Would you have caved in & used a pick?

[dougjwray]

If you're on a journey to master your instrument, you'll thank those guys one day for pushing you to get familiar with a pick.
If they're being insulting to you, you might quit... but you should probably still consider practicing with a pick, just for the sake of mastering your instrument.
My $.02.

 

[Butch Bobcat]

If you're on a journey to master your instrument, you'll thank those guys one day for pushing you to get familiar with a pick.
If they're being insulting to you, you might quit... but you should probably still consider practicing with a pick, just for the sake of mastering your instrument.
My $.02.

I totally agree. We, as musicians, should definitely learn as many techniques as possible in order to master our instrument. For example, that's why I've been learning a bunch of slap bass tunes recently. I'm a decently solid slap & pop player, but I want be be phenomenal at it.

When it comes to using a pick, I started out on & still play guitar so a pick isn't foreign to me. In fact, I use a pick to play Tom Petty's Running Down a Dream to better articulate the driving bassline in that song.

 

[JMacBass65]

I'd like to hear some opinions from fellow bassists on whether it matters to you that a bassist uses a pick in a cover band when the original bassist recorded with a pick.

To start at the end, I've washed my hands of the mainly 90's cover band I played bass in. The reason stemmed from me not wanting to use a pick because I found the tone that I, like all of us, have sought after.

Okay, so I was in a cover, not tribute band. I feel that gives me more liberties to not have the exact tone as the original bands.

The guitarist & singer argued that we don't play songs that we used to like In Bloom, Killing in the Name, or Song 2 because me picking with my fingers makes the songs "sound like s#&t" even though they take liberties of their own in the music. When I tell them that they & the 2 purist musicians in the audience are the only people that will care that the tone isn't exactly like the original recording.

Ultimately, I decided to leave the band after hanging out the other night for the first time since the lockdown started because of things like being told that my knowledge is inferior to the guitarist because of his master's degree in music. Also that I'm ignorant to what the music needs to be & sound like. There's plenty more drunkardly trash talking & belittling of my abilities that I won't get into. I will however say that for over an hour of this argument, I was literally not able to finish a single point I was trying to make before getting interrupted.

I know this was long winded, but with all the BS aside, what are your opinions on using a pick or fingers in a situation like this?

Well, I probably would have used a pick, but I easily move from fingers to pick, so it wouldn't have mattered to me.

However - these guys sound like a-holes and you were right to leave.

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

If the pic contributes to the sound, then yes you should play with a pick. Would you pluck the stings is it was bowed in the recording? Just like using a mute, slapping, tapping etc. have their own effect, a pick has it's own sound too.

 

[fauxtoe]

I just used a pick for the first time in over a year on a song at church because I needed to do a substantial amount of palm muting to get the rhythm and timing right. It also let me dial in this very fat, overdriven sound that definitely caught the ear of my fellow musicians.

Also, Killing in the Name was not played with a pick to the best of my knowledge, but I'm sure that's been mentioned a half a dozen times already. Stingray with fingers! I bet those a'hole band members also think Geddy uses a pick.

 

[ebo]

I’m 80% finger, 20% pick at most. Some songs are more appropriate with a pick, just like some work better with slap. No one likes to be dictated to but I’ve learned a ton by being open to suggestion. Then there was Johnny Ramone, who insisted everything had to be picked as downstrokes. Guitar, ok I get it. Bass? Now you’re talking image. Might as well talk about what people wear on stage.

 

[DavidEdenAria]

I would have done it with a pick IF your bandmates weren't being so-and-sos about it, but they clearly were.
If you can't literally win, do it figuratively by voting with your feet!

I wouldn't even be in a room with folks who treated me like that, let alone be in a band with them, if I'm being completely honest.

In truth I have ended relationships over this sort of thing, including a TB member who came to my humble abode, fiddled with the knobs on my rig while I played it (w/o asking first) & then promptly came on here to trash my rig!
Before you comment it's not the same, it's stemming from a deep lack of respect in both cases.

That sucks....the dude should have asked and not trashed your rig.

However, one of the 1st things i do in a music store is ask the sales person to play while i fiddle with settings on the amp...i have never seen bass guitar as "plug and play" as many guitarists do....WAY more EQ adjusting can get great varied bass tones vs guitar.

I went thru a similar scenario when i bought my 65 Epiphone Newport (neck mudbucker PU)...my friend who traded it to me, has an SVT rig...well, the 1st thing he does is plug the Newport into the regular channel as he does with his P basses.

Im like, Michael, this is a TOTALLY different bass than your 60's P basses...we plugged into the bright channel and i then asked if i could adjust the SVT a bit more...he agreed and heard the possibilities!

After owning P basses and an SVT for 35+ years he had never plugged into the bright channel (which is understandable as a P bass isnt hard to dial in with most amps imo).

The other thing i did when i got home was lower the polepieces on the mudbucker to clean up the sound and get less boom....after extensive EQ i was very close to a typical P bass sound...close enough for me anyway....and i often use a pick with this bass to get a biting attack...my bud never ever uses a pick with his P bass and he sounds great but he doesnt ever vary his picking the way i do which is; using thumb and fingers, muting at bridge, bent wrist thumb anchor and a pick.

But yeah, that dude was inconsiderate..

 

[ToneMonkey]

I’m a pretty hardcore finger guy. Or I have been in the past. But with my Player P, there’s just something magical about using a pick. The attack just has this definite edge to it. It’s hard to put into words, but the notes just seem faster and seem to sit on the edge of the beat better. I guess Carol Kaye knew something after all.

 

[Lagado]

I adore Scott Thunes P bass pick playing on this track. Incredibly consistent start to finish, great tone.

 

[jeffb28451]

You use what is called for. You band mates sound like morons, but mostly in how they approached the “ discussion”. They may well have had a point. Most folks
I know, including a few Berkeley grads and attendees, w one Oberlin outlier, say that pros play music, teachers get degrees. I take that w a grain of salt, but a Masters degree is no great position of authority. I have a degree in Music and never once in 30 years have I used that to justify my opinion about musical choices.

 

[bbh]

Of 5 people that I know, only 1 graduated from Berkeley. That person became a teacher somewhere. The others had mostly fruitful careers in music performances including the mtv circuit, cruise ships, etc and all that goes along with it.
1 wound up teaching at a go Florida store as well as the typical side work. I believe he could’ve easily graduated but like many others, he bailed early to follow opportunities.
I myself do use theory to a small extent but I learn / play by ear. I don’t think I would have cut the mustard to go to music school. Well maybe back then but certainly not now. The older I get, the harder to learn and remember.