had a finger rest below the G string, you would hook fingers there
and use the thumb to pluck.
The new technique is using the thumb as a pick, up & down motions.

 

[Duke21]

I do not really pluck with my thumb, but I hold the pick in a way that its tip is just about 1mm ahead of my thumb, so my thumb touch the string as well.