Pick Bass Masterclass for Metal Musicians
During my time on Youtube I’ve gotten thousands of comments on my tone and today we dive into one very special aspect of it – picking technique. The good news is that it’s entirely free and will get you better tones, the bad news is that it’s something that requires practice.
This free masterclass on pick technique for the metal oriented bassist contains three parts where we discuss the actual techniques involved, tools for the tone (mainly different picks) and some choice words about strings and string gauges.
00:00 Intro + Song
03:09 Background
04:28 Part 1: The Techniques
15:59 Part 2: The Picks
24:07 How where you pick affects the tone
28:18 Part 3: The Strings
34:23 Outro and some thoughts
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???? Gear used on this video ????
ESP Custom Shop Amaze CTM 5 SL
ESP Custom Shop Amaze with a wacky headstock
ESP Custom Shop Surveyor JJ Black
Neural Amp Modeller with Paajanenae captures (available soonish)
#basslesson #basstechnique #metalbass #pickbass #bassplayer #metalbassist
#Pick #Bass #Masterclass #Metal #Musicians
Originally posted by UCpqgUfvREAyzh7Q09k9KuTQ at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6zhBeqqovE
Phew! This was probably my most labour intensive video ever, but I'm happy how it came out! Let me know if you got something out of this 🙂
Here are a few thoughts that I forgot to include in the filming stage:
1) This video is curiously devoid of sound samples between different techniques and that is by design. A huge part of these choices between picking styles, pick materials and string gauges is how they FEEL to you and that is very difficult to convey through video 🙂 I feel like we all have a built-in sense of how we want our bass and our attack to sound and for me that sound very much is the early 2000s corvette clank. Hence all my choices go towards getting that tone, whether it's picks, pedals or basses and when ever I get something that helps me get that tone easier, it just feels right. You should try these techniques out and see whether they give you the right feeling!
2) Thinner strings are also easier to excite, meaning that you'll need to use less force when playing thinner strings to get the right tone.
3) I really want to do that string deep dive, this time with more sound samples and analysis.
One of my favourite new subs, thanks for videos like this. Educational videos from the perspective of people into the music I like are especially helpful to me imo
Great video thanks!!
Great video!
Awesome video! Thank you for all you do ????????????????
ekalo-kakalo-pukalo…
I am not sure, but this might be the most legit instructional video on Youtube ????
Thanks!
Very very interesting video. Thanks for all these advices 🙂
Loistava video! Paljon samoja havaintoja mitä itsellä on tullut vuosien varrella vastaan, mutta paljon myös uusia näkökulmia ja juttuja mitä kokeilla omassa soitossa :). Pakko kysyä mistä löydät ja ostat noita ESP:n bassoja? Noita ei ihan normi soitinliikkeissä paljon tule vastaan 😀
Great video. Thanks for taking your time and going so in depth on the subject. I'm realy looking for the bass setup video. Cheers from Brazil!
Man you make those jazz pickups sound heavy. Sounds great dude
I have a question hopefully this gets seen.
I recently upped my string gauge to 135-70 and I am only using the low 4 strings (BEAD) and there are tuned up to drop C i did this because all of the other string guages ive tried were far to loose. But now I have the issue that I have physical pain trying to fret and play these stings but these give me the best tone and tension that I've found. Any suggestions?
I've got plenty I could debate, but overall, great video. It's great seeing someone finally discuss the picks themselves beyond a few sentences. Though I will say I love playing some stuff while attacking towards the bridge BECAUSE of the scraping sound, it gives it a gritty quality that sounds very fun on clean settings and it's easier to momentarily switch up my technique than to fiddle with pedals and EQs.
Thank you so much for a well thought out and well articulated (and of course, immaculately played!) video on a very interesting and important topic! This could as well be called a picking masterclass for metal musicians, since everything you talked about applies almost to a t on the non-bass guitar as well. I've personally been on a journey of trying to clean up my own picking for a good while now, and along the way my string gauges have been steadily creeping down, so that I basically play 09s across the board now, reason being exactly what you mentioned, i.e. better picking technique equating to better attack which then allows you to play lighter gauge strings. And amongst other things, for us older folks, lighter strings are much easier on one's hands. If I can feel it as a hobbyist, I can only imagine how it must be for a pro.
this has so much useful information!! thank you!
You're one efficient mofo… including how you communicate. Thank you.
Great video, dude
Great video! I'm a guitarist, but everything holds true for electric guitar as well.
Great video and very informative. Really good to see someone talking about pick technique on bass on here, Paj. I use 1mm now and works well. When I was a novice I used to use a 1.14mm. It killed my strings aswell as my wrist. Keep the vids coming, mate!
This was amazing! Loved getting new (and better) tones without spending any money.
Yo know who else sucks? Your mom.
Is there a reason why you use a j bass configuration over a p bass?
Switched from guitar to bass and did exactly what you said, switched from jazz 3 to jazz 3 XL ???? Gotta try out a less pointy dunlop pick
Thanks for the valuable information!
Hyviä vinkkejä! Kiitos! Sun plektrasaundi on hyvin rouhea! Itsekin olen alkanut plektrallasoittoa opettelemaan ja Adam Nollyn vinkillä (minkä itsekin tuossa vinkkasit) päädyin käyttämään tuota 0.60 Tortexia. Ajatus tämän toimimisessa "kompressorina/limiterinä" antaen mahdollisimman tasaisen saundin tuntui kiehtovalta. Toistaiseksi tämä on tuntunut hyvältä. Jatka hyvän kaman tuottamista!
Nice Tshirt and great band????
Love the deep dive!
That's some dope content dropped! Thanks a bunch.
Yet one more talking head obsessed in tone. T-O-A-N.
If your playing truly sucks, no tone is gonna redeem that. Stop getting fixated ad nauseam on this absolutely unnecessary metric.
Great video! Finally, something substantial about pick techniques. Thank you !… I am still confused about some limitations I meet in my playing. I can't figure out whether it's due to the way I am holding the pick, or if it's coming from a not sufficient amount of regular practise. If I had to switch to the closed fist approach, I feel it would take forever for me to reach my current level ???? I am just amateur, playing mainly Meshuggah stuff for my own challenge and pleasure, but I want to improve my playing.
Love this lesson, I played Guitar before and start playing bass lately.