Classical guitar fingerstyle and bass fingerstyle are pretty much the same technique...you have your rest strokes and your free strokes. Fingerstyle on a steel string acoustic is a whole nother thing...your hand is more clenched up and your fingers curled underneath.

I admire anybody who can play w/finger picks..they feel so unnatural and are very hard to get accustomed to.

As far as playing bass w/a pick....i have a real "thing" w/that, I never hire any bass players that play w/a pick..plus I really enjoy playing fingerstyle, which is why I have been seriously considering switching from lead guitar to bass in the band I'm with. I do use nail hardener, never tried the teflon...but I have doubts of wether even teflon would help after grinding my fingers on a bass for a 3hr gig. I could probably tape them up, but I could see that being a real pain in the but, especially if just want to pick up the bass and mess around for 20min or so. What I need is some type of thimball type thing that I could place on my fingertips.