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Plectrum Or Fingers


Mlucas

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7 hours ago, Andy S said:

thumb and two fingers is feeling most comfortable to me at the moment.

Need to get my left hand working now :dash1:

Haha one step at a time dude! Get your right working nice and steady, playing open strings, then work into your fretting patterns. Working in groups of four, one finger per fret, was where I started with that, just trying to get everything consistent. When it does your head in, have a five minute breather and try again. A little brain rest does wonders while you're practicing, information overload is a real thing!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fingers for more than 30 years but the knuckle in my index finger is playing up so i'm trying to play with a pick, not easy to recreate some of the lines that I've played for years, hopefully practice will improve things. Picks crossed err i mean fingers crossed.

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On 06/03/2018 at 15:05, Andy S said:

Thanks NickD and Musicbassman,

As I said I am a complete novice so some of my questions will be very fundemantal.

 

Regards to all

 

Andy

 

Welcome Andy.

Don't worry.  There are lots of folk here who are sat on their fundament most of the time.  Ask freely.

I agree with what's been said about looking at your influences for guidance.  Try as many different influences as you like.  The less obvious ones can have surprising results I find.

Above all, enjoy your journey of discovery.

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 Bit of a long, self indulgant story but I had an accident when I was 18 which took the end off my right index finger. At the time I played slap, finger and pick depending on the material. The accident forced me to play exclusively with a pick for years, which fortunately I could still do after a bit of recovery time. 

As a result, without trying to brag, the fact that I have been forced to concentrate on one style, and the determination to get over an injury,  my pick technique is very good, to the point where it has been mentioned specifically in a review (in terms of speed and  complexity etc). Having to concentrate on one style has definately made that aspect of my playing better. 

I do keep trying to play fingerstyle every now and again, especially with my changing musical taste and wanting to get mellower tones etc. Its hard work but Im finally getting sonewhere just lately I think. 

For me its doubly annoying when you get 'pick snobs', that's for sure. 

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1 hour ago, Horrorhiker said:

 Bit of a long, self indulgant story but I had an accident when I was 18 which took the end off my right index finger. At the time I played slap, finger and pick depending on the material. The accident forced me to play exclusively with a pick for years, which fortunately I could still do after a bit of recovery time. 

As a result, without trying to brag, the fact that I have been forced to concentrate on one style, and the determination to get over an injury,  my pick technique is very good, to the point where it has been mentioned specifically in a review (in terms of speed and  complexity etc). Having to concentrate on one style has definately made that aspect of my playing better. 

I do keep trying to play fingerstyle every now and again, especially with my changing musical taste and wanting to get mellower tones etc. Its hard work but Im finally getting sonewhere just lately I think. 

For me its doubly annoying when you get 'pick snobs', that's for sure. 

Understandable.

It's still annoying if you do both anyway.  I never understood those who have an us and them mentality.

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1 hour ago, Horrorhiker said:

 Bit of a long, self indulgant story but I had an accident when I was 18 which took the end off my right index finger. At the time I played slap, finger and pick depending on the material. The accident forced me to play exclusively with a pick for years, which fortunately I could still do after a bit of recovery time. 

As a result, without trying to brag, the fact that I have been forced to concentrate on one style, and the determination to get over an injury,  my pick technique is very good, to the point where it has been mentioned specifically in a review (in terms of speed and  complexity etc). Having to concentrate on one style has definately made that aspect of my playing better. 

I do keep trying to play fingerstyle every now and again, especially with my changing musical taste and wanting to get mellower tones etc. Its hard work but Im finally getting sonewhere just lately I think. 

For me its doubly annoying when you get 'pick snobs', that's for sure. 

Sounds like a good reason to take up double thumbing.  :)

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After 25 odd years of using these   https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jim-Dunlop-Tortex-Guitar-Plectrums/dp/B001DZTNS6 on guitar and ,when required, on bass, a couple of months ago I bought a pack of these.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plectrum-Dava-Grip-Tip-Pack/dp/B00154OJOI/ref=sr_1_1?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1521634438&sr=1-1&keywords=dava+guitar+picks+purple

I used to think Dunlop tortex were pretty much the last word in grippyness without resorting to the ultra thick picks with thumb indents, but the Davas are in a different league.

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Fingers for me, simply because I'm too clumsy to use a pick with any degree of skill and end up struggling with muting (and more basic things like hitting the right string!).

I do however use a pick when the song demands it and generally like the more aggressive attack.

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  • 1 month later...

When I first picked up the bass I played only fingetstyle, I’m not sure why, it just felt natural, and over time I developed a fairly decent finger technique and never touched a pick. I started using a pick in my band on songs that dictated it, but there were some songs that originally were ‘pick’ songs that I still preferred to play fingerstyle. Over the last few year or so though I’ve gone from using a pick on just a handful of songs in the set to using a pick for 75% of the set, and I’m enjoying it so much I’m thinking of going 100% pick, I’ve tried it in rehearsals and it sounded and felt good.

It can depend on equipment too. Owing to the position of the pickups on my Jazz and Stingray I have a convenient anchor point for my thumb near the bridge which is comfortable for finger playing, but my new 51 Precision copy doesn’t have that so it feels like more of a pick bass (I don’t want to install a thumb rest). I’m interested in the thumb plucking technique that Sting employs on his similar bass - does anyone here use that technique?

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Fingers - for 90% of songs.

Pick - where either:

(i) a very precise bass beat is needed (e.g. MJ 'Way you make me feel') which I often combine with palm muting, or

(ii) if a drive pedal is being used - a pick generally gets a much less muddy response from drive pedals than fingers.

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21 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Fingers - for 90% of songs.

Pick - where either:

(i) a very precise bass beat is needed (e.g. MJ 'Way you make me feel') which I often combine with palm muting, or

(ii) if a drive pedal is being used - a pick generally gets a much less muddy response from drive pedals than fingers.

That second point is one I would not have realised until I get into pedals.  They tell me it's inevitable even though I'm not into them yet.

I reckon that belongs in the top tips/hacks thread.

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Whatever you're comfortable with, suspect this might be controversial, but it doesn't matter (unless you're a slapper :)), I've seen bass players change from pick to fingers mid gig I it didn't make any perceivable difference to their sound, being a punk bass player I'm firmly in the pick camp, with eqing a pick can sound like fingers, listen to Macca 

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I am a pick player (of no great repute) forced by an old injury to my index finger knuckle which means it’s just hurts to play, i I don’t fancy wearing my joint out earlier than it has to!

But I have found this, I do the odd finger style, and sometimes songs just need it, and it’s difficult deadening the ring of strings just with a pick, so learning to mute with your palm and other hand helps. I do ‘cheat’ sometimes with a fret wrap to help me.

The other thing I have discovered are Dava picks.

https://www.davapick.com/

Firstly they are super comfortable to grip, don’t slip with sweaty fingers, but rotate it and use the rubber part instead of the sharp pick end and it gives a very very good dead sound so with the tone rolled off you are in finger Motown territory - they are fully worth a try IMHO

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When I first started, all the books were espousing fingerstyle and never really talked about using a pick. Tried using my fingers, but became frustrated with it, then learned how to use a pick. Using a pick also helped when I started joining bands, because the finger playing speed just wasn't there. A pick seemed natural & easy, so I kept on playing.

Many moons later, after spending some time away from the bass as my main instrument (only really using it for recording songs etc.), I started to play bass a bit more, and decided to re-learn fingerstyle, more because most of my bass playing "heroes" used their fingers instead of picks. It started off slowly, but after watching videos of these players on how they played, I tried a few different things, and it all started to gel quite nicely, this was about 10 years ago, haven't looked back since & glad I spent the time to work on it. The speed is up, the fingertips are tough, can't imagine going back to using a pick.

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@Japhet keep going bro.

Carole Kaye, Glenn Hughes, Dave Ellefson, dUg Pinnick, chris squire, Jason newstead, duff mckagan , mike Dirnt, Joe Osborne, Anthony jackson to name a few

 

surely some of them can inspire, and also get near to?!

Bobby is mint BTW

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1 hour ago, Cuzzie said:

I am a pick player (of no great repute) forced by an old injury to my index finger knuckle which means it’s just hurts to play, i I don’t fancy wearing my joint out earlier than it has to!

But I have found this, I do the odd finger style, and sometimes songs just need it, and it’s difficult deadening the ring of strings just with a pick, so learning to mute with your palm and other hand helps. I do ‘cheat’ sometimes with a fret wrap to help me.

The other thing I have discovered are Dava picks.

https://www.davapick.com/

Firstly they are super comfortable to grip, don’t slip with sweaty fingers, but rotate it and use the rubber part instead of the sharp pick end and it gives a very very good dead sound so with the tone rolled off you are in finger Motown territory - they are fully worth a try IMHO

Do you use the "rock control" version for bass playing?

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Hmm, ive never thought about using different picks for different songs. Might have to look in to that. Thanks for the Dava lnk @Cuzzie. ill get some ordered and give them a go.

Ive realised my 'issue' with my pick tone comes from me being lazy and always resting my hand on the bridge. This of course gives me a thinner tone. Useful sometime,s but i need to learn how to play without resting my hand on anything.

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On 3/7/2018 at 10:29, NickD said:

I've gravitated to a weird hybrid. I play some 2 and 3 fingerstyle but spend an awful lot of time muting on the bridge while playing with my thumb, or with my thumb and first 2 fingers like a classical guitar style. Sometimes I use my thumb like a pick too,

No pick for me, but weird thumb/fingerstyle hybrid for me too, except I always play up by the neck - there's a noticeably worn area there on my Wal! So I use thumb-as-pick, or slap, or 2-3 fingers - often all 3 randomly within a song as if my right hand has a mind of its own...

Bit like this:

MV5BMTY2Zjk4YTMtZWZlOC00MmY0LTkxZDUtMjVj

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@dave_bass5 no worries.

The hard contact surface is quite small, but actually it leads to an interesting sound and it depends on how you hold your pick.

If you catch it clean, it’s a clean sound, but if you catch rubber and plastic, it’s slightly different in a pleasing way.

Also I stay near the bridge, my arm prefers lying straighter so it’s a natural gravitation, I love the bark of a slight bridge accentuated tone, and higher tension in the strings to batter

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