playing the bass

There are definitely differences in sound in any way you excite the string. One obvious 'pro' to using the fingers is that you've got more of them; you can get around the strings easier if you're using multiple fingers.

basically youve been playing bass for about a month / so man the fuck up and you / learn to deal with it

i sure did
niggertown

If you want to get the sound of playing with your fingers without the agony (and I always found the muscle cramps worse than blisters on my right hand) then use a felt pick. I highly reccomend them.

If you're talking about the blisters on your left hand, well, those are just a hazard of the trade. I do reccommend bursting and draining them so they heal faster, but do not rid yourself of the dead skin. The dead skin is what will protect you. I reccomend playing for a short while - say, 20 minutes - every day for a week or two to build them up. Superglue does not work, that's a myth. Medical tape, however, does work. I also know drummers who swore by it.

Buy "Lunar Notes: Zoot Horn Roll's Captain Beefheart Experience" by Bill Harkleroad and read the bit where he's talking about having these metal picks atached to his fingers so he could play slide guitar (? don't ask me!), and how these things would continually dig into his fingers until they bleed but he couldn't take them off, he just had to ignore the pain and keep practising, until eventually the skin hardened and callouses formed 'round these picks and as it healed and the scabs were replaced by scar tissue, the picks actually became embedded in his flesh.... and think yourself lucky young man!

Yeah, don't get rid of your blisters; you want them there, they're the beginning of yr callouses.

Just don't let any foreign objects embed themselves in your flesh I guess.

It might have more to do with your technique...try this...

Go up and down the the strings playing consecutive frets from low E to high E then move on to the next string.

When you are doing this concentrate about how hard you are having to press down to make the note sound clearly, if you experiement with your thumb position on the neck you'll find that you don't actually have to put much pressure on strings at all to make the notes sound. RELAX when you're playing; you don't want to be tense. After a while you'll find what guitar wankers call "The Incredible Lightness" and you won't have to put much effort in to play the instrument any more. Its all about relaxation and biology and shit. This is how the Hella drummer manages to keep up that stupid level of intensity thoughtout a whole show.

You can apply the same ideas to most instruments, the trick to getting good is concentrating on the muscles you are using and changing your technique so you have to put in less work to play. If you want to get really into all that sort of stuff theres loads of books on the Anderson Technique in relation to playing instruments that are really useful.

Blah!

It might also have a lot to do with the action and the typt / condition of the strings on the bass he's trying to play.

i used krazy glue for years and finally moved to
something called nuskin which isn't as caustic.
i know the big
guy in D4 also uses the krazy glue and
he is a very good bassist.

not a myth, it's a
legend.

Yes, let the blisters harden. They're better, more sensitive protection than putting anything foreign on your fingertips. You lose a little sensation, but then you get used to it because calluses are on your fingers all the time, every day, as opposed to something artifical that you use only for bass playing and have to get used to all over again each time.

If you do break a blister, Nu-Skin doesn't last very long, but it'll get you through a set.

I couldn't handle using a pick: too much muscle and tendon strain.

harmonycentral.com has some bass forums where you could probably get some more info (if you need it at this point).

Yeah, let the blisters harden. I've also heard that nu-skin works, though I've never tried it. I always seem to have this problem more in the winter when the air is dryer, so as weird as it seems, try some regular hand lotion. It won't make your skin more sensitive, like some would have you believe, but it will make your fingers more lubricated. Just put the lotion on before practice or your bandmates will give you holy hell for it.

real men play slap

Just keep playing. You will get callouses in no time. A pick isn't cheating at all if you like the sound of it. That is all.