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jason from volo wrote: Thu Aug 12, 2021 8:45 am

Ryan Zepaltas wrote: Thu Aug 12, 2021 8:37 am It totally depends on the song/tone...

I was kinda hoping the general consensus was going to be this, and not "picks suck" or "playing without a pick sucks". When I first started 20+ years ago, it seemed like "the cool kids don't use a pick", but also it seemed like almost all of the punk/rock bands from the '90s that I love have bass players that use one.

Long story short, I'm insecure. I'm getting help for that.

There are many punk and metal players that sound great with fingers. Bobby Vega is funky as hell with a pick, and Steve Swallow is without peer as a jazz bassist… playing pick on electric bass.

Ryan Zepaltas wrote: Thu Aug 12, 2021 8:37 am

Kniferide wrote: Tue Aug 10, 2021 2:15 pm It's kinda as silly as "Guitar Style: Finger Style"

It's a tool of tonal control. Some songs need a pick, some need fingers. It's weird when people draw a line.

Thank you.
This thread had me feeling embarrassed for not using a pick. I've been teaching myself bass so that i can lay down serviceable bass lines on demos. I was so proud that I was avoiding using a pick. It totally depends on the song/tone.

On the recording side (with a pick), there is definitely more consistency on the bass tracks as far as attack and volume go, but I don't love the plinky planky fret sounds I get. When playing with fingers I get quiet spots when I try to do a little fill or something.

When I do play bass in a band, I'd say I'm split about 60-40 finger to pick, and have been known to do both in a single song more than once.

I do both, mostly pick, but the fretting hand does a lot of work to accent and soften and embellish things where it's needed.

I think that's one of the secrets of playing bass: the fretting hand doesn't have to just lock into one note duh duh duh duh (though that's often an excellent option). You can work in slides and octaves and harmonics and other interstitial stuff in a not-overly-fiddly way that fills up the sound and adds character. Then whatever is striking the note doesn't matter so much.

You can get a pretty finger-like sound with a heavy pick if you move well up on the neck.

Finger style on fast stuff leads to a lot of harmonic peeping. Picks are also good for getting crunch without descending into slapping/popping.

What is crap is chords on bass. Once in a while, ok, but like less than once per album.

biscuitdough wrote: Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:28 pm
What is crap is chords on bass. Once in a while, ok, but like less than once per album.

Chords are OK I reckon, but they're almost a second instrument; chopping back and forth from chords to single to chords is very difficult in terms of consistent bass frequency and dynamics; one or the other always sounds weak to me.

I've worked hard on my bass playing over the last couple of years (I'm firstly guitar), but I've still not achieved good finger style. It seems to me that playing fingers gives a delayed percussion since it comes from the string bounce/rattle rather than the finger attack (like plectra give) and this makes (for me) it harder to play in good rhythmic style.

I used to find bass playing incredibley boring, but it turns out that it's just playing in the style of a guitarist that's super boring!

biscuitdough wrote: Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:28 pm What is crap is chords on bass. Once in a while, ok, but like less than once per album.

I myself play chords/intervals pretty frequently but it certainly depends upon the band and song. I don’t approach bass like a guitar but some do and it works great for them. Like Lemmy.

I wasn’t counting arpeggios.

Some people can get away with more power chords than others, and I love plenty of no-guitar bands where the bass pretty much has to play some double stops - although I’m pretty sure any harmony in Lightning Bolt comes from a pedal. When there’s a guitar or keyboard though, it always seems tacky and needless and also doesn’t tend to sound good.

This guy demonstrates my point better than I can articulate:

Acoustic is kind of a different instrument as well. OT: I’m astonished how well he performed that song without the goat lady vocals.

Anyway the pick is a legit approach to the bass. It’s a bass _guitar_ after all.

re bass chords:

-top 2 string 'chords', usually sound pretty good, especially with open strings involved. Go nuts.

-incorporating the A string: things can get a little messier, it's probably better for sweep-y things than full on blarghh. If you are gonna blarghh, straight power chords work better than maj7, dominant7, maj9 chords and whatnot.

-adding low E string. Gets into doom territory. Usually pretty muddy, and even when it isn't (like when my old bandmate started doing it on his recently acquired Travis Bean) it was too dynamically overwhelming to use most of the time. Muting the middle 2 strings is probably the better option if getting the low E involved, and even then it may still overwhelm.