Hello, im kinda new to bass, i've been practicing for 2 weeks more or less, i wanted to start trying some pick, any advice about the technique/type of pick to purchase?

Thank you everyone 🙂

Larger than a typical guitar pick, and fairly thick. I am currently using a .60mm and I think it's on the soft side already.

Since picks are very inexpensive, you can choose some with different thickness and try them all out, half a dozen picks should not cost more than a couple of bucks.

What kind of music are you into? Bass is played with the pick when you want either long fast sequences of the same note (for example 16ths, triplets, shuffle rhythms or 'galloping')  or rapid bursts of notes typically close to each other: this is typical in heavy metal genres. It is also used when you want a 'snappy' sound throughout the whole song, though not as snappy as when using slap'n'pop techniques: example genres might be dark/new wave and grunge. You can find thousands of CDLCs of these!

That said, I personally feel like bass is at its best when played with fingers 🙂 The pick makes faster runs of notes easier, especially if you come from guitar playing, but if you start using it as a shortcut in every song, it'll hamper your progress with fingerstyle.

 

EDIT: I just noticed you posted a request for Litfiba - re del silenzio > I think that's pretty much an example of using a pick with the bass to get what I called a 'snappy' sound (Litfiba was in fact pretty much a new wave band in their early albums)

I like both.  I know there's sort of an elitist thing in regards to picking vs. fingering.  I've tried with fingers, and yes, it takes more coordination, but I think a pick is just as valid.  Couldn't hurt to keep up both skillsets.  I'd also get an actual bass pick vs. a super thick guitar pick.  Just pinch that thing and go for it!

For what its worth -- I bounce between pick and finger depending on the song and how much attack on the notes there are.

Green Day -- for example, a lot of it is picked.

Three Days Grace -- as an example, is more plucked.

 

19 hours ago, warderkeeju said:

For what its worth -- I bounce between pick and finger depending on the song and how much attack on the notes there are.

Green Day -- for example, a lot of it is picked.

Three Days Grace -- as an example, is more plucked.

100% of my bass playing experience comes from rocksmith (only ever played guitar hero before, never a real guitar) and this is what I've found too, it just depends on the song and what sounds best to you, and you might not know until you play through once or twice. Some songs will play "picked" or "fingered" but I've found that's that's more of just a recommendation imo.

Side note, but if you're new at playing bass on rocksmith you might want to decrease the track audio volume to about 20% less than your bass input volume - it will make it a lot easier to tell what is you playing vs whats just part of the song, since I've noticed a lot of CDLC keeps the bass tracks fairly quiet

1 hour ago, Grandpa Seth said:

100% of my bass playing experience comes from rocksmith (only ever played guitar hero before, never a real guitar) and this is what I've found too, it just depends on the song and what sounds best to you, and you might not know until you play through once or twice. Some songs will play "picked" or "fingered" but I've found that's that's more of just a recommendation imo.

Side note, but if you're new at playing bass on rocksmith you might want to decrease the track audio volume to about 20% less than your bass input volume - it will make it a lot easier to tell what is you playing vs whats just part of the song, since I've noticed a lot of CDLC keeps the bass tracks fairly quiet

As am I -- all self taught through Rocksmith for bass.  I also recommend turning down audio track slightly -- I found that running a splitter in line from the bass -> splitter -> RS Cable AND small practice amp -- gives you a better feel from of what you're playing (assuming you don't have much lag from the game itself).

3 hours ago, warderkeeju said:

As am I -- all self taught through Rocksmith for bass.  I also recommend turning down audio track slightly -- I found that running a splitter in line from the bass -> splitter -> RS Cable AND small practice amp -- gives you a better feel from of what you're playing (assuming you don't have much lag from the game itself).

 

That's a great idea!

I had been considering getting an actual amp but didn't want to lose the direct connection to the game, never even thought about using a splitter😅

I'm assuming you haven't noticed any crazy latency or feedback in the amp or anything else negative from doing this?

 

On 1/25/2023 at 4:34 PM, Grandpa Seth said:

That's a great idea!

I had been considering getting an actual amp but didn't want to lose the direct connection to the game, never even thought about using a splitter😅

I'm assuming you haven't noticed any crazy latency or feedback in the amp or anything else negative from doing this?

VERY low latency ... no feedback other than the amp being a pile of crap.

As far as the latency goes -- it really ultimately depends on your PC. (I'm running an overclocked 10900K @ 5.2ghz -- so I have very low latency ANYWAY).

You are missing the specialized tones and such because you're feeding a raw signal to the amp -- but sometimes that's better IMHO when you're trying to work on a difficult section.

Bass is fingers only for me... it´s great practice.

Yup ! like others have said it depends on the song/genre/feel its always good to learn both techniques and sometimes the cdlcs information about it being picked or plucked is right. Any expiramentation is valid (like using a violin  bow for a guitar) as long as it sounds good, it keeps you motivated to play more, your having fun and you are comfortable doing it, then go for it 🙂

As for pick size i wish i could give the mms of my picks but they have all faded (i just use my guitar picks). basically just get ones that are comfortable to you. i suggest not going too thin though cause they will break or bend over time( saying it from expierience, its not the end of the world but just a heads up). Soo if you can bend your pick with your fingers in one hand i suggest its probably better to get a thicker pick cause over time the thick bass strings will damage the pic.