Why is playing with a pick so frowned upon?

[-Asdfgh-]

Hollowbody basses and flatwound strings can have more clarity when played with a pick. Certain songs call for that tone.

I once had a fretted acoustic. Put flats on it. Tried it with a pick once, and it was like I'd been transported back to 1967 and had joined The Association.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

There was no channel for electronics on early Fender Jazz bases, at least none that were covered by the pick guard.

Don't mean active electronics. everybody knows that. A proper definition of electronics would include the pickups, pots, and caps.

 

[ggunn]

I started with bass, finger style. Then I also dabbled in guitar, no pick. I started using a pick as I was wearing away my nails strumming. And I learned to play guitar, even lead with a pick. Bass - still can't play with a pick in a worthwhile way. I don't practice it much because it feels so alien.

Right. I played guitar for many years with a pick, but when I started playing bass, I used my fingers. The strings are so much farther apart that the picking technique I developed on guitar did not apply to bass. Later, I started using a pick on bass occasionally when it worked better for the song, and I had to develop technique for doing so almost from square one.

It may be that guitarists who expand to bass sometimes use a pick because that's what they are used to, but that's not how it was for me. Did I sound like a guitar player playing bass at first? Sure I did, but it wasn't because I was using a pick because I wasn't.

The difference between playing bass and playing guitar is mental; it has nothing to do with using a pick vs. playing finger style. If there is prejudice out there toward bass players who use a pick, and if it's because they look like guitar players when they are doing it, it's by people who do not comprehend this.

 

[Yango]

This is the question that bothered me ever since I started playing bass, and coming from 8 years of playing guitar I naturally continue to play with a pick. That and because some of my biggest influences use a pick(atleast most of the time).

Now, through out my time of periodically playing bass in bands during the 8 years of playing guitar a lot bass players looked down on me for using a pick(some still do). I never understood that.

To clarify I do not have anything against any type of technique but I am genuinely interested in where does this(sometimes hostile) opinion comes from?

Anyone who is hostile towards pick playing is an idiot, plain and simple. No matter what style you choose to use, it's all good.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

I see some bass players (on TV anyway) doing what looks like strumming the bass almost, yet individual notes come out. I have no idea how that one works. Miming? I don't recall having seen one live doing it.

 

[ggunn]

I see some bass players (on TV anyway) doing what looks like strumming the bass almost, yet individual notes come out. I have no idea how that one works. Miming? I don't recall having seen one live doing it.

It may be that they are muting all but one string with the fingers of the left hand. Guitar players do it all the time; Stevie Ray Vaughan was a master at it.

 

[mellowinman]

For a second, I thought this was a thread about self abuse.

 

[smogg]

That's just it, they don't. The vast majority of folks don't give a rat's patootie how you play your bass, and the few that do (if they actually exist) don't matter. Some folks "frown upon" those who wear brown shoes with black pants; this "problem" is about that serious. Hey, let's start a ten page thread on that one!

This is true... if you wear brown shoes with black pants, I must hate you. Same goes for if you wear white after when-ever.

 

[EZA]

uhhhh. to cover the channels for the electronics?
Remember, Leo was about fast, inexpensive production; thus the pickguard and bolt on neck.

oh yes I forgot they are not pick guards they are ECC Electronics Channels Cover, please forgive my error.

 

[EZA]

I agree!
Usually when I see someone use a pick I make the assumption that they are a beginner which is quite wrong of me! I guess the fact that a pick is mainly associated with the guitar is my reason why I don't really like or use it, but it's a matter of personal preference and for someone to frown upon that is wrong. That's like someone looking at you as less of a bass player because the color of your bass is pink! Haha it's ridiculous but hey that's MEN for ya! haha only joking!

I have a pink bass and I am a man, and a bass guitar IS a guitar.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

oh yes I forgot they are not pick guards they are ECC Electronics Channels Cover, please forgive my error.

Say three Hail Leos as you penance

 

[-Asdfgh-]

It may be that they are muting all but one string with the fingers of the left hand. Guitar players do it all the time; Stevie Ray Vaughan was a master at it.

Seems a lot of work to me plus you'd be getting a lot of 'chunk' from dead strings. Maybe it is just because it seems so alien.

 

[ggunn]

Seems a lot of work to me plus you'd be getting a lot of 'chunk' from dead strings. Maybe it is just because it seems so alien.

Maybe the "chunk" is what they are going for.

 

[-Asdfgh-]

Maybe the "chunk" is what they are going for.

If they want to be Nile Rogers they should buy a guitar

 

[SwitchGear]

Connie “Guybo” Smith, Eddie Cochrans bass player played bass guitar with a pick, back in the late 1950's. Was this wrong???

 

[Up the dose]

Played an entire gig using a pick last night. Just cause I can.

 

[fourstringdrums]

I think some people hate the pick because they associate it with those who don't play with a pick well. Those who just wail away with a pick like a frustrated guitarist.

 

[ggunn]

I think some people hate the pick because they associate it with those who don't play with a pick well. Those who just wail away with a pick like a frustrated guitarist.

One can play bass like a guitar with fingers as well (or as badly) as with a pick. I know I did when I first started playing bass after playing guitar for many years.

 

[Batmensch]

Playing with a pick is not frowned upon. Glad I could clear that up for you.

Yeah, I think the OP's basic premise is flawed. If it were frowned upon , then why am I seeing (what seems like) almost half of the bassists I see on TV using a pick?

 

[ggunn]

Yeah, I think the OP's basic premise is flawed. If it were frowned upon , then why am I seeing (what seems like) almost half of the bassists I see on TV using a pick?

That's what most of us have been telling him.