Plectrum playing

[AlpherMako4]

This is not so much a discussion, but more me realising that I like the sound. Still being a relative beginner, I listen to music thinking that a certain tone is really good, it must be a distorted or an overdriven sound, but no. I've just realised that it's a bass played with a plectrum.
I'm gonna have to nail a bit of that....... it must give great versatility in tonal options.

Another thing to learn and practice.............

[Hobbayne]

I wanted to sound like Bruce Foxton and JJ Burnell when I started playing. I still use a pick for about 30% of my bands set today.

[AlpherMako4]

Yeah, it seems to add a bit of bite.

[warwickhunt]

I use finger(s), pick, thumb, drumstick... whatever it takes and anyone who says you 'must' use one OR the other is a fool!

[mep]

As you have discovered there is great sound associated with a pick. I enjoy playing songs with a pick and im sure you will too. Another technique to learn but worth it.

[Sibob]

Look up Cody Wright if you haven't already, the new generation Bobby Vega (technique wise anyway)

Si

[AlpherMako4]

Ye. Bobby Vega is SO funky.

[CamdenRob]

I never really got pick playing until I recently discovered Bobby Vega... Been having a bit of a dabble with it myself in recent times

I don't think I'll ever use it in a band context but still, it's a useful technique to have.

[keefbaker]

For harder stuff nothing beats hammering downpicked playing. Every technique is worth exploring to see whether it's for you. It really annoys me when I see people who are either "no slapping" or "no pick".

As if for some reason there are gatekeepers of bassplaying who think you're only allowed to play with index and middle finger and nothing else. /rant

[6feet7]

I came to bass via the guitar so just carried on using a pick. After a couple of years I decided to go to the 'traditional' index/middle finger approach. I now do either depending on the song - fingers for mellower sounds, pick for attack.

[Lozz196]

[quote name='Hobbayne' timestamp='1454264604' post='2968036']
I wanted to sound like Bruce Foxton and JJ Burnell when I started playing. I still use a pick for about 30% of my bands set today.
[/quote]

Same here, though I only use a pick in my band. I have taught myself how to play fingerstyle for playing along to other types of music at home, but band = pick.

[Bilbo]

When I started playing gigs, I was a plectrum player in a heavy metal band. I went off it entirely for about two decades and never used a plectrum on bass, preferring finger style. As I have been playing Jazz on double bass a lot for the last few years, the pick was reserved entirely for guitar. I studied Al DiMeola's picking technique and got pretty sharp on guitar as a result but I never used it on bass. My wife recently bought me one of those ridiculously good Harley Benton seven string basses, however, and, for some reason, I started playing it with a pick straight off the bat. This video was shot the second time I have played it and the first time I had played it through an amp. I find it a interesting concept, a kind of Steve Swallow meets Jim Hall vibe. I have been practicing Bach Cello Suites on it with a pick and it sounds really clean. I am actually enjoying the accurate intonation, having played fretless and, later, double bass pretty much exclusively for decades!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6AHkcNO0bg

[LukeFRC]

I need to play a song tomorrow where the recorded version is played with a pick.
For the life of me I can't get it- either pick or fingers

[chris_b]

We have a very good local band where the bass player uses a pick. He's a great player and makes the bass sounds right. . . . he's Tex Comer ex Ace.