Yeah, this happens but it’s complete bullshit. The list of bass players that use a pick includes some of the most influential and prolific bass players to ever make music.
Whaaaaaat?
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and even more important than that : we do what we want 
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Shit yeah! This really is the most important thing. 
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I just ordered some 1.5 from Amazon. Ummm… they’re for a friend.
Pam (in denial)
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in my opinion it’s a bit too rigid, I prefer the 1.14 but as always it’s a matter of taste/feeling/style 
maybe I’ll (re)try a bit less than 1.14
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For sure, I got a few bass picks recommended a few months ago at Music Go Round, they’re maybe a buck each or less. Just tried them out yesterday. I guess it is personal preference, I found the 1.14mm too thin, I really liked one called Big Stubby at 2.0mm with a thumb indentation (top in pic). Nice and solid. Although, I only seem to like to pick on the thinner strings, the thicker strings seem to call out more for a solid finger pluck. But, again, all personal taste 
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I’ve heard a lot of good things about the Big Stubby. Always comes highly recommended.
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So when do you pick, and when do you not pick? What genres lend themselves to using a pick, and which don’t. It’s such a totally different sound from the low thumping of finger plucking.
Asking for a friend.
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All genres lend themselves to pick, and fingerstyle… it’s really song to song.
I’ve recorded pick bass on a traditional country record, pick bass on an Americana something or other… Bobby Vega plays the funkiest funky pick bass ever (he used a pick when he was subbing for Rocco Prestia in Tower of Power)…
All that Carol Kaye bass work on pop records…
But my favorite pick genres are punk and metal. That agressive, slam the downstroke sound is what my soul needs.
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I’m in love with my Dunlop 1mm Tortex. 1.14 is good too.
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My friend, for whom I ordered the Dunlop 1.5 mm picks, received them today and says she really likes the sound. She asked me if I would ask you guys where she might find the best YouTube video lessons on playing with a pick. Just asking for my friend, of course.
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Actually Josh’s in B2B are almost all you need for a great start. Get good at that and then it’s just variations. Picks are not rocket science. IIRC the main thing Josh doesn’t teach there is up/down picking (i.e. guitar style) which is not hard to just figure out.
@terb thanks to this thread, I have really become hooked on pick playing. I’ve acquired a collection of really nice picks, and have been practicing all the basslines and riffs that I had been working on with my fingers, but with a pick. I really like the tone, and find that I easily adapt from finger plucking to pick playing.
Pro: Now I can let my nails grow back instead of keeping them trimmed down to the nub.
Con: Muting is a bit of a challenge as I don’t have my floating thumb to mute the strings. But, I’ll figure it out.
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I’m pretty happy to read that Pam !
yeah that’s a good thing to do ! a pretty cheap collection in fact 
me too 
here I’d say that … it depends. for me (guitar player) it’s easy, yes, but I’m not sure it is for every bass player. also there is the up/down picking technique, which is something pretty unique. it’s somewhat the pick equivalent of finger alternating, it requires some work to really get the thing.
but yeah again that’s great to read that, maybe you have a good feeling with a pick and that’s perfectly fine !
sure, it is. but I can say it becomes really natural. taking myself as an example, I never think about that, and I always play with a way (way way) more noise-sensitive tone than almost everybody ; think high gain + a lot of trebles + round wound strings.
Muting everytime with every part of any finger you have is some kind of key, I know it’s not easy at all at first, but it really becomes a very natural thing. it’s like, you don’t really have a choice here : you need to mute, so you will.
my advice here would be : don’t be rude with yourself, the muting technique takes a lot of time, so, yeah, you will have some noises, but it will get better and better and finally you will gain this mighty ability to mute perfectly every string that needs to be muted, without thinking about it one second. I swear.
I realize it can sound like magic but, really, you will have this ability.
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@terb you say you play exclusively with a pick. Never with your fingers? Never ever? That’s okay if you don’t, I know of many a great bass player who only play with a pick. Carole Kaye comes to mind.
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not exclusively, but maybe 95%
I like the tone and feeling I have with a pick, so, yeah, I play mostly this way. but I also can like sometimes the more “muted”/organic tone with bare fingers, and you can see me playing with a proper alternating finger technique on one cover (The Steel Woods - Axe)
I’d say that the pick is really more natural to me and it sounds overall better for the music I make, so, yeah, I play mostly with a pick. but I have nothing against bare finger playing and I do it sometimes.
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… also I did all the B2B course with bare fingers, as Josh teaches !
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A blast from the past…
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yeah my opinion is that it would be a good thing to do all the B2B course with bare fingers, it won’t make you an insanely fast finger player or what, but it gives you the basics and that’s the purpose of this course, I think.
when you’re graduated, and I know you are it’s your own job to develop your playing in the direction you want.
and here we’re in the “there’s no good or bad choice” zone. I’m a big Iron Maiden / Steve Harris fan (talking about the two first albums), and Harris plays with bare fingers on flat wound strings. I’m not a big fan of flat wounds, and I can’t ever imagine playing at this speed without a pick. but Harris does this way, that’s fine, it’s his thing and he does it extremely well.
also I could talk about Bobby Vega who does not play in a musical style I like much, but still, I love this guy : he just doesn’t care about “what makes a real bass player” or what, he does his thing and he does it extremely well. he likes to play with a pick for funk bass lines, and it sounds killer at the end. that’s it.
just do what you want, play the way you like, develop your own tone, your own style (your own lines) ; all of this being very much affected by playing with a pick or with fingers so it’s a true artistic choice here. no one can judge you, and if someone ever tells you that a real bass player doesn’t use a pick, you can just say that it’s just pure bullshit. do your music the way you want. not much more to say 
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I love that statement. thank you @terb
I wish my high school music teacher/band director would have understood that concept before he threw me out of the band.
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