Chris Squire

In this 1980's Interview/Bass lesson, Squire is asked to demonstate and remark on his picking style, as well as his choise of picks, and at 2:15, holds up a white-grey Herco Flex 75 Heavy for the camera to focus on.

[Interviewer]: "You have one of the most distinctive sounds in rock 'n roll (as far as I'm concerned), I attribute a lot of that to your picking technique, could you explain a little bit about the way you pick? maybe the gauge of pick that you use, and how you approach the pick?"

[Chris Squire]: "Well uh, I've always for some time now used a Herco heavy pick, which are these gray ones (I'm not sure if you can see it, but uh, it's gray). And they make a guitar pickup, that's kind of a bronze colour too."

"And um, and probably most people know that our voice is Rotosound strings, which is the standard 'Swing Bass' um, gauges... To know exactly what they are, we'll have to look at the packet, but uh, it's the standard 'Swing' gauged set."

"And um... There is one thing I guess not many people ever realized about uh, a lot of the way I play, is that I don't just play with a pick, I actually over the years have developed um, a technique where the uh, the pick itself is just, just in front of the thumb. So in fact a lot of times I'm actually playing, I hit the string with the pick, and then after that my thumb hits it like a millisecond or two later, which is like a kind of an ADT."

"It's kind of hard to demonstrate because it's, real quick to get your timing, but um, if I just took the G string and played it with the pick, it would just be like:"

[Picks Midrange Bass Tone]

"If it were just my thumb, it'd be a softer sound like:"

[Plucks Slightly Muted Bass Tone]

"But the way I do it, is tend to put them together and have a:"

[Picks Bright Harmonic Bass Tone]

"...So you're getting a harmonic in there as well, so it's like:"

[Plays Fast Harmonic Bassline]

"So it's kind of a technique that I don't think anyonelse has really used. If anyone else has, please write to Star Licks and let them know, because I don't know how I developed it."

[Interviewer]: "Do you feel you get more of a feeling for the string that way?

[Chris Squire]: "Uh, yeah, yeah there's definatly more... [Plucks] There's more contact with the human body, I think just hitting a bit of plastic itself the same thing. So there's definately... you can get more 'soul' into your playing that way."