fingerstyle vs. picking

[Emthrax]

Re: fingerstyle vs. picking

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Holding a pick feels like I have feet where my hands are.

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[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
NICE analogy! Haha! That cracks me up. [img]/images/graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img]

[Ninja Guitar]

Re: fingerstyle vs. picking

I only play bass fingerstyle. Along with playing metal, I also play a lot of classical guitar, and I find it pretty easy to transition my classical style right over to the bass. Playing bass with fingers is just more fun to me.

[SeventhSon]

Re: fingerstyle vs. picking

Thanks, everyone! I think the best advice I've read is to do whatever the hell I feel like doing. As always, there are no rules...or if there are, they're meant to be broken!

[Newc]

Re: fingerstyle vs. picking

When someone asks you why you play with a pick, answer "because I can", then flip them off. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Or just point at your pecker as you give them a deadpan stare [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Emthrax]

Re: fingerstyle vs. picking

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When someone asks you why you play with a pick, answer "because I can", then flip them off. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]


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[img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/notworthy.gif[/img]
Newc, that is awesome.

[Ace]

Re: fingerstyle vs. picking

Almost all my favorite death metal bass players use their fingers. Alex Webster, Ben Marlin, etc... play just as fast fingerstyle as anyone out there can with a pick.

[Endrik]

Re: fingerstyle vs. picking

Personally I dig the fingerstyle because pick attack on bass strings annoys me.

[DestroyYouAlot]

Re: fingerstyle vs. picking

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Mike Gordon, bassist of the now-defunct Phish, was a proficient six string finger player who actually switched from fingerstyle with roundwound strings to using a pick with flatwounds. He's probably the only bassist in the world who does that!

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Actually, Lemmy of Motorhead plays with a pick on flatwound strings - through a Marsall stack, of all things!

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I have played regular guitar for over 15 years, so I know how to use a pick. I actually grabbed one the other night and tried it on bass, and it just didn't feel right. But that's OK; I'm not playing punk or death metal.


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I think you'd find more death metal bassists playing with their fingers than not, to be honest. But to find a punk bass player using his fingers is a bit of a rarity - it's a lot more work to get to where you can get the speed and attack with your fingers that you can with a pick, especially if you didn't start that way. I'd say some of the best pick-players come from punk, really - Matt Freeman of Operation Ivy, lately of Rancid, is a maniac (and a jazz theory guy, too. Kelly from Defiance is/was amazing.

But, in the long run, I've found I can play faster and meaner than most pickstyle players, including myself - I switched to fingers after 11 years, and never looked back. Two years later, I'm miles ahead of where I was with a pick. I still listen to and respect plenty of pickstyle players, although it's hard not to get snobby now that I'm on the "other side".

I play all kinds of different stuff, hardcore punk, thrash metal, black metal, progressive/weird/un-genre-able metal, with and without distortion mixed into the sound. One of the things that's helped me the most was playing with my punk band from five years back, playing all the (insanely fast and fill-heavy) stuff that I wrote with a pick, with my fingers. It took a while to be able to control the sound with distortion, but the attack I get now is killer.

Oh, and one last thing: Alex Webster. The goddamn man. The live version of "Hammer Smashed Face" makes me wanna quit. Seriously. [img]/images/graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

[DestroyYouAlot]

Re: fingerstyle vs. picking

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Personally I dig the fingerstyle because pick attack on bass strings annoys me.

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That's hella hard to control. Funny, I used to have to deal with that, now it's the string clacking when I'm playing fast. The grass is always greener, no? Oh well, that's why they gave me a tone knob.

[AlexL]

Re: fingerstyle vs. picking

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Mike Gordon, bassist of the now-defunct Phish, was a proficient six string finger player who actually switched from fingerstyle with roundwound strings to using a pick with flatwounds. He's probably the only bassist in the world who does that!

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Actually, Lemmy of Motorhead plays with a pick on flatwound strings - through a Marsall stack, of all things!



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Specifically, I meant a six-string bassist using flatwounds and a pick. I think you'll find that the greater the number of strings on the bass, the less likely the pilot is using a pick. I don't think I've ever seen a bassist with a six string using one.


- E.

[DestroyYouAlot]

Re: fingerstyle vs. picking

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Specifically, I meant a six-string bassist using flatwounds and a pick. I think you'll find that the greater the number of strings on the bass, the less likely the pilot is using a pick. I don't think I've ever seen a bassist with a six string using one.


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Ahhh, I see - Yeah, good point. I've certainly seen it done, but not by anyone you'd care to emulate. Although I had the hankering for a 5 or 6 when I played pick. Knowing the way money goes for me, I have a feeling that the first six-string I own will be the first one I build - I'm planning on learning to be a "real" luthier, and a decent six is damn expensive.

[pro-fusion]

Re: fingerstyle vs. picking

[ QUOTE ]
Specifically, I meant a six-string bassist using flatwounds and a pick. I think you'll find that the greater the number of strings on the bass, the less likely the pilot is using a pick. I don't think I've ever seen a bassist with a six string using one.

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Anthony Jackson, who played bass for Al DiMeola back in the '70s, was a six-stringer who used a pick. Damn good bassist, too. He played the most amazing lines that were almost as complex as what DiMeola was playing on the top--and yet it all worked. I don't know what he's doing nowadays, though.