bass players play w/ a pick?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Axis
  • Start date Start date

w/ a pick or w/out a pick

  • With A Pick

    Votes: 88 46.8%

  • Without A Pick

    Votes: 116 61.7%
  • Total voters
    188
Definately a pick!

I really don't think much of bassists who play with a pick. The acoustic bass is played with the fingers and that's what the electric bass is meant for. In my opinion it sounds better without a pick.
 
Picks

Picks are best when you need to save your fingers for 3 to 4 shows a week
 
do any of you record yourself playing with a pik, and without, then mix the 2 2gether?
 
I play with the fingers and the fingers only.

I dont like the sound of picks, though I listen to many bands like early genesis and yes who use picks, and their some of my favorite bass players in there, but still I'd rather them not use a pick cuz it sound crusty and yucky.
 
I concur with Track Rat.
Whatever the song calls for.
Whatever the mood brings.
Picking seems a little faster for me & I use a modified pick that alters the tone a tad.
I was taught to play with 2 fingers so I have a strong connection to that style.
What about thumb players?
What about slap thumb & finger players?
Some of you folk are banging on quasi religiously about one or the other & belittling people who's only failing is a matter of subjective choice.
In the words of Quasimodo "Does my face ring a bell?"
Cheers
rayC
 
paganprogress said:
Picks are for your nose - or guitar. No, I intend no blaspheme, but you can get much more out of your bass with just the fingers. I have seen great picking ability using the thumb nail and fingers. Pick sounds can be great- It just depends on what you want to hear. I saw a great bass player the other day that used three fingers to play every line - Her triplet rolls were amazing. She could play the damn lines faster than the guitarist, much to his dismay at the time! :cool: :eek:
Click to expand...

No picks damnit! I can play faster and harder than my guitarists with no picks. I can also get that great metal tone without a pick when I need it, its all in the finess of your fingers, how hard, where, and with what part of you finger you hit the strings with.

piss on picks! lol :D
 
GamesBond,

I just completed a track blending a finger technique and a pick played an octave higher. Man, it's an awsomely thunderous sound when it's mixed just right!

Melodious Monk,

I'm so sorry your views on this are so narrow. Perhaps you don't like any piece of music on which the bass is played w/ a pick as well? Check out Greg Lakes work on "Knife Edge". It's brilliant! It would be excruciatingly difficult to duplicate that sound without a pick.

Rock on!
 
Guitar is my main instrument, but when playig Bass I use a pick. I also think for Metal I can play tighter with a pick
 
You should have preferences, yes, but it seems daft to limit yourself.

For my part, I prefer to use a pick, but I'll generally use fingers when recording because I feel I get more control that way.
 
to pick or not to pick

It's no big deal - use whichever one works. Some of my favorite bass players use picks. I love the sound they get.

But it doesn't work for me - partly I think one must have the right equipment to have a bass setup that sounds pleasant while using a pick. But also since I was primarily a guitarist for many years, I just couldn't get used to the large spacing between the bass strings. This required using bare fingers to really get a feel (in a very literal sense, although I also aspire to the other meaning :-)) for the bass.

It might be a little easier for me to try again with a pick now (after playing bass for about 9 years), but I need all the practice I can get with bare fingers!

My absolute favorite bass player alternates between both techniques. Check him out: Jonas Reingold

CP
 
with a pick

I usually play guitar but when I play bass I found that I like to use a pick preferably a thin one, just like what I use to play guitar mainly because I can tremelo pick very well on a bass with a thin pick and for my style of music thats the only picking technique I need.
 
I'm a mother-plucker all the way. Fingers man, lose the plastic.
 
By the by, I have just two words for anyone who doesn't think that bass should be played with a pick:


Carol Kaye



She is the most recorded bass player in the world (or at least, she was, and even if she isn't any more, she's gotta be in the top 5). Every hear Misson Impossible (the original TV show's theme)? That's her, with a pick. Hawaii 5-0? Yup, that's her. All those old Beach Boys tunes? Carol Kaye, with her pick. The list is so damn long, I wouldn't even THINK about trying to count them all: M.A.S.H., Kojak, The Brady Bunch, The Adams Family (and that's just SOME of her TV and film work); she did shit for Frank Zappa, Herb Alpert, Ike & Tina, Joe Cocker, and more artists than you could imagine.


And ALL of it was done with a pick.


So before you dismiss it, go see how she does it (check out her "Playing tips" on her site), and THEN you can talk about how you can't make a bass sound good with a pick (but you won't).


Light

"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top