what’s interesting with the wrist on the bass body is that it can easilly bring a very stable anchor point, and that’s very efficient if you want to play fast without string crossing. ideally on only one string.
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Whenever I do floating wrist, my playing becomes a mess. Any tips on how to practice that technique?
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I’m not a 3 finger guy!
I’ll do it to do some metal triplet gallops, but that’s the only place it works for me.
The end of Iron Man is crazy fast.
I use a pick for that shtuff. I like the yellow Tortex (adopted from Bobby Vega) and thicker. Nothing else has the beef for my ears.
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Yeah, I prefer not to do 3 fingers, accept like you said, the occasional triplet, but I don’t know if I will ever get that fast for the end of Iron Man.
Fortunately, there is a slight rest where you could grab a pick and finish the song.
May be what i end up doing.
Not sure, still trying to build speed and see where it goes.
Thanks
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I use the bottom right pick (medium blue, 1.14mm) exclusively when playing with a pick. That isn’t often for me as I prefer plucking even though I play hard rock and Metal majority of the time. But I love the texture and grip of those blue picks, they wear well and stay with me even when sweating during a gig.
Could be better ones out there, but for now these ones just work.
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So, back in my guitar days, i would always rest my palm on the bridge… can’t do that on bass due to saddle screws… so where do you rest your hand when picking on bass?
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Just pour them all straight into the back of the couch 
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Terb, I haven’t been to the introduction page yet, but this might be interesting to you.
I started playing bass around the time of Woodstock.
Back then, all I played was rock, doing it as a 3 piece. Picks were great for rock, especially if you’re doing bass driven music, such as a lot of the three and four piece bands we tried to copy.
I never liked the triangle picks, or any made from that hard tortoise shell material. Too hard against the strings, and too slick and hard to hold also.
I soon discovered Mel Bay picks. Teardrop shape, made from nylon, and with knurled surface on the top half, to grip with better.
I chose the Mel Bay medium, which was green. ( I wish I had some more, but don’t think they’re available anymore)
Now, this is a guitar pick, and I have rather large hands.
The pick is way too flimsy as is, to produce string loud defining notes, so I learned that if I put the point of the pick in the crease of the first finger joint of my middle finger, and the rounded top of the pick on the too of my index finger. I could put enough pressure on the middle of the pick with my thumb, to bend it, making it have tremendous attack, and much easier to hang on to in general. The more thumb pressure, the harder the pick became, meaning you had control that way also.
My most recent band,(23 yrs now) is comprised of two girls doing light rock, light country, gospel, and patriotic stuff. They were a working duo, each using an acoustic and an electric guitar, both singing,(excellent vocal harmonies)with only anelectric drummer.
When I began with them, I knew a pick wasn’t going to work, so I began thumbing.
Now, I can double thumb stuff almost as fast as I could double pick 50 years ago. I would certainly employ that method again if ever needed. I think I might have two Mel Bay mediums left, somewhere.
I thought you might find this interesting.
Guess I’m all thumbs on bass now.
Good luck with your book.
Bill
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I’ve started learning to play with a pick today. I’ve watched a couple of videos on YouTube (and the B2B lesson obviously), and have some questions. Some of them might already have been covered in this thread, haven’t read through everything yet.
- A lot of the videos do alternating picking right from the start, but I’m finding that a bit too much at this stage. I’m having an easier time and getting a more consistent tone with downstrokes only. Am I doing myself a disservice by not doing alternating picking right from the get-go?
- Am I supposed to pick “into the bass” or flat? I think I’m picking into the bass on downstrokes, and away from the bass (lifting the string) on upstrokes.
- Is the pick supposed to be parallel to the string? I always end up holding it at an angle, especially on the high strings.
- Do you ever mute with the picking hand, or is fretting hand muting only?
- I’m getting a lot more buzz with picking than with fingerstyle. Am I picking too hard and/or at the wrong angle, or is low action just not good for picking?
- Any good resources you would recommend on picking? (Videos etc.)
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For me, I would say:
- Sticking with downstrokes to start is fine. They sound great and are fundamental. Move on to alternating later.
- Flat if you can.
- Not quite sure which axis you are talking about here, but I am not sure it matters.
- Absolutely; picking hand muting technique is essential too. Probably more.
- This is normal, you may need to raise your action for a cleaner picking tone. The pick attacks the strings much harder than your fingers.
- Not really, unfortunately. Though it is not really very hard. You’ll get it.
My advice would be to start with a light pick, 0.8mm or so. They are easier to start out with. Then try the heaverier ones to taste. Don’t go below 0.75-0.8 though or it will be harder.
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This one:
Well my next obvious question would be “how the hell”, but I guess that’s not very specific
I’m using 3.0 mm Dunlop triangle stubbies. Is this too much?
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Can you specifically suggest the brand and model for good bass pick?
I tried to use Fender 1.21 mm extra heavy but I am not sure if this is the right pick for bass?
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I would definitely recommend a thinner one to start, 0.8-1.0mm Dunlop Tortex or Ultex. It will be a lot easier.
As for the picking at an angle, you can do that to get a slightly different, kind of shuffling sound. I like it occasionally.
With the picking hand you kind of palm-mute with the side of the hand, a little hard to describe but it becomes instinctive.
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Muting with the picking hand is a thing while playing with a pick. It is called palm muting.
For bass, it is imo not as relevant as it is for guitar.
Basically, you put your palm on the strings very close to the bridge while picking with the pick.
On the bass, it also seems to be harder to get sound good than on guitar. For the beginning, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. There are some riffs out there where it is very essential, though. Most of the stuff from Megadeth comes to mind. David Ellefson is basically the master of palm muting on bass.
I also suck very much at alternate picking still. But it kinda comes along with time automatically.
I also started out with lighter picks. The .73mm Tortex was the first I settled on. I got to that one by getting lots of different thicknesses and shooting them out against each other.
Later on, i reevaluated and liked the .88 mm more. Starting out with a lighter pick is a good start. You might later settle for a thicker one, but not necessarily. Though thinner picks are easier to start out, it doesn’t mean they are “beginner picks”. It is just a preference.
You might even want to change the pick depending on which song you are playing.
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I’ve never had an issue alternating picking, even from when I first started. My problem is remembering that it’s supposed to be down-up-down-up. If I don’t focus, I tend to do up-down-up-down (probably habit from having learned bass with finger plucking which is always up).
At the end of the day, it’s all about how you sound and if you’re keeping the groove.
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Those are actually quite heavy IMO. I have a bunch of those stubbies in 2.0 and I somewhat like them, but they’re still a bit heavy. After trying all different shapes and weights, I finally settled on the Ultex 1.14 as my favorite. I also have a bunch of Tortex 1.14 that I use as well.
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For rock / metal styles I find the Tortex Green .88mm just right for fast picking on Bass.
For really fast lines I go slightly heavier.
I watched a video recently and spotted David Ellefson using the same pick so it can’t be too far wrong. 
I tend to hold the pick slightly angled as it’s less inclined to catch in the strings that way but that may just be a hangover from Guitar.
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Coming from guitar, I used fairly thick Dragon Heart picks. The thinner ones allow more flex and tended to hang up on the string, slowing me down. When picking the bass, same thing happens to a larger degree because of the thickness of the strings. Thicker is better as it relates to speed IMHO. I could not use a thin pick on a bass. It would slow me down quite a bit. I know, I tried and it just did not work. Also, the Dragon Hearts had beveled edges and just glided through the strings. Best pick ever.
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Been there, drawered that.
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