Yep, Tattered is right, use the Alex Webster technique, it sure as hell helped me three finger style does work the best for fast parts (Index-Middle-Ring) but you can play 8th's if you want, remember one thing about playing....do what is most comfortable to YOU don't do something really difficult and is a strain on you just because it looks cool or people will think you look cool etc....play however the fuck you want, know what I'm saying?

Cheers

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Hm ... pick-style versus finger style.


I prefer to hear a bassist play finger style, the low end is just way more present. But then you've got bassists like John Murray, who uses a pick and cuts through the mix like a knife, and that adds a nice dimension to Severed Savior.

As far as finger speed goes, watch Billy Sheehan and be amazed.

That's great advice... You're actually writing something that connects the guitars and drums instead of just speeding around making the guitar sound heavier.

(Not that speeding around is always bad...)

i can play with pick and fingers and i prefer fingers i can play alot faster and its not hard to keep up to 16th nothes lol i can play 32nd notes thats cramps up your fingers though but it just takes smaler strokes with the fingers and you can do an up and down stroke if you payattention when you go back down you let the tip of the back you your finger hit the string and also if you absulutly have to have a pick sound and dont like using a pick use the back of you finger nail that always wroks realy well for me lol and i usaly only use 1 finger unless i get to 16th notes or higher dosent happen very much on bass though lol or for what i play

dude i couldn't even read what you wrote. Thats one of the longest run on sentences i've ever seen. Honestly there is no point of playing as fast as the guitar most of the time. It makes the bass fade away in a way.

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i know theres no point in playing that fast.I was just saying that it is posible to play that fast if you use your fingers the fasteset iv probly playyd is 16th notes on a bass solo

If the guitarist is tremolo picking then it's going to quite difficult to match his exact noting using your fingers, I don't think there's a bassist that can without using a pick. It's possible to keep up with the guitar player using your fingers though, it just takes speed. Learning the three finger gallop technique is essential (I think) in keeping up with a fast guitar player. After that, and you think you're ready for the next step, try playing with four fingers.

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i stick with 2 fingers if i need any faster then i can play with them it usaly will have to be a more sticato sound so i use the back off my nail like a pick

You don't need to use three-finger to reach the "guitar-picking speed", you can do it with two, it takes a lot of practice. But the 3fs technique helps a lot, at least it has worked for me. I've never tried too hard to use the "fourth" finger(pinky right?), I did it just to see how I did it, it didn't work, except for taping and slaping techniques, in slap I use that finger the same way I use the thumb, and in taping I can use all the fingers of both hands, except the thumbs, of course.
"Nowadays" I try to use two fingers mostly, and I'm doing fine, but sometimes I get tired or maybe I want to play faster or whatever, and then I use the three finger style. Years ago I used that technique even for playing things like Run To The Hills and the Trooper (IM),galloping, now I play those songs with two fucking fingers.
Im sorry if I wrote too much unnecesary shit.
Finishing, I prefer to use the fingers for playing bass, maybe because I also play guitar, and if I play a bass with a pick I'll play it as if it were a guitar, and I feel a bass must be played with fingers...

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its not the note dude anyone can play 32nd notes at a 10 bpm tempo

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Just practice the 3 finger thing a whole lot. Songs like Raining Blood by Slayer and Scars of the Crucifix by Deicide may be hard at first for your fingers, as they were for me at first, but after practicing, they're a piece of cake.

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for our fastest stuff, I always use the 4 finger technique in this order: index - pinky - ring - middle - index - pinky - ring - middle - etc.

As someone pointed out, this is not an easy technique, and it took me about 3 months to get comfortable with it (close to a year until I had it mastered, though...) and now find that there is nothing (speed-wise) that I can't keep up with.

Tone-wise, you just have to make sure you are hitting the strings with even pressure on all fingers. The nice thing about this tech. is that even at insane speeds, you can still hear the individual notes. When I was trying to hit those speeds with just 2 fingers, I had to play (also, as someone pointed out) much lighter...so unless you are compressed to all hell, you'll drop right out of the mix.

Hope this helps...

Cheers


(PS: You'll find that Webster uses three fingers and upstrikes with his index, thus making it just as fast as the four finger technique.)

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the only time i use three finger technique is when im galloping or doing a chug a chug thrash groove