It's been in recent weeks I've been investigating a new tone. I'm a strong believer in not using a pick as a bass player. Now keep in mind, I love so many tones that use a pick. Many of the old school and modern punk bands, metal, classic rock. I started on my fingers and was determined to get my speed that way. I feel I've achieved that and of course I will continue to keep it in shape and develop. I came up with the impression at first that folks used a pick to develop speed easier. To me that seemed as a weakness. On that account, I worked very hard on my right hand to gain speed and articulation playing finger style early on. It of course is an on going mission. In fact, I still do and will encourage my students to develop a finger style first and foremost. As time passed on, I still heard tones I loved that used picks. In fact, I've spent much of my focus time wise competing with pick tones. After all, I spent all the time working my right hand finger technique. Beyond that, I would get compliments on the speed I could acquire with my finger style. I've used different pedals, compressors, muting techniques, plucking positions, etc. Now I'm facing a new project where I just may have to use a pick. In this case it's not about speed, it's about tone and vibe, nothing more, nothing less. Sure I could tweak pedals for days and get a fairly competent tone. I know in my heart of hearts the music isn't too fast that I can probably take some practice time and use a pick. So that's what I'm going to do! I will use finger style for this project as well but it's apparent that if I want it to sound as authentic as possible, I'll have to get over my ego and years of investment in finger technique and break out a heavy pick. I love the prospect though. I don't anticipate being a huge advocate for pick playing as a bass player but I'm excited about a new challenge for sure.
There's a link in this blog that has a small demo of me playing fingerstyle but getting a bit of that plunky pick tone. It was a demo for a students to study the Oingo Boingo song "Elevator Man". Because it was just for reference, I simply plugged my P-Bass into a SansAmp VT Bass pedal and then into the computer.. You can hear even as a fingerstyle player with the right technique you can get a pretty good sounding pick tone.
Now keep in mind, if it were a personal project it's just not my interest to play with a plectrum. As years have passed, my attitude towards the betterment of the project has become more important than exposing the fruits of my labor as a player.
Evolving as a player is not just about theory and groove. We have to make sure we continue to evolve as team players, bandmates, product producers. It's equally important.
It's plunky time!
Elevator Man (bass sample)
There's a link in this blog that has a small demo of me playing fingerstyle but getting a bit of that plunky pick tone. It was a demo for a students to study the Oingo Boingo song "Elevator Man". Because it was just for reference, I simply plugged my P-Bass into a SansAmp VT Bass pedal and then into the computer.. You can hear even as a fingerstyle player with the right technique you can get a pretty good sounding pick tone.
Now keep in mind, if it were a personal project it's just not my interest to play with a plectrum. As years have passed, my attitude towards the betterment of the project has become more important than exposing the fruits of my labor as a player.
Evolving as a player is not just about theory and groove. We have to make sure we continue to evolve as team players, bandmates, product producers. It's equally important.
It's plunky time!
