hey pick players ?

[PhilT]

With all the bullshit about playing with fingers, it's amazing how many people admit to playing with a pick. At one time it felt like something you'd keep very quiet about. I started off with big hard triangular things I found that were billed as bass picks. Then I went to heavy duty hard guitar picks and now it's standard thin guitar picks. The one I've got out for practice is a Dunlop .73, but at gigs I just have a bag of them and take lucky dip on the night. Never broken a string. I play 100% pick, with my palm on the bridge.

[ramone57]

when I started playing (in the 70's), using a pick was not very common and not encouraged.  it was fingers all the way.  I learned how to use a pick from playing guitar and then applied it to playing bass.  for a while I only used a pick but now use either techinque. it's all good!

[drbassman]

I learned to play with a pick in 1962 and did so until 1975 when I quit for 20+ years.  When I started back up 5 years ago, I relearned with fingers and have become very comfortable with that.  Now, I'm trying, and it's hard, to relearn playing with a pick for those songs where it just would sound better.  Man, it's harder than I thought it would be after playing finger style for 5 years!  I think both styles have their place and I can't stand the "finger-style" snobbery I see in some bassists.

[Dave W]

The few people I saw playing electric bass in the 50s all played with thumbpick or thumb. Fingerstyle was unheard of.

The anti-pick snobbery started with certain upright bassists who did studio work. They wouldn't stoop to playing a bass guitar back in the 50s but were forced to in the 60s when producers demanded it. Their way of coping with this was to dump on former guitarists who had become successful bassists, and criticizing the pick was an easy way of expressing their jealously of players like Joe Osborn and Carol Kaye. It made them feel better about their inferiorities.

Whatever. I don't care if you're 100% fingerstyle, 100% pick or in between, I only care about whether I like the music.

Whenever you run into someone who says "real bassists don't use picks" you know right away you're dealing with somebody who's not very bright. It's helpful -- you now know you can disregard pretty much else they have to say. 

[chromium]

While I've always had a tendency towards fingerstyle playing (started on upright), I think it's important to be able to play with a pick too.  There are just some sounds you get with a pick that you just can't get playing fingerstyle, and vice versa.  It's nice to be able to tap into those sounds when needed.

[lowend1]

While I've always had a tendency towards fingerstyle playing (started on upright), I think it's important to be able to play with a pick too.  There are just some sounds you get with a pick that you just can't get playing fingerstyle, and vice versa.  It's nice to be able to tap into those sounds when needed.

Egg-zactly.

[Freuds_Cat]

I learned to play with a pick in 1962 and did so until 1975 when I quit for 20+ years.  When I started back up 5 years ago, I relearned with fingers and have become very comfortable with that.  Now, I'm trying, and it's hard, to relearn playing with a pick for those songs where it just would sound better.  Man, it's harder than I thought it would be after playing finger style for 5 years!  I think both styles have their place and I can't stand the "finger-style" snobbery I see in some bassists.

I relate to this DB. In high school I played with a pick for about 6 months playing very basicaly and mostly root notes.
I went to lessons for 2 years and was taught by a guy who (now relatively famous here in Australia) is a jazz player and it was fingers all the way.

Been playing with fingers for nearly 30 years when I realized that 7 out of my 10 favourite bass players were pick players.
Once I became a fan of the late great Allen Woody I started re-learning to play with a pick. As DrBassman says "It aint easy". I do like the fact that I can get the rythym out of my wrist and having an up and down stroke gives me some more voices as well. Thats not to mention the extra attack that the pick is giving me.

As a lot of guys here have said, having the ability to choose either is the best option.

[Bass VI]

Well. I will admit to being one of those people who said real bass players don't use picks, even though I play 100% of the time now with one!
But I believe my reasoning at the time was that there were a lot of players ( some former guitarist's ) that played very crudely with said pick. And I do feel that some people ( myself included ) play more expressively fingerstyle. Changing from fingerstyle to using a pick, for me, was simply a different way of doing things ( after of course getting over my prejudices ) now it seems I ( sometimes ) view fingerstyle players with the same sideways glance.
Now, the mental caricature of the "head down flailing away with a pick, playing obvious guitar licks" has been replaced by "exaggerated pop & slap or almost dreamy eyed flamenco flourish" Dave, I could not agree with you more, I only care whether I like the music or not, and I hope my viewpoint is taken with humor ( my intent ). When I played fingerstyle I felt totally commited to that, and now as a plectrum user, I really don't feel comfortable without a pick! Sometime in the future perhaps we will be discussing the merits of the "elbow style" of playing developed by studio conga players who were forced to fill in for bassists. Then the issue won't be what we do or don't have in our hands, but whether we use our hands at all.
Pick (or Finger) On!

S.

[nofi]

i can't even begin to play with a pick. so i have always used my fingers and an occasional thumb. not a slap but old school brian wilson style.