Pick or fingers?

DavidRees · September 2013

like it says in the title really. I am playing bass guitar again after a great many years and am currently doing a bit of both before I get closer to deciding what music I'm going to play and how. Fingers seem the preferred default option but then I think about the magic created by Paul M and Carol K and the pick has its attractions ...any comments/views out there...

octatonic · September 2013

Learn both and then decide.

It is such a personal thing and you won't know until you suck it and see.

Phil_aka_Pip · September 2013

I'd play bass with my fingers by preference but I also like to keep my nails just long enough to fingerpick a guitar, and playing bass with my fingers tears the nails apart. So I use a Jazz-III pick.

octatonic · September 2013

I fingerpick with no nail, mostly flesh- hybrid style and play bass with fingers. OP- see what I mean, it is highly personal.

mike257 · September 2013

Learn both and play whichever gives the most appropriate sound for the song you're currently playing. Both equally valid and useful techniques that have a different tonal character to one another.

Bucket · September 2013

^That.

I flit between them, and I find it very useful to be able to do both.

monquixote · September 2013

I do both.

Some songs don't sound right or are really hard to play if you don't use the right one so it's a must have skill to do both if you are in a covers band.

ICBM · September 2013

I'd like to be able to play with a pick since some of my favourite bass sounds were done with them, but (as with guitar) I find it awkward and always end up with just fingers. I can get a reasonable approximation of the sound if I attack the string hard with a bit of nail involved, it's close enough.

Bridge pickup and a bit more treble and mid on the amp helps.

axisus · September 2013

Can't get on with plecs on a bass. I use fingers, appalling slap technique, and 'chucking', which is the weird thing where you play as with a plectrum .... but without one.

UnclePsychosis · September 2013

Both.

I like to use really thick---3mm---plectrums on bass. Anything else is just wrong.

ICBM · September 2013

axisus said:

Can't get on with plecs on a bass. I use fingers, appalling slap technique, and 'chucking', which is the weird thing where you play as with a plectrum .... but without one.

That perfectly describes how I play bass as well

. Never seen it called that before...

Cirrus · September 2013

In an ideal world you'd do whichever worked for the song's arrangement. There's a quality to the attack with a pick that you just can't get with fingers, a definition in the upper mids that pushes the bass forward in the mix.

In practice, you want the bass player to be as comfortable as possible so they perform well so you go with whatever works.

frankus · September 2013

just fingers... increasingly this way with guitar too..

chrispy108 · September 2013

As others, both, depending on the song.

Don't agree with the thick pick though, I prefer about 1mm, same as I use on guitar.

I tried a load, but I find a thicker pick harder work.

IanSavage · September 2013

Both, depending on what the song demands; my major influences (Duff, Lynott, Freeman) tend to use picks, but I'd not want to do anything fretless or with a more 'soulful' sound with one. And you simply can't get a good Iron Maiden-esque 'gallop' with a pick.

axisus · September 2013

ICBM said:

axisus said:

Can't get on with plecs on a bass. I use fingers, appalling slap technique, and 'chucking', which is the weird thing where you play as with a plectrum .... but without one.

That perfectly describes how I play bass as well . Never seen it called that before...

I only heard the name a couple of years ago in an article about Bernard Edward's bass playing. I didn't realise that anyone else did it! I play guitar like that as well.

ICBM · September 2013

axisus said:
I only heard the name a couple of years ago in an article about Bernard Edward's bass playing. I didn't realise that anyone else did it! I play guitar like that as well.

Same here.

Anything I do being mentioned in the same breath as Bernard Edwards is rather impressive...

DavidRees · September 2013

BTW, I forgot to say thank you to everyone for your contributions, so thank you. David

fretmeister · September 2013

I massively prefer fingers and I'm much more competent that way, but some tunes do need a pick. But I'm crap with one. And I never seem to have any.

Mosfed · October 2013

I use both. But I am much better with a pick as I am converted guitar player and bass finger styles are very different to guitar ones.

SO I try to force myself to use my fingers more and more. Each one has it's tonal variations and advantages.

Ramirez · October 2013

About equal between fingers, thumb (not slap though - I just can't) and a pick (brass) here.

ICBM · October 2013

Fingers only. I can't get used to the feel of a pick either for bass or guitar, even though the finger styles are certainly very different.

littlegreenman · October 2013

Fingers mostly, but then I occasionally watch Scott Thunes playing with Zappa and think I really should give plec style a more serious try.

Apparently he was a fingers only man before joining FZ, and Frank made him learn to play with a plec!

DavidRees · October 2013

and thank you all for the more recent contributions ...

Mosfed · October 2013

Anytime...

I have been trying some more traditional guitar style finger picking techniques lately and have been loving it. There is a Grateful Dead tune called Spanish Jam that works really well in this regard.

therose789 · October 2013

It depends on the style of music. Heavier styles i normally use a pick for a more attacky sound and other styles fingers.

DanielT · October 2013

I'd "like" to play with fingers however I find when I use a pick my timing is better and I need less compression. Odd really because I never play an acoustic guitar with a pick.

Anyhow, given that I only dabble with the bass occasionally I therefore stick to the pick.

chrisj1602 · October 2013

I use both, but mostly fingers on bass and mostly pick on guitar.

jpfamps · October 2013

ICBM said:

Fingers only. I can't get used to the feel of a pick either for bass or guitar, even though the finger styles are certainly very different.

Are you left handed?

jpfamps · October 2013

I prefer to play bass finger style as I feel more in control of the instrument, and thus am probably more competent (sorry less incompetent) playing finger style than with a pick

Interestingly I'm the opposite on the guitar; I feel much more comfortable playing with a pick.

Whilst most of my favourite players use finger style, there are also plenty who use a pick, eg Phil Lynott (although interestingly he used finger style earlier in his career).

Whatever works for you is fine.

ICBM · October 2013

jpfamps said:

Are you left handed?

No - although I'm quite ambidextrous. I am actually right-handed, but not very strongly. There is a lot of left-handedness in my family, which may be related...

I'd never thought about that as a possible reason for my unusual playing style, but it might make sense.

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Pick or fingers?

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