Pick or fingers?

DavidRees

like it says in the title really. I am playing bass guitar again after a great many years and am currently doing a bit of both before I get closer to deciding what music I'm going to play and how. Fingers seem the preferred default option but then I think about the magic created by Paul M and Carol K and the pick has its attractions ...any comments/views out there...

octatonic

Learn both and then decide.

It is such a personal thing and you won't know until you suck it and see.

Phil_aka_Pip

I'd play bass with my fingers by preference but I also like to keep my nails just long enough to fingerpick a guitar, and playing bass with my fingers tears the nails apart. So I use a Jazz-III pick. 

octatonic

I fingerpick with no nail, mostly flesh- hybrid style and play bass with fingers. OP- see what I mean, it is highly personal.

mike257

Learn both and play whichever gives the most appropriate sound for the song you're currently playing. Both equally valid and useful techniques that have a different tonal character to one another.

Bucket

^That.

I flit between them, and I find it very useful to be able to do both.

monquixote

I do both. 

Some songs don't sound right or are really hard to play if you don't use the right one so it's a must have skill to do both if you are in a covers band. 

ICBM

I'd like to be able to play with a pick since some of my favourite bass sounds were done with them, but (as with guitar) I find it awkward and always end up with just fingers. I can get a reasonable approximation of the sound if I attack the string hard with a bit of nail involved, it's close enough.

Bridge pickup and a bit more treble and mid on the amp helps.

axisus

Can't get on with plecs on a bass. I use fingers, appalling slap technique, and 'chucking', which is the weird thing where you play as with a plectrum .... but without one.

UnclePsychosis

Both.

I like to use really thick---3mm---plectrums on bass. Anything else is just wrong. 

ICBM

axisus said:

Can't get on with plecs on a bass. I use fingers, appalling slap technique, and 'chucking', which is the weird thing where you play as with a plectrum .... but without one.

That perfectly describes how I play bass as well . Never seen it called that before...

Cirrus

In an ideal world you'd do whichever worked for the song's arrangement. There's a quality to the attack with a pick that you just can't get with fingers, a definition in the upper mids that pushes the bass forward in the mix.

In practice, you want the bass player to be as comfortable as possible so they perform well so you go with whatever works.

frankus

just fingers... increasingly this way with guitar too..

chrispy108

As others, both, depending on the song.

Don't agree with the thick pick though, I prefer about 1mm, same as I use on guitar.

I tried a load, but I find a thicker pick harder work.

IanSavage

Both, depending on what the song demands; my major influences (Duff, Lynott, Freeman) tend to use picks, but I'd not want to do anything fretless or with a more 'soulful' sound with one. And you simply can't get a good Iron Maiden-esque 'gallop' with a pick. 

axisus

ICBM said:

axisus said:

Can't get on with plecs on a bass. I use fingers, appalling slap technique, and 'chucking', which is the weird thing where you play as with a plectrum .... but without one.

That perfectly describes how I play bass as well . Never seen it called that before...

I only heard the name a couple of years ago in an article about Bernard Edward's bass playing. I didn't realise that anyone else did it! I play guitar like that as well.

ICBM

axisus said:

I only heard the name a couple of years ago in an article about Bernard Edward's bass playing. I didn't realise that anyone else did it! I play guitar like that as well.

Same here.

Anything I do being mentioned in the same breath as Bernard Edwards is rather impressive...

DavidRees

BTW, I forgot to say thank you to everyone for your contributions, so thank you. David

fretmeister

I massively prefer fingers and I'm much more competent that way, but some tunes do need a pick. But I'm crap with one. And I never seem to have any.

Mosfed

I use both.  But I am much better with a pick as I am converted guitar player and bass finger styles are very different to guitar ones.

SO I try to force myself to use my fingers more and more.  Each one has it's tonal variations and advantages.

Ramirez

About equal between fingers, thumb (not slap though - I just can't) and a pick (brass) here.