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My bass player uses a pic


fuzzball

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Surely, the music should dictate how your bassplayer plays. I use a pick, for pop and rock, ala Beatles and Cheap Trick.

 

But when we play a ballad, I use my thumb to get a warmer, smoother tone. Actually, using my thumb gets more volume, or "boom."

 

But for an upbeat rock tune, I'd NEVER use my fingers! Not even when recording!! A pick ALL the way!

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One thought, how good is he at playing fingerstyle?

 

If he is someone that plays with a pick the vast majority of the time, he might not be as practised and fluid with his fingers. So he might not be able to nail the rhythm and feel of the songs as he can with a pick

 

I know when I play, I have a different approach with each style, some songs I play with pick, some with fingers, and playing a song I am used to playing with a pick with my fingers ends up with quite a different feel and groove to it.

 

David

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Does he not have a good technique when using fingers? I mean, some people use picks exclusively so they have no "touch" with their fingers.

 

As someone mentioned above, consider felt picks. I've also put hot glue on a pick and used that to get a finger tone. I rarely use a pick, but when I do I use the picks I made with the hot glue. I can attack the strings as needed using the pick (super fast notes or a lot of string skipping) but still get a finger-ish type tone.

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Some valid points posted above............he may not be up to scratch with finger style and may feel that his takes will suck if forced to do so.

He may need time to work on the finger style, but also as the compromise you should do the 2 take thing (finger take and pick take) and see which sounds better.

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I talked to him and we tried finger style, and with his standard pics. He found that he did not like the sound with his usual either. We also found out that he was not consistant enough with finger style.

 

Felt picks was the perfect solution!

 

Thanks guys this was a big help.

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The post makes no sense to me at all. If your bass player normally uses a pick to include when playing live at clubs etc, then there is absolutely no reason of any kind to have him change his sound for recording. If the sound he gets useing a pick works well with the music in the mix then dont cheat your fans by changing the bands sound for recordings. Itd be the same as if you decided your guitar player shoudl not use a pick for recording either. Which of course changes the guitarists sound. Why would one want to change the guitars sound for recordings? Smart band doesnt. Smart band aims to give fans cds whose sound is like the bands live sound thru top notch sound system. If your micing the bass amp speakers instead of going direct, either get better mics that dont have ugly notch in upper treble that over accents picks sound. Or better yet use bass players direct to Pa mixer output for recording it. Makes no sense at all to me why one wouldnt mind sound of bass played with pick "as long as it isnt recorded". Makes no sense at all.

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Makes no sense at all.

 

Agreed.

 

Coincidently, despite not previously posting in this thread, other forumites have e-mailed and PMed me throughout the course of the day providing a number of possible explanations about why this thread makes no sense. Many of the explanations have been pretty funny, but most are serious and come to the exact same conclusion. :D

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The post makes no sense to me at all. If your bass player normally uses a pick to include when playing live at clubs etc, then there is absolutely no reason of any kind to have him change his sound for recording. If the sound he gets useing a pick works well with the music in the mix then dont cheat your fans by changing the bands sound for recordings. Itd be the same as if you decided your guitar player shoudl not use a pick for recording either. Which of course changes the guitarists sound. Why would one want to change the guitars sound for recordings? l.

 

It's called "production". :rolleyes:

 

There's nothing sacred or holy about pop music. Do you honestly think changing something up to make a recording work is tatamount to cheating the fans ?

 

Bull{censored}.

 

If the guy can't play fingerstyle, so be it. I do all kinds of stuff in the studio that I wouldn't do live.

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It's called "production".
:rolleyes:

There's nothing sacred or holy about pop music. Do you honestly think changing something up to make a recording work is tatamount to
cheating the fans
?


Bull{censored}.


If the guy can't play fingerstyle, so be it. I do all kinds of stuff in the studio that I wouldn't do live.

+1. If I wanted to see a band play the songs verbatim, I can just by a CD. It's a lot cheaper than buying concert tickets. I would rather be entertained.

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