Do you use a pick, why or why not?

[The Bear Jew]

Several years ago, when I was in a different band, we went through a lot of bassists. By the time we reached our fourth guy, I started asking everyone who auditioned if they were a pick or fingers player. This was an important and telling response. Many bassists were hung up on this "I only play with my fingers" thing. I guess, for some, it's a point of bassist pride or something. I take my cue from Marcellus Wallace when it comes to this issue(reference:

.)

 

As far as I am concerned , the correct answer to the "fingers or pick" question should really be: "I'll use whatever is necessary to make sure my part sounds right."

 

Being a "fingers only" player should really only be a source of pride if you can play the things you need to play using only your fingers.

 

Back when I was in the band I mentioned above, we had at least five songs in our "must play" list that had somewhat quick, challenging bass lines. I'm not saying it would have been impossible to play the lines finger-style, and I now know several people who could have done them, but I am saying that I don't think we auditioned anyone back then who had the stamina or the skill to make it happen consistently.

 

In one particular song, it was really important that the bass part be completely solid and definable because the vocal and drum parts depended on the bass to be clear and easy to follow--it was the anchor for much of the song.

 

So many bassists came along and swore they could play that song finger-style... and none of them could do it consistently. My main concern was getting the song to work, not some bassist's "finger-style pride." But I didn't want to ditch people because they had a problem playing something I knew was difficult, so I'd ask them to use a pick until they were able to comfortable play it finger-style--the part was a LOT easier to play using a pick. If they weren't willing to at least try using a pick to get the part sounding righ, we had a problem, and they had to go.

 

Nowadays I'm older and mellower, and I'm in a different band with a bassist who can play pretty much anything I could think of to throw at him.... and he likes to throw kooky time signatures and phrasings at me.

[Phil W]

Never. I have no prejudice against, although most of my favourites used fingers or thumbs. One of my teachers, Ed Lucie used one and he sounded great.

 

It's just not been high up my agenda on techniques to master...also I've long favoured thuds over clangs though I know there's a lot more to picking than that.

[jeremy c]

Tommy Cogbill played with a pick and I love his playing. Look him up if you don't know who he is.

[johngoldsby]

I started out on guitar, so when I took up bass I played with a pick. I gave up the pick when I added the acoustic bass to the mix, and I was trying to do more funky things on electric. Now I've gone back to using a pick every once in a blue moon on certain projects where it calls for that attack.

 

What Nicklab said . . .

[Groove Mama]

I've long favoured thuds over clangs

^^ Yup.^^

[Groove Mama]

I take my cue from Marcellus Wallace when it comes to this issue(reference:

.)

And all of a sudden I find myself hankering for a Royale with Cheese.

[Phil W]

Jeremy, Tommy Cogbill is a favourite of mine. According to Ed Friedland's book, Tommy played with two fingers right up until towards the end of his career (despite originally playing guitar). He only later switched to a pick because of an accident changing a tyre (tire?).

I read back to Nick and I totally agree that it's smite question - all techniques are valid. I'm a less versatile bassist because I never use a pick but I don't need to use one to get enough playing opportunities and I've never moved in circled where I've been asked to use one. But then I don't make a living playing bass, if I did I would probably have had to learn to use one at some point.

[Phil W]

What the heck is a smite question autocorrect? I guess I meant a moot point.

[Cthulhu Fhtagn]

Is it Groundhog day already? This is the eternal Groundhog day bass forum technique question if there ever was one.

 

Fingerstyle? It's a technique for attacking the strings. YAY!

Pickstyle? It's a technique for attacking the strings. YAY!

Slapping? It's a technique for attacking the strings. YAY!

 

I use whichever technique suits the material the best. And having as many of these string attack techniques as possible at your disposal makes you a more versatile musician. YAY!

 

What about popping?

[jeremy c]

Popping counts too, as does tapping. So does playing with your teeth, a bow, funk fingers, drumsticks (wooden or from turkeys), ball peen hammers, toothbrushes or power drills.

 

Whatever works.

 

Meanwhile, I didn't know that Tommy Cogbill played with fingers. In the only picture I've ever seen of him, he is playing with a pick.

[Bottom End]

Thumb style, without slapping, is a cool technique, too. Abraham Laboriel is a master of this. I also liked that Tina Weymouth played with thumb and fingers on a lot of tunes.

 

"Little Green Bag" is one of those tunes taht only sounds right with a pick and palm muting, IMO.

[Phil W]

I did play piccolo bass with a pick, back when I played it!

[butcherNburn]

I hate the snobbery some people, especially people that don't play bass, can have against using a pick.

 

I prefer to play with a pick most times and actually can get close to a finger style sound with one if I need to. Yes, scoff if you will but how many people (non-players) do you think can really tell? I like the way it sounds. My strings are usually very heavy flats and I use a very heavy, broken in or otherwise well rounded, pick but I haven't seen the ones I like in years. I've also been known to stick a loop piece of velcro to a pick. I'll play with my fingers too, often without putting down the pick.

 

I refuse to wear my bass ridiculously high, I just don't find it comfortable.

I don't like to play while sitting.

I don't like my tone knob wide open.

As far as slapping and popping, it just isn't my thing. if it was, I'm sure I'd have my preferences there as well.

Heck I've seen a few guys play quite well with gloves on.

[Basshappi]

I am a fingerstyle player to get a pick tone I use my fingernail.

I have tried many times to develop the use of a pick but have had to come to the realization that due to my picking hand issues I am not able to do so.

[b5pilot]

Popping counts too, as does tapping. So does playing with your teeth, a bow, funk fingers, drumsticks (wooden or from turkeys), ball peen hammers, toothbrushes or power drills.

 

Whatever works.

 

Exactly!

[jeremy c]

You can buy a pick made out of rubber from the Wedgie company.

Sometimes I use one. It sounds more like fingers than my own fingers do, because my fingertips are pretty hard from years of playing.

[Michele C.]

I love the pick, especially with flat wounds. Picked strings get to good pitch in shorter time, so do flat wounds, because they dispose of the initial clanging.

So, if you have short notes to play and want to make the line stand out clearly, a pick may help.

Second, if you remove the attack, a picked string, to my ear, has more midrange and it easier to bend in a singing tone. So, if you have to sing a pick may help.

Finally, I have been relistening to all the Beatles recordings and i appreciated the way in which Mc Cartney thumps with flatwounds and a dull bass, giving impulse on each song with the attack of a pick as a means to underline tempo.

Where would Mc Cartney have been with a metallic sound in a mix with one Rickenbacker and one Casino?

[Wally Malone]

Being a lefty playing righty I never was very good a using a pick. At the same time it was a struggle when I first started slapping and became good at it by putting in the time. The other day I was cleaning up the MM Stingray case and noticed there was a pick in there. Last night when playing my Jazz with V-Bass and on the T-Bird patch I tried the pick and it sounded good. There are probably a few others that would sound great with a pick and I'm going to give it a try. At our age Geoff and I are still learning!

 

Wally

[Paul K]

Back in the day (70's) I started playing with a pick because I really just didn't know anything about the different approaches. My first guitar teacher had no problem with my using a pick. He might have mentioned it once, but then dropped it. But, boy, a whole bunch of high school "musicians" sure care. Now, I don't really pick up a pick unless it's appropriate or if my fingertips hurt. And usually, I don't remember to pick up a pick for the appropriate tunes til after it's way too late.

 

Boy. That is just some fascinating reading there. eh? Just, like, right at the edge of your seat.

[Basshappi]

Positivly breathless! ;D

[rumpelstiltskin.]

i pick up a pick from my pick up. i'm not saying, i'm just sayin'.

[doc taz]

Most of what I play these days doesn't require me to use a pick. I'm not one of these guys that believes only in the strictly fingers mantra, though. I do like wielding a pick for some tunes. If by chance, I was hired to replace, say, Alex Webster of Cannibal Corpse, I might not pass the audition if I played their songs with a pick. Maybe.

 

My favorite picks are at least 1mm or thicker. One of my absolute faves is the 2mm Gator pick from Dunlop. That's a great one with flats.

[Cthulhu Fhtagn]

1mm Dunlop "Fatties" (red) or 2mm Dunlop "Fatties" (purple) on those occactions where I pick to pick a pick. I keep both in the box.

[rumpelstiltskin.]

interesting observation: the reason i went away from 1.0mm big stubby picks is that i didn't want a plunky sound. i still get a dynamic attack with a 0.6mm pick, but it's gives the whole note envelope a rounder sound.

 

if i were using flatwounds, and especially if i were going for a vintage sound, i think the stiffer pick would give the perfect plunky sound to emulate that kind of tone. i have had success emulating that tone with heavy palm muting and playing with EQ at the bass, but that's only because i don't have a bass with flats on it, and even then it's still not nearly the real deal.

 

i love that the right answer is what yields to sounds you want. all these different ideas really lay bare the idea that you must play with your fingers or whatever other preconceived notions people have about tone. it's all about finding different sounds effectively.

[Mark Schmieder]

I was so devastated 12+ years ago when my hero Carol Kaye said real bass players use a pick! I had heard the same thing back in the 80's when I was starting on the instrument; that fingers are a cop-out for the upright bass players who don't want to learn how to use a pick.

 

I didn't really start using a pick seriously until joining an 80's tribute band in the early 2000's -- with one exception, for a one-off current-hits cover band in the late 80's. Once I started playing "guitar rock" songs where the bass is in unison with the guitar instead of creating rhythm and groove with the drums, it just felt like an Octave Guitar at that point, and hence the pick. I don't usually enjoy playing such songs as I like to feel a groove when I play and to me the pick doesn't groove. Yes, it can create great attack (which I usually DON'T want as it's a distraction from other elements), but it doesn't have the complexity and hence the subtlety of a pocket with the drummer.

 

McCartney and some other players didn't pick as much as people think. Also, when they did pick, some of those players used it as just a bare extension of the thumb. That's a hybrid technique that some guitarists (especially ones with a classical/nylon background) employ.

 

For me, downstrokes only as I don't like what the upstroke does to the timbre as well as how it creates a false second beat under the main rhythm. Maybe good for country music though. :-)

 

It's funny, I always thought flats were for fingerpicking, but someone here recommends flats for picks. I had a friend in the 80's who had a reggae background but went metal, kept his fretless with flats and started using a pick. Everyone thought he was crazy but I loved the way he sounded, both in concert and in the studio.

 

Just a random dump of thoughts -- too busy to think out a more coherent reply these days (work is crazy busy, and lots of gigs).

[jeremy c]

Using a pick with flatwounds allows the bass to be heard there are no mids or highs which compete with other and instruments and because with the pick, you can hear the bass note start.

 

When recording on four or eight track tape which requires multiple bounce downs as instruments are added, this attack also keeps the bass from getting lost in the mix.

 

I nearly always use round wound strings played with fingers when recording and producers seem to love my sound. Occasionally I bring a Precision with flatwounds and they like that sound too. I don't think I've ever recorded anything on which I was disappointed with the bass sound.

[5 string Mike]

I was so devastated 12+ years ago when my hero Carol Kaye said real bass players use a pick! I had heard the same thing back in the 80's when I was starting on the instrument; that fingers are a cop-out for the upright bass players who don't want to learn how to use a pick.

 

 

The 'fingerstyle' snobs usually counter with the 'picks are a cop-out for guitar players who are too lazy to learn fingerstyle'.

 

I play pick style a lot like Waters- near the bridge. I like that sound with my flats because it's not all 'thump' and cuts through pretty good.

 

I don't like a pick with rounds because of he clanky sound. If I do use rounds, I roll the tone knob off quite a bit.

 

i pick up a pick from my pick up. i'm not saying, i'm just sayin'.

 

You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose...

[jeremy c]

I have picks with my name and email address on them. They make great business cards.

[Bottom End]

To me it's not "either/or", it just sounds right some times. A bass line like "Little Green Bag" sounds crisper with a pick, Graham Maby on Joe Jackson's "Got The Time" sounds right with a pick, especially the bass solo, and Average White Band's "Schoolboy Crush" demonstrates that picks and grooves go hand in hand.

[jeremy c]

Schoolboy Crush is a great song and performance.

 

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