Unpacking my pick

[johnnylager]

[quote name='acidbass' post='374737' date='Jan 9 2009, 03:37 AM']Is there a chance that it may dampen the string a bit though? Normally I wedge my pick between the body and the scratchplate a la JE and others, along the top edge - always comes in handy![/quote]
There is a handy 0.88mm gap between the bridge pup & the rout on me Spector...

[quote name='Clarky' post='374747' date='Jan 9 2009, 07:15 AM']The music my punk band plays dictates that I use a pick - I find a sustained passage of 16th notes impossible with fingers. Lord knows how Steve Harris does it[/quote]
Drugs.

[WHUFC BASS]

Franco Rocco Prestia managed to lay down 16th Note basslines with his fingers effortlesly. I think its just practice.

[Clarky]

[quote name='WHUFC BASS' post='374796' date='Jan 9 2009, 09:25 AM']Franco Rocco Prestia managed to lay down 16th Note basslines with his fingers effortlesly. I think its just practice.[/quote]
I do practice most days - I'm just cr@p

[bremen]

[quote name='joe_bass' post='373044' date='Jan 7 2009, 01:37 PM']


Never play with a pick, same reason as Ste, bad cramps after about 10 minutes or so.[/quote]

I have the same problem. Could be we're gripping too tightly?

[WalMan]

I came to bass 30+ years ago having taught myself guitar and spent my first 15 years on bass always using a pick because it sounded right for the punky / rocky stuff we were doing, and because I never spent enough time or had the inclination to work on using fingers.

Then the band changed and we started doing a more bluesy set. Fingerstyle felt & and sounded better for that. I dug in, got a lot better using 3 or four fingers and stuck exclusively to that style until we changed the set to do more rock covers.

I have now switched back virtually exclusively to a pick (3mm big Dunlop Stubby if you care) because again it just sounds so much better for the stuff we are doing, and also because my picking hand is twisting with arthritis so middle, ring & pinky get tied up quite easily. I may occasionally switch to fingers and/or thumb for a slow song for the tone, but not often.

It's easy to throw out Steve Harris or Billy Sheehan as examples of players who do rock fingerstyle, but at the end of the day, as others have said, it is what feels and sounds best in the context of the material [u][i]you[/i][/u] are doing. Getting snooty about using a pick is just b0110x.

[Davemarks]

some thoughts on pick related issues. I get some mad comments back on youtube.

'picks are for chicks.'

that's a favourite....

[url="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ogkw-uR_wIs"]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ogkw-uR_wIs[/url]

[skankdelvar]

[quote name='bremen' post='374866' date='Jan 9 2009, 10:30 AM']I have the same problem. Could be we're gripping too tightly?[/quote]

Could be. Have you tried a bigger pick with a surface area large enough to use thumb and [i]two[/i] fingers. Less 'grip' required.

I reg use a pick but if I've ever had any time off from playing, my hand cramps up about 10 mins in, partic if it's a gig and the adrenaline's flowing a bit. If you stick at it, with sensible breaks to let pain subside, it'll sort itself after a while.