bass: finger style vs pick style

[crguti]

Apparently there is a huge controversy about these different bass styles, mainly finger guys trashing the pick guys.
What do you use and why?

[astrozombie]

Re: bass: finger style vs pick style

I tend to switch it up. Ever notice how different a bass sounds played with a pick? It's like a tonal option to me.

[crguti]

Re: bass: finger style vs pick style

I'm a guitarist who just started to play bass. So, I use only pick but I'm trying my best to use fingers for some slap style.

[John_L]

Re: bass: finger style vs pick style

Steve Harris doesn't use a pick.

[Mincer]

Re: bass: finger style vs pick style

Paul McCartney and Chris Squire do pretty well with picks. Personally, there are better things to care about.

[guitfiddle]

Re: bass: finger style vs pick style

I view bassists that use picks like guitarists using capos.

It's this kind of thing that holds players back.

Roger Waters, Bill Wyman, John Entwistle, Noel Redding all were known to use picks, at least some of the time. When it's better than your fingers for a particular tune, you use it.

The same thing happens to some Bluegrass players who reject the capo. Sure they could play it all with fingerings and show the whole world how much of a bada$$ they think that makes them, but they lose one fundamental thing Bluegrass REALLY suffers without...the pretty ringing sound that a cowboy chord with a capo in another key gives the tune.

[cream123]

Re: bass: finger style vs pick style

I use my fingers when I can. I can play faster with a pick so if its a faster passage I'll use a pick. I am trying to get to all fingers unless I need an edgier sound. Then I'll use a pick. There is something about finger style that gets a fat sound. Idk

[Hellion]

Re: bass: finger style vs pick style

Bass snobs and cork sniffers don't like picks.

The only style of music that would need a pick is rock and metal (and its subgenres).

Alex Webster and Eric Langlois are in a death metal bands and they finger pick.

Steve Harris, Billy Sheehan, Tony Choy, Steve DiGiorgio, Sean Malone, and greatest bassist play of all time John Myung* all finger pick.

I see the pick as a cop out. But I am hardheaded and someone will defend themselves in a "I am offended" type of manner.

* http://www.musicradar.com/news/guita...007/25#content

I'm not offended, but I think you're limiting yourself by stating it should only be one way or another. Speaking as a guitarist/bassist/et al, I play primarily with a pick, but I also play classical music, and I use capos when we play live (try to play "Landslide" without one), because it's not a "cheating" thing. It's just another tool with which EVERY musician should be familiar.

I understand where you're coming from, because I held those same principles for a long time, but music doesn't really have any rules, does it? The idea is to get the sound that you're hearing in your head out into the ears of the public, and that should be by any means necessary.

[Hellion]

Re: bass: finger style vs pick style

Yeah... we guitarist use scrunches, ties, socks to dampen strings, Capos because we are to lazy to barre major chords, etc.

Again, you're missing the point. And I'm not too lazy to play barre chords, but a barred C chord (for example) on the 4th fret uses up all of your fingers and you don't have an extra one to add extra notes if you're arpegiating that chord.

But back to the pick vs fingers on bass....I would think that any musician would want to be as proficient in as many ways as possible to get their sound out. As pointed out earlier, fingers on a bass string seem to produce a fatter tone. A pick will produce an edgy, sharper attack. They each have their place, don't they?

[Bass_Medic_05]

Re: bass: finger style vs pick style

I unfortunately use only my fingers all the time, and i know there are certain songs that using a pic would make things some much easier. But I'm stubborn and set in my ways......But there is always hope for me yet lol!

And it also limits other styles as well.....

[guitfiddle]

Re: bass: finger style vs pick style

I unfortunately use only my fingers all the time, and i know there are certain songs that using a pic would make things some much easier. But I'm stubborn and set in my ways......But there is always hope for me yet lol!

Allan Woody has one in your avatar...yer on the right track.

[ImmortalSix]

Re: bass: finger style vs pick style

I walk with my fingers when I play live, but I must admit, when I am recording at home and the bass tone is kind of secondary to whatever I'm recording, i.e. "it just needs to be there, doesn't have to sound great," I will get lazy and use a guitar pick.

I can only get the "thump" I want out of my fingers. Playing bass with a pick has a thin and sharp attack, which is not my preference for bass playing tone.

[Gforce9]

Re: bass: finger style vs pick style

I unfortunately use only my fingers all the time, and i know there are certain songs that using a pic would make things some much easier. But I'm stubborn and set in my ways......But there is always hope for me yet lol!

And it also limits other styles as well.....

Me, too......I really should learn, but I'm an old dog.......

[andrizzle]

Re: bass: finger style vs pick style

I view bassists that use picks like guitarists using capos.

So they're just using another great tool that allows them to get different tones than they would without said tool?


I play bass a good bit and when I do I'm probably 90% finger picking... However on some harder/faster songs or stuff with REALLY fast lines I'll occasionally use a pick... not because I'm 'cheating' ... but rather because I find the pick to be more articulate and has a different tonal quality that I'm looking for for faster songs.

[post toastie]

Re: bass: finger style vs pick style

But back to the pick vs fingers on bass....I would think that any musician would want to be as proficient in as many ways as possible to get their sound out. As pointed out earlier, fingers on a bass string seem to produce a fatter tone. A pick will produce an edgy, sharper attack. They each have their place, don't they?

+1

an option that wasn´t mentioned is plucking with the thumb. i actually think this sounds best, but it´s hard to do really fast stuff that way. a lot of soul players play this way and it sounds great. i´m not speaking of thumping (or slap bass as the masses call it).

another option that i have utilised is playing with a pick while plucking with the middle finger. it gives the best of both worlds.

you can add John Paul Jones to the list who sometimes picks and sometimes fingers. you can see it on the vids. imagine my surprise when i was listening to a loop of the intro to ¨How Many More Times¨ on a Bonzo site and i hear:

click-click-ca-click click
click click click click-a

¨Nooooooooooo¨ i was heard to say.



and so it goes.

and Carol Kaye