how do i get a balanced tone with a pick?

[thatfrog]

Greetings, Bass Warriors Of Singapore And Maybe Other Places.

I'm playing a Yamaha jazz bass (I think) in standard tuning, in D. I'm using D'Addario nickel wound medium gauge, .050 .070 .085 .105.

When I play with fingers the sound is more or less balanced. There's only a little imbalance: E (thickest, it's actually an open D) string sounds bassier, the D and G (ok, C and F) strings sound more trebly and the A (G) string sounds slightly softer than the rest of them. But the imbalance is not too noticeable.

When I play with a pick, the imbalance is more pronounced. What should I do? Change the .085 to a thicker string perhaps? I've not experimented with that yet, I dunno how that'll change the sound.

If anyone has good ideas for me, it'll be very much appreciated.

Maybe I'll even give you my old strings

 

[wraith]

Try adjusting the action to ensure that every string sounds equal. You do have a rather unique open string configuration though.

 

[tim_1002]

you could try to position your hand so that you pick the higher strings closer to the neck to give it more bass.

 

[drincubus]

It depends on the sound you want to get and the style of music you're playing. If you play a lot of riff-type unisons with a guitarist (assuming that he/she also uses a pick, which is pretty likely) you might find that you lock together better rhythmically AND get a better match of timbres if you both use a pick.
For pickstyle, there are lots of methods. Alternate picking is the technique to learn. Bass playing doesn't really need super-fast sweep-picking techniques, it's just important for the attack of the notes to be accurate, and the sound well defined.
If you want a big sound from the instrument, you use heavier strings. You'll also get a bigger, better sound from a thicker pick, even if it takes more practice to learn how to control it.