Most of the time, I play with a pick.

Some songs, I use fingers.

I use a P bass and I sit my thumb as an anchor on the pickup itself. I've seen others anchor near the bridge. I'm not very good at fingering bass but if I don't anchor, I lose my precision when fingering.

Do you guys use your thumb into your playing at all?

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Neck pickup, definatelly. I play 90% of my parts with fingers, but i use my thumb sometimes as well. I guess if you slap much placing your thumb on neck would save your time, but i can't place it anywhere else than the pickup - habits...
Other thing is if you place it on pickup, it makes your lowest string plucking faster a little, because your fingers has a point to stop on - not like when placing your thumb on neck.

where you place your thumb also varies the tone you get.
on the bridge pickup will give you more of a plunky and round tone.
the neck pickup gives you a nice growl(sort of the mid point and IMO the best spot)
on the neck is great for jazz and stuff like that where all you want is a sub bass tone and pure low end

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I usually use the floating thumb technique on my 5-string basses, but usually place the thumb on the B-string, or on the neck pick-up if I'm playing the B-string

On four string basses I usually place my thumb against the neck pick-up, or possibly against the neck. It really depends on what feels comfortable with each bass

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Sometimes when playing the A D or G string I'll rest my thumb on the E string. Or when I'm playing a 5-string, I'll use the low B string as an anchor when playing the E A D & G. Other times... I'll just use the pickups. The neck pickup when I want a warm fat tone, and the bridge pickup when I want more bite and agression in my tone. If you want more thumb placement options you can always consider buying a thumbrest, not too expensive, and will give you many more options as to where to place your thumb.

Thumbrest : http://www.musiciansfriend.com/prod...Bass?sku=361336

Cheers, and good luck

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mcallister99 recently posted an excellent link about this; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPVMBPmrblU
check er out.

I always place my thumb against the neck pickup, no exception.
It just gives the best sound, precision and grip in my opinion.

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Thumb takes are of my B string on fast songs..Index finger takes care of A..Middle finger takes care of G and C. Ring finger takes care of D and pinky takes care of E...On slower songs I put my thumb against the body of my bass and play with two or three fingers, depending on the song..
NOTE: I have big hands.

dont use my thumb for playing...i use it too mute the string.If im playing A then i keep my thumb on E to mute the E string and mute B to play E etc

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i throw my thumb in every once in a while when i play certain classical pieces and alot of the solo bass stuff i write. If i have never said it before i am a total michael manring freak and he uses his thumb alot and i picked most of it up from him

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