Yeah, I know, there are a whole crop of bass players out there who are very anti-pick (or plectrum, if you prefer). If you’re one of those, don’t do one of those “real bass players don’t use picks” things. Some players use picks and it’s not a sin to do so.<\/p>\n
Picks are made from 1 of 6 different materials. Wood, glass, plastic, metal, animal shell or animal tusk. <\/p>\n
Animal shell and tusk are obviously not available anymore new (not legally, anyway) due to the method of how the material to make them is acquired. The most popular animal shell for picks was tortoiseshell, and tusk was from rhino, elephants or seal. The modern variants of those in plastic form are “ivoroid” for tusk and for the tortoise shell feel the Jim Dunlop Ultex series is the closest match to that, although delrex was the original replacement for tortoiseshell. More on that in a moment.<\/p>\n
Wooden picks are used when you absolutely do not want to hear the pick at all, or barely hear it. Typically, wooden picks are best suited for acoustic instruments. So if you’ve got an acoustic bass and use a pick, using a wooden pick is a great way to hear more string and (much) less pick.<\/p>\n
The reason a wooden pick is so silent is because it’s what most closely resembles a human finger. Thick, very round, very smooth and “rolls” off the string very similar to how a human finger would. Not too much striking noise heard here.<\/p>\n
A glass pick doesn’t really have too much of a place in the bass world unless you’re a speed picker that periodically plays piccolo strings. Glass picks are heavy by nature, and that extra weight allows you to ‘throw it around’ more, resulting in more speed…<\/p>\n
…but then again, how often does a song require a speed-picked bass? Well, if that’s what you want, glass works. And yes, glass does have the nasty tendency of creating unwanted harmonics just like metal picks do.<\/p>\n
This pick wrecks bass strings faster than any other and takes a while to get used to because it basically acts as a fret when you strike strings with it where it can create nasty harmonics.<\/p>\n
The only bass guys who use metal picks are those who like a pick that is as thin as possible, have some weight to it and be absolutely unbendable. <\/p>\n
Most metal picks are made from stainless steel or aluminum. Fender does make a stainless steel “351” with textured ridges for those interested in it, and comes in varying thicknesses.<\/p>\n
Again however, I will remind that steel picks are total string-wreckers. If you want your strings to last, don’t use steel picks on them.<\/p>\n
It’s here where we get the most variety of picks, which can basically be boiled down to three major material categories:<\/p>\n
Yes, there are other variants for plastics, but the vast majority out there are one of the three materials and are the most generally available.<\/p>\n
Celluloid<\/strong><\/p>\n Your standard smooth pick. Were you to describe the striking sound in words, it’s either “pow” or “clow”. Lots of pick noise can be heard when using celluloid whether played bridge-side, middle or neck-side.<\/p>\n Delrin (a.k.a. Acetal or Polyoxymethylene)<\/strong><\/p>\n A DuPont material, and the most popular delrin-material pick is the Dunlop Tortex. It’s textured and can endure flex much better than celluloid can without snapping\/breaking. Pick noise is greatly reduced when using delrin, and the texture makes it a lot easier to keep your grip even if your fingers sweat a lot. <\/p>\n The striking sound heard here is a “th-pow”. The “th..” noise is the scrape, then “pow” after the string is struck.<\/p>\n The tradeoff to using delrin is the scrape noise. <\/p>\n Celluloid = more pick noise, less scrape. Delrin = less pick noise, more scrape.<\/p>\n Delrex<\/strong><\/p>\n This material was created to replace tortoiseshell after it was banned in the 1970s. It’s also a DuPont material in the respect it’s delrin with a different surfacing, and again the most-known is by Dunlop with the “Gator Grip”, which has a decidedly “chalky” look to it. <\/p>\n If you sweat to no end where even delrin slips out of your fingers, you step up to delrex. <\/p>\n Delrex basically has the same tone as delrin as far as pick strike is concerned, but with one oddity. Delrex material to some fingertips may cause soreness. If you’ve never played a delrex-material pick before, it’s totally normal if you feel a slight soreness\/burning senstation on the fingertips, due to the coarse delrex rubbing against your fingertips while playing. Yes, you will eventually get used to it, but encountering soreness at first when using delrex is totally normal – that is unless your fingertips are so calloused already that it would take a hacksaw to get through them. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Spikes and holes<\/strong><\/p>\n To promote better finger grip, some plastic picks will use spikes or holes to get the job done. Some players swear by these, and many different pick manufacturers make them. Cactus Picks<\/a> in particular uses both a delrin material and spiky texture on top to promote maximum grip.<\/p>\n The answer to this question is simple: Use whatever feels best in the hand.<\/p>\n There are some players who use picks but purposely go with the “351” standard that guitar players use just because it feels better in the hand, while others prefer the larger “bass” picks.<\/p>\n Some players believe along the lines of, “I play bass, so I should use a bass-specific pick, right?” Not necessarily. You use whatever your picking hand prefers best. You should try both the bass-sized picks and the 351-sized. <\/p>\n In certain instances (usually in hard rock\/metal music), pick scrape does assist with cutting through the mix in a way that actually sounds good. If the “pow pow pow” or “clow clow clow” sound of celluloid isn’t quite getting you heard and you need just a little extra bite, delrin\/delrex with its “th-pow th-pow th-pow” sound might be just the thing you were looking for.<\/p>\n All of this is a matter of preference, of course, but if you were ever wondering if delrin does in fact have a distinctively different tonal strike quality compared to celluloid, yes it does. <\/p>\n Hey, bass pickers! What do you use?<\/strong><\/p>\n Clacky celluloid? Delrin? Delrex? Something else? Post a comment or two with what you use.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yeah, I know, there are a whole crop of bass players out there who are very anti-pick (or plectrum, if you prefer). If you’re one of those, don’t do one of those “real bass players don’t use picks” things. Some players use picks and it’s not a sin to do so. Picks are made from … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4056"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bestbassgear.com\/ebass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}“Should I use a ‘bass’ pick?”<\/h3>\n
Sometimes yes, the scrape of delrin\/delrex does sound cool<\/h3>\n