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An audience member came up to compliment me on my bass playing after a show I played a couple of weeks ago. He commented on the fact that I used a pick most of the night and said "isn't that unsusual?". I replied "not really, did you know that Paul McCartney used a pick on nearly all The Beatles records?" He was surprised.

Truth is, a lot of great players have played bass with a pick, at least part of the time. I talked more with a friend about it and we named a bunch of players we could think of, all of whom played with a pick (at least sometimes).

Here are a handful (mostly favorites of mine):

• Graham Maby (Joe Jackson, They Might Be Giants, Marshall Crenshaw, Natalie Merchant)
• Colin Moulding (XTC)
• Paul McCartney (The Beatles, Wings)
• Carol Kaye (The Beach Boys, Ray Charles, The Monkees, Frank Sinatra, Simon and Garfunkel, many more)
• T-Bone Wolk (Hall & Oates, Elvis Costello, BB King, Carly Simon, Shawn Colvin, Jellyfish)
• John Entwhistle (The Who)
• John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin)
• Chris Squire (Yes)
• Mike Mills (REM)
• Sting (The Police)
• Tom Petersson (Cheap Trick)
• Rick Danko (The Band)
• Bill Wyman (Rolling Stones)
• Jack Bruce (Cream)
• Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)
• John Deacon (Queen)
• Noel Redding (Jimi Hendrix)

Often guitar players who switch to bass favor a pick (McCartney, Kaye) but other times, they just like the attack. Some players switch between the two often, depending on the needs of the song. Personally, I use a pick about 90% of the time and play fingerstyle when it fits the song better.

Here are some vidoes I found of some great bass playing, with a pick: