Gibson Custom Shop Gene Simmons EB0

[westen44]

I can't stand anything thicker than that or thinner.

Now you're beginning to sound like a woman!

Well, it was unintentional.  All I can say is the Dunlop .96 pick is by far what I relate to the most.  I didn't plan it that way, but that's the way things worked out.  Increasingly, though, I play more fingerstyle bass, not because I really want to, but because that's so much more comfortable for my neck.  But I will never like fingerstyle bass the way a lot of people seem to do, even if I do end up playing it more as time goes on.  Pain is a great motivator.  And a pain in the neck (from using a pick) is a pain in the neck.  It's what the chiropractor calls micro-trauma. 

[uwe]

Well-played finger style can sound more "bubbly", all those micro-inaccuracies touching the string(s) with your fingers (if you play with index and middle finger or more that is) create a groove you can't really recreate with a pick. A pick stroke has more mechanical precision, but it also sounds deader.

[Ken]

A pick stroke has more mechanical precision, but it also sounds deader.

[westen44]

Well-played finger style can sound more "bubbly", all those micro-inaccuracies touching the string(s) with your fingers (if you play with index and middle finger or more that is) create a groove you can't really recreate with a pick. A pick stroke has more mechanical precision, but it also sounds deader.

I definitely prefer pickstyle.  It irritates me sometimes when some people push things too far and make statements like real bass players don't use a pick.  Nevertheless, because of my neck problem I do sometimes have to join the ranks of fingerstyle players.  It doesn't much matter one way or another.  I don't have Carnegie Hall booked anytime soon anyway. 

[uwe]

And that helps a leftie play rightie you say?! What a brilliant technical solution to one of the great scourges of mankind! Progress is something marvelous, isn't it?

[uwe]

I definitely prefer pickstyle.  It irritates me sometimes when some people push things too far and make statements like real bass players don't use a pick.  Nevertheless, because of my neck problem I do sometimes have to join the ranks of fingerstyle players.  It doesn't much matter one way or another.  I don't have Carnegie Hall booked anytime soon anyway.

There is no better or worse, just a certain way in which your groove will be influenced as you mature as either a finger or a pick player. Sure as a pick player myself I gravitated towards pick players as role models - Glenn Hughes, Roger Glover, Jim Lea, Martin Turner, Chris Squire, Alan Lancaster, Gene Simmons, Dennis Dunaway, Bob Daisley, John McCoy, John Gustafson - they are all pick players. But at the same time I marvel at all the rhythmic nuances Neil Murray, Jack Bruce, Trevor Bolder or Gary Thain play(ed) - and that kind of style is derived from having chosen the finger player path.

[Ken]

And that helps a leftie play rightie you say?! What a brilliant technical solution to one of the great scourges of mankind! Progress is something marvelous, isn't it?

Exactly!

But seriously, I love this pedal.  It gives a more pick-like attack for finger playing.  They discontinued them, so I bought a second as a backup.

[westen44]

There is no better or worse, just a certain way in which your groove will be influenced as you mature as either a finger or a pick player. Sure as a pick player myself I gravitated towards pick players as role models - Glenn Hughes, Roger Glover, Jim Lea, Martin Turner, Chris Squire, Alan Lancaster, Gene Simmons, Dennis Dunaway, Bob Daisley, John McCoy, John Gustafson - they are all pick players. But at the same time I marvel at all the rhythmic nuances Neil Murray, Jack Bruce, Trevor Bolder or Gary Thain play(ed) - and that kind of style is derived from having chosen the finger player path.

Possibly the best way is to feel equally at home with or without a pick.  Maybe it's just a coincidence, but I seem to be noticing more bassists who switch back and forth.  I may be forced to play fingerstyle some because of my neck, but I doubt if I'll ever like it as much as using a pick.  Since I've mentioned it, I'm trying to think of some bassists who play both pickstyle and fingerstyle.  I know there are several.  At the moment, though, the best example is Emma Anzai who plays both for Sick Puppies and Evanescence.  Those Evanescence songs are too simple to bother listening to.  But if you look at some of her Sick Puppy performances she sometimes switches back and forth between pickstyle and fingerstyle just in a single song.  She holds her pick in some strange way between her fingers when she plays fingerstyle so she can keep up with her pick at all times. 

I'm not one of those guys who goes around saying girls can't play bass.  Anyone who has ever been around a good female bassist face to face would never say that.  As for Emma Anzai, she is better than I ever plan to be.  That's for sure.  I haven't listened to her enough to make any comprehensive statements about how she plays.  I'm sure she must be good, though.  But I'm mostly just using Emma Anzai as an example of someone who seems to be able to play equally well with or without a pick.

[morrow]

Musical ability has nothing to do with gender.

I'm mostly a finger player , often a thumb player , and sometimes use a pick. And can almost get a pick sound using nails , I can get that using the guitar-like thumb and finger picking approach , but there's nothing quite like using a pick.

[ilan]

I once met a guy who wore metal banjo fingerpicks upside-down (with the pick on the fleshy part of the finger, not the nail side) to get a pick sound when playing fingerstyle, which was more natural for him.

[Pilgrim]

I started on upright bass and never learned pick.  I've messed with it a bit, but never put in the work to be comfortable or quick with it; I'm much faster with fingers. At this point, I doubt I'll learn to use a pick.

[Ken]

I once met a guy who wore metal banjo fingerpicks upside-down (with the pick on the fleshy part of the finger, not the nail side) to get a pick sound when playing fingerstyle, which was more natural for him.

That's a pretty cool idea, but I wonder how bad the metal on metal is for the strings.

[patman]

I used to use national metal picks. They make a bad clicking sound when you play, mostly on the higher notes.
Why I switched to plastic Dunlop picks.

[uwe]

That's a pretty cool idea, but I wonder how bad the metal on metal is for the strings.

I'd wager the guess that your right hand (other people: left hand) will long have corroded, fret-indented and skin-gunked the strings through fretting before your left hand (other people: right hand) has worn the string through with your pick. And what about this guy I've never heard about? He's says he's been playing a sixpence coin as a pick for more than 40 years - with skimpy guitar strings scaramouching the fandango!

[Ken]

I'd wager the guess that your right hand (other people: left hand) will long have corroded, fret-indented and skin-gunked the strings through fretting before your left hand (other people: right hand) has worn the string through with your pick. And what about this guy I've never heard about? He's says he's been playing a sixpence coin as a pick for more than 40 years - with skimpy guitar strings scaramouching the fandango!

Very very frightening!